Listology: Lisa Nola
A great source for writing prompts.
Today, we’ll be kicking off something that I’d like to be make a regular feature here at Library Binding-call it Tangent Tuesday-where I review an “adult” book, website, or other resource that may be of interest to the classroom teacher.
Lisa Nola’s Listography is a website that has spawned a series of quirky journals. Either online or off, the conceit is the same. Listography provides you with a series of prompts, which you use to create a series of lists.
The prompts range from the expected (your favourite movies, your best traits) to the distinctly unusual (your top acts of kindness, your best purchases, things you miss). The website will randomly generate prompts for you-the generator is a touch tricky to find, you have to go to “create list” and then click “generate a list topic”. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to generate batches of prompts, which is a shame. Warning-the book and website are written for adults, and some of the prompts are inappropriate for younger children.
Providing the prompt, having the students make a list and then select one item to elaborate upon would be a great writing activity. Personal writing is a huge part of the language arts curriculum, but a lot of students find it hard to write about themselves-either they think they’re nothing special, or they find the topic overly personal. The lists could help stretch students in interesting way. Even if you drop the list-making, you can still use any of the topics as writing prompts. ESL teachers looking for some new and interesting conversation starters should also take a look.
Lisa Nola @amazon.com.
