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Learning Target: Students will reflect and write reflectively about their name.

Today, we will do two quick writes of about ten minutes each. These will be considered your prewriting and brainstorming for your upcoming descriptive essay about your name.

During quick writes, both today and in future, there are a couple expectations: There will be no talking or distracting others. You are to write for the entire allotted time period. If you run out of things to write about, try to "loosen up" your brain; don't think so hard, and let ideas flow. Don't edit yourself as you write. Write down whatever you are thinking about the prompt(s) and allow yourself to interpret them however you want, no matter how "weird" you think it might be. Revision and editing will come (much) later.

Quick Write #1: Your Name & Your Identity

• Why did your parents choose your name?
  
• Was it someone else’s name before you? Explain who they were and why your parents chose that person to name you after. What was that person like? Are you like him or her?
  
• What nicknames do you/ did you have, if any, and where did they come from? Did you have different nick names at home and school? with friends or on your sports team?
  
• Do you like your name? Why or Why not? Explain?
  
• Have your feelings about your name changed throughout your life? How so? What caused those changes?
  
• If you could choose another name, would you, and what would it be?
  
• In what way(s) is your name an essential part of your personal identity?
  

Quick Write #2: What is My Name Made Of?

• My name means... (you may briefly use your phones to do some light research on this if you don't know)
  
• What is your name’s origin (country/language)?
  
• What does your name sound like? How are the sounds formed? What is going on in your mouth when you're saying your name?
  
• What does your name look like?
  
• What color is your name?
  
• What does your name feel like?
  

When the ten minutes are up, you will do the following:

1. Read through what you just wrote.
   
2. Underline, highlight, or otherwise identify things that you feel might work well in an essay similar to one of the ones we read yesterday.
   
3. After a couple minutes, we will go around the room this time and each person will share one thing that was identified in step 2.
   
4. The rest of the class should ask questions or make comments to help the person who just spoke.