A 1-3-10 Free Write is a great activity to leave for a sub (as long as your students are trained and you leave clear instructions!!) because it takes quite awhile to do. It is beneficial, but I have a hard time justifying chunking out such a long period of class time when I am there and can be input-ing Spanish into my students.
I created this form for my students to use when they do a free write. It has the instructions written in case they are tuned out when they are explained. I have created one form that is one-sided and does not contain any rubrics, and then one form that is two-sided and contains rubrics (different back sides contain rubrics for the different levels I teach.
The form has allowed the process to move along faster and more smoothly since the word count process is simplified, and grading is much easier when I use the form with embedded rubrics.
I did this activity in my Latin classroom today. We did a 1-3-7 instead, since they are building up to writing for 10 minutes. Having students write for 1 minute and then for 3 minutes does get their minds warmed up to write for the longer extended time. Plus, they are getting in reps of what they wrote earlier. Great activity!
I have used this in my class and it went very well. They were able to produce about ~170 words in 10 minutes after a few weeks. Now, you say that you don’t do this in your classroom, but do you do any free-writings? When does creative writing happens in your classroom? I am curious to see when it is a good moment to do one of these activities. So far, I just had done them at random times.
I do use this activity; just more often on sub days than when I am there because of the class time required. I do 10 minute fast writes bi-weekly, on average (only because it was hard to read 175 free writes EVERY week–bi-weekly was manageable). See this post http://martinabex.com/2011/04/14/free-write-form-with-rubric/
175 papers to read bi-weekly!! My hat’s off to you.
I hear you about the time that takes away from the class; that’s why I just did it when I could fit it. Thanks for sending the link to the other post.