Our friends at The Learning Network blog have just published a lesson plan devoted to helping students prepare their essays for the Common Application, which recently released new essay prompts for the 2013-14 admission season.
 
The timing couldn’t be more ideal for juniors, who are often encouraged to start thinking about their college application essays before senior year begins.
 
To help applicants who might otherwise stare at a blinking cursor until inspiration strikes, these veteran teachers suggest that students take a speed-dating approach to get their writing juices flowing.
 
An excerpt from the lesson plan:
 
Project or unveil the first prompt and tell students that they will talk about the topic with the person across from them for five minutes. Within that time, each student should play the role of speaker and listener. Set a timer for five minutes and signal that they should begin. Once time is up, the outer circle rotates left. Unveil a new topic and begin the process again until students have discussed each topic, rotating to new discussion partners with each prompt. Then ask students to return to their seats.
 
After the activity, students are encouraged to reflect on which essay topic was easiest to discuss, and which one they would like to continue talking (or writing) about. The answer may help them select a topic for the Common Application.
 
The lesson plan also includes more than a dozen New York Times articles that serve as “mentor texts” for students’ application essays, as well as many other resources from The Times on how to write an essay.
 
Whether you intend to use The Learning Network’s advice at school or at home, we encourage you to read its suggestions and contribute essay-writing tips of your own using the comments box below.