Writing and Graphic Organizers, posted late because I am a Do-Do

In regards to insulting myself with the name of a bird that is no longer in existence, I am taking the liberty of sharing an article with you that discusses the origin of using Do-Do as an insult.
http://www.davidreilly.com/dodo/dodo-faq.txt
Anyway, I really loved the class we had a while back, where we used graphic organizers mixed with poetry. I feel like students would really enjoy an activity like this. One of the benefits to this workshop was the fact that there were no real limitations on what anyone could create with a little paper, some markers and a whole lot of creativity. I was so impressed with what some of the class came up with and with children being generally more imaginative than adults, I would love to see what some younger students could do with this assignment.
The free writing workshop that we had just after the poetry/graphic organizer workshop was also very enjoyable. It has been a long time since I have taken a topic that I wanted to learn about, research it and write a little about it. This free writing exercise was enjoyable almost to the point of therapeutic. Sometimes, I feel like I have difficulty writing because I am not interested in what I am being forced to write about. It is nice to know that in recognizing my own metacognition, I can help students with theirs. I know that I write better when I am writing about things that I enjoy or that I am interested in, so I should try to get students to realize that when they are writing as well. The only downside to this awesome free write is that I feel like younger writers would have difficulty coming up with something to write about out of the blue. However, with gentle guidance from the teacher, they could do some research and come up with something really great.