Working with Exam Prompts

We began today's class by working with four narrative prompts, from previous Provincial Exams.  Students worked in groups to come up with story ideas for each prompt.  There were many unique, workable ideas generated!

We then discussed some strategies for approaching the prompts, to make the writing of our stories less stressful and more successful.  We came up with the following tricks and tips:

• consider disagreeing with the topic
• don't necessarily go with your first story idea (lots of people will write on their first idea)
• common gr. 10 topics are school, exams, driving tests, relationships... you might want to avoid these
• consider key words and focus in on those
• don't use the actual prompt sentence in your story

Next class, we will work on developing a plot plan using a prompt, then write an opening for the story, all under time pressure.  We are going to begin to simulate exam situations, to get you practiced and prepared for that day in June!