To not leave it blank

Here are some notes for you, Tamara, and for all you teachers who are trying to help your students write.

class 1
It started with a diagnostic test, standard issue. But all the students left the writing part blank, as if they had nothing to say about their holidays. Of course, they were just intimidated by the empty lines.

class 2
So you gave these 3rd year students of yours very short topics and guide them to write a couple of sentences only--about their favorite things, music and so on.

3
From this, they got into groups to write a paragraph together about music.

4
Then, again in groups, they wrote about a favorite movie, giving more details this time, describing the plot, characters, etc. And then they had to give an oral presentation on the same.

5
Individually, they had to use the passive voice to construct some sentences, still in the movie topic.

6
This led up to the test, where they had to write about a historically significant movie.

7
Moving away from grammar, they had a free writing, imagining what it would be like to be stuck in child labor.

8
They worked from a short text about a famous woman, filling in biographical data to then write their own paragraph about her.

9
Then they told the story of Mt. Everest. And went home for another holiday.

Or anyway, these are the notes I took from what you were saying. I think you should write about it yourself, or make it into a sweet presentation for next year's symposium. The thing about writing being neglected, even in Spanish, at all levels lower than tertiary, where they suddenly expect you to produce academic writing out of nowhere. How writing is useful for showing reflection, whereas speaking in the moment tends to be very tense, subject to all kinds of peer pressure and stress. And how writing can't be realistically set for homework, at least not right away. And how next year the writing workshop should be one of these seminar-style courses in the IPA, not a full semester, but not quite voluntary, either. Gabriel thought it was a good idea, too, but he's taking off for the New School.