Constraint prompting

This lesson teaches constraint as a creative engine. The student gives up control of the title and lets the letters of their own name decide what to write. The anagram is the prompt. The writing follows. This is a real method used by writers and poets. Some students will pick a "safe" anagram that sounds normal. Push them toward the strange ones. The weirder the title, the more interesting the writing tends to be. The activity only takes ten minutes but produces real material. Students often want to keep going. Let them.