A fun lesson starter with massive benefits for WRITING, REVISION and ATTITUDE to learning!

The original ‘Daily Dash’

Some time ago I posted about an invention of my father’s that I’ve used on and off for 30 years, always with great success – the ‘Daily Dash’.  For those yet to embrace this simple but ridiculously effective activity, here’s the rundown:

1. As students enter your classroom, have a crazy topic written on the whiteboard – eg: Why pink elephants should mow your lawn or [rival school] thrashes us at [sport of the season].  Create an air of panic by telling students you’ll “start the timer in two minutes – come on, come on!” to hurry them into getting out books and pens. 

2. When you say “GO!” students write as fast as they can about that topic for three minutes. (I find this works best for most year levels, but you can adjust as you like.  Remember, this is just a lesson starter though, so keep it short.)

3. When time’s up, yell “STOP!” and ask students to count the number of words written, then graph these in the graph that they have in the back of their book (organised at the beginning of the term/year).

4. Once they’ve done this for a week or so (and you’ll find students rush to class just to be the one to write a crazy topic on the board), add proofreading.  Students must circle their errors with a big red pen, then divide their word count by the number of errors they made.  Watch those graphs plummet!

The benefits of the daily dash:

• Get students settled and focused quickly.

• Get students writing without that page paralysis.  (Later, when you’re working on a writing crafted pieces, you can remind them that writing ‘ugly’ is a valid strategy.  Sometimes it’s best to just go for it:  it’s easier to edit something that’s there, than it is to face that blank page!)

• Give students confidence.  They can write and it can be fun...especially when you’re competing with your previous scores or your classmates!

• Build writing mileage.

• Foster writing accuracy and hone proofreading skills (once you get to step 4).

Notes: 

• Students can write their daily dash at the back of their notebooks, working forward, or use a separate notebook altogether.

• You can use this activity as a lesson starter (AKA bell-ringer), as I do, or pop it in the middle of a lesson as a ‘break’ or at the end of a lesson to close with a bang.

Taking it to the next level

Later, prior to a larger writing unit, when I wanted students to get used to the idea of writing for audience and purpose, I added specifics about these to a slideshow that I’d have ready when the students arrived.  (See right.)

They were used to the Daily Dash being a fun activity by then, so the idea was to cash on this feeling when I introduced those larger concepts.

This isn’t something I’d always do, but it’s great for scaffolding students into those heavier concepts.

My latest iteration – a chance to REVISE (and then some)!

I’m a fan of students working in books!  They take notes about everything, including common errors that I notice as we work on other things, forcing a ‘stop, drop and note’ moment to record new learning about semicolons, possessive apostrophes, ‘a lot’ being two words etc.  I also mark students’ books and explain errors as I go.  If we’re focused on a unit of work, they’ll copy notes on that too – eg: figurative language, reading strategies etc.

I wanted to revise these ‘mechanics’ and it suddenly occurred to me that I could do this through the daily dash!

I whipped up some slips to test the strategy.  Students pick these up as they arrive, sitting down immediately to flick back through their books to choose previously learned things that they could practice in today’s daily dash.

For every technique they use in their daily dash that day, students get to add another ten to their word count.  Major incentive!

I’m onto my second iteration of this form. You can see the difference between the ones glued in books below and the new version on the right.  Fearful of a budget blow-out, I’ll likely add this to a slideshow or perhaps create an anchor-chart of it for my whiteboard.

Click the image above for a FREE and fully EDITABLE statement of intent. (Access also from our Team FREEBIES by logging into our website, or find it in our TPT store.)

Why is the revision addition so fabulous?!

Well, you get all of the benefits of the standard daily dash (see previous page) PLUS:

• Students learn/are reminded of the value of note-taking.

• Students see their books as a tangible learning tool – again enhancing their value.

• Student practice prior learning.

• Students learn that, when I teach them something (writing mechanics in particular), I don’t expect it to go in one ear and out the other.  It’s important!

Most of these benefits are somewhat subliminal shifts in attitudes to learning, but lots of little things like this have a huge cumulative effect on individuals and the overall classroom environment.

Finally, the daily dash seems such a silly, insignificant activity, but it’s one of the things that provides the most bang for your buck.  As well, you can play around with it to make it work for you, as I’ve explained above.  Give it a shot!

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