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Cheeri

SRSD self-regulation (set a goal, cheer yourself on)

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01 Opening
Cheeri beat 1 of 5

Cheeri was a cricket with a big, chirpy voice — and she'd discovered something surprising: the most important voice a writer hears isn't the teacher's. It's the one inside their own head. So Cheeri taught the friends to make that inside voice a kind one.

"You talk to yourself all day," Cheeri chirped. "Might as well cheer."

02 Cheeri
Cheeri beat 2 of 5

A young writer slumped over a hard assignment. "I'm no good at this," she muttered. Cheeri hopped up. "Whoa — did you hear what you just told yourself? Let's swap it." Together they changed it: This is hard, but I can use my plan.

The words were small. But the writer sat up a little straighter.

03 Cheeri
Cheeri beat 3 of 5

"First, set a GOAL," said Cheeri. "Not 'be the best' — something you can DO. Like 'I'll add two reasons today.'" A doable goal gave the writer somewhere to aim. Then Cheeri taught the cheer: little self-statements to say along the way. I've got this. One step at a time. Look how far I've come.

A goal to aim at, and a kind voice to get there.

04 Cheeri
Cheeri beat 4 of 5

A lab-mate reached her goal and shrugged it off. "It wasn't much." Cheeri chirped louder. "You set a goal and you REACHED it — that's worth cheering! Noticing your own wins is how you keep going." She had the writer say it out loud: I did what I set out to do.

Cheering your own effort isn't bragging. It's fuel.

05 Closing
Cheeri beat 5 of 5

By the end, the young writer had reached her goal — and, more importantly, learned to be her own coach.

"My inside voice was mean before," she admitted. "Now it helps."

Cheeri did a happy little hop, warm all over. Writing was hard, and hard things make the inside voice grumble. But she'd taught her friends that they could choose that voice — make it a goal-setter and a cheerleader. And a writer who cheers herself on, Cheeri knew, never truly gets stuck.

Hear it as an audio drama

A short play starring Cheeri, from WriteRise. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.

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Read the drama script
  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and Writerise — this is Cheeri, in chapter 1 of the Writerise cast.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: Cheeri is a bright little cricket who knows that the hardest part of writing isn't the words — it's not giving up.
  4. Cheeri: When a writing job feels too big, do two things. Set one small goal. Then cheer yourself on, out loud, in your own head.
  5. Narrator: A young mole slumped over a blank page.
  6. Mole: I have to write a whole story. I'll never finish. I want to quit.
  7. Cheeri: Don't write the whole story. Set ONE small goal — just the first sentence. Can you do one sentence?
  8. Mole: ...Maybe one.
  9. Cheeri: Then try. And while you do, say to yourself: "I can start. One sentence at a time."
  10. Narrator: The mole wrote one sentence. Then, quietly, another.
  11. Mole: I did two!
  12. Cheeri: Look at you go! That's the trick — a small goal you CAN reach, and a kind voice cheering you on. Big jobs get done one cheered-on step at a time. That's what makes Cheeri, Cheeri.
  13. Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
  14. Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
  15. Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
  16. Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.
Reading together with a grown-up? A card for the grown-up

For the grown-up: ask one question, then wait. When they answer, add one word to what they said. Tap the button when they have said something — that is one turn each, a circle. Nothing is recorded or kept.

Let them finish it

Say “Cheeri: “Set one goal, then cheer myself on — ‘I …” and stop. Let them finish it.

Then say the whole line together: “Cheeri: “Set one goal, then cheer myself on — ‘I can, I’ll try, I did it.’””.

Now wait. Count slowly to five in your head. Their answer is worth the quiet.

Circles together: 0

The WriteRise ensemble

Cheeri is one of the friends in WriteRise. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.

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