This cover from Frankie magazine’s Spaces Volume 2, became the basis for a writing exercise during one of my last lessons with Year 12. These were the instructions I distributed with the image:

Area of Study: Discovery

You have been commissioned to write for a new anthology titled Spaces.

Compose a piece of imaginative writing that explores an important aspect of discovery for this anthology.

We first participated in some pre-writing exercises:

• write a list of words that come to you after viewing this image
• each student reads one word from their list
• student’s nominate a words, or patterns of words, that stood out
• write down any interesting words you heard
• free writing on the topic ‘I remember’ for 10 minutes
• students volunteer to share their memories by reading aloud – thank, clap and celebrate every contribution
• choose one phrase from your writing to ‘donate’ to the class
• students write these on the board – spend some time reading and celebrating these gifts
• in the next lesson, students wrote their composition in exam like conditions using ideas from these activities
• share and celebrate!

Read more here: Spaces Volume 2