Motivating Students to Write

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Motivating Students to Write

• Kindergarten Grade Workshop

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Motivating Writers

• This workshop will assist you with ideas,
  strategies, and techniques that will help you
  motivate your students to write.
• The Writing Workshop Resource Manual will be a
  great resource for you and your students

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Reasons Students are Unmotivated
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Teachers as Writers

• If teachers dont enjoy writing themselves, they
  will
• shy away from it
• provide too few opportunities for students to do
  it
• not evaluate childrens writing carefully
• not be able to teach children the characteristics
  of genre
• A teachers enthusiasm for writing will
  eventually become a students enthusiasm
• As part of their research on writing, The
  National Writing Project has found that if a
  school recognizes the importance of writing, so
  will the students

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Writing Difficulties

• Many children first show difficulties with text
  transcription (e.g., handwriting and spelling)
• Some kids have self-regulation difficulties which
  make it hard to plan, organize, monitor, and
  evaluate their own writing process
• Many kids have trouble with both
• Overlaying transcription and/or self-regulation
  issues can be motivation problems and a
  persistent reluctance to write

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Children with Learning Disabilities and Writing

• Kids who struggle with writing often have a hard
  time learning informally or incidentally. For
  example, they dont learn as much about spelling
  correctly just through reading and/or writing.
  Explicit teaching is vital for these children
• A lot of kids who have learning difficulties also
  have difficulties with self-regulation of their
  thoughts or behaviors. Skilled writing requires a
  lot of regulation planning, monitoring,
  evaluating, and revising

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Children with Learning Disabilities and Writing
(cont.)

• Some kids with learning problems often have an
  incomplete or fragmented knowledge base. For
  example, if they dont have knowledge of the
  story genre, then they are at a disadvantage in
  constructing a good story
• Another issue for kids with learning disabilities
  is motivation. If you struggle with writing, its
  easy to develop an intense dislike for it. And
  the longer that goes on, the more difficult it is
  to deal with
• Often, all these things are interconnected.

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Instruction to Support Motivation
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Early writing consists of

• Early on, children want to use writing to
  communicate ideas
• In the very early years, provide children every
  opportunity to write letters, recipes, lists,
  ideas
• The writing may be unconventional, but it will
  convey the idea that writing has a function and
  is very important
• Writing often incorporates pictures, because
  writing and art are complimentary communication
  skills

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Remember

• Writing is the key to higher literacy standards
• Learning to draw with increasing detail supports
  writing development
• Kid writing is the vehicle for systematically
  teaching phonics
• Writing helps all children understand how reading
  works
• (From Joyful Writing-to-Read Kindergartens
  Accelerate Literacy, by Nellie Edge)

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Elements of Good Instruction

• An environment that supports writing (with space
  for children to write and the tools to do so)
• Teachers who read with a writers eye (so they
  can point out strategies that young writers used
  effectively)
• Teachers who model good instruction (so children
  will see how one goes about writing)
• Lots of opportunities to practice, accompanied by
  corrective feedback (praise the expressive aspect
  of the task, while helping the child form letters
  and write accurately and well)
• Writing should become a habit

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Writing Instruction for ELL Students

• Good instruction for ELLs should include
• dialogue and vocabulary instruction
• oral language modeling
• oral language expression (saying sentences aloud)
  
• talking about the words
• interactive instruction

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The Red Pen

• Marking all over the page can lead kids to think
  that writing is only about capitalization,
  punctuation, and spelling
• Its important for teachers to provide feedback
  on content as well. Dig deeper than word count
  and grammar
• Model good writing, so children can learn by
  example
• Focus on both the medium and the message. Discern
  where children are doing well or need additional
  help

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Tools to Encourage Creativity

• A pleasant environment where kids feel free to
  take risks
• A clear connection between reading and writing
  (what you read can be a model for what you
  write)
• Process the opportunity to plan, draft, revise,
  and edit
• Opportunities to share writing with peers and
  teachers

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Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

• Students need proper instruction in writing in
  order to feel intrinsically motivated to do so
• Extrinsic motivation may help them to get
  started, however, they must over time become
  intrinsically motivated with an I can do it
  attitude to keep growing as a writer
• With continued support and modeling by the
  teacher, students will become intrinsically
  motivated over time

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Strategies and Techniques to Support Motivation
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Teacher as a Motivator

• The teachers role in motivating students to
  write is vital
• Promote the attitude that everyone can write so
  that students, even at the pre-writing level,
  have the confidence to produce written material
• Writing has MEANING to the student, even at its
  most rudimentary stages
• Some things that teachers can do to get the
  children focused on their writing and eager to
  start are
• Teacher/Student Conferencing allowing one-on-one
  time to really go over a students piece and offer
  advice as to what to work on and what they are
  doing well is useful
• Author of the Week Using a frame, the teacher
  can select a writer of the week and frame the
  piece that earned the title allowing for the
  class to see it
• This can be based on all the writing that occurs
  in the classroom, including rough copies, and can
  show the students that you dont have to be
  perfect to be a writer
• According to the National Writing Project,
  students are motivated to write when good
  writing is recognized

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Front Load the Process

• Have the child talk about what theyre going to
  write about
• Write down the words they want to use but dont
  know how to spell
• Help them organize the main points that theyre
  writing about
• Review the goal of the assignment know where
  youre going and how youre going to get there
• Plan something fun for afterwards.
• Give a time limit put the timer on and do the
  hard thing first
• Front loading helps to eliminate the obstacles
  that young writers face during the writing process

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Materials

• Offering a variety of materials to write with to
  encourage students to get writing
• A variety of utensils may encourage creativity
• In addition to writing utensils, offering a
  variety of materials to write on can help to
  simulate actual writing in a real way

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A Writing Help Board

• Because students get stuck at times a Writing
  Help Board can help them stay on track and keep
  students motivated
• A Writing Help Board could include
• Where I Can Get Help From
• I Can Write About
• I Can Write a
• List
• Card
• Book
• Help Boards work best when placed in close
  proximity to the word wall for easy access

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Oral Tradition

• Many cultures practiced oral tradition before the
  concept of writing histories or stories down came
  into play
• Students can share this same practice by telling
  stories orally, either to the entire class or a
  partner, to get out everything they want to write
  down
• If students become stuck then they can ask what
  they said for a certain part in their story,
  chances are someone will remember
• Students could also tape record their oral story
  telling to use for later transcription

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The Authors Chair

• No matter what level of writing development your
  young authors are at its important that they
  share their work with an audience
• Incorporating the Authors Chair into the
  classroom gives students the opportunity to share
  their work with their classmates
• Authors Chair can help boost self-esteem and
  decrease anxiety about writing because of the
  reaction received by classmates and teachers

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Journaling

• Safe writing that is not graded or
  correctedhelps students focus on themselves as
  writers
• Creative prompts that excite students and get
  them thinking on a higher level
• Differentiated Instruction Teacher can
  individualize prompts for students by using
  sticky notes
• Can be used as a tool for students to express
  thoughts, feelings, beliefs
• Reactions to texts can be recorded here
• Can be done in pictures as well as words
  depending on the development of students
• Journals are essential in tracking the
  development of students literacy skills, thus
  journal writing should be done at least once a
  week in order for teachers to target students and
  their ability levels

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Morning/Afternoon Message

• Talk about what is happening in the class,
  providing an opportunity for children to write
  about it
• Say something really exciting or ask a
  thought-provoking question about a timely issue
  or event (e.g., the upcoming election)
• Can be done as an interactive writing lesson

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Interactive Writing

• Strategy to teach writing to students in which
  the teacher shares the pen with the students
• Teacher guides students in creating a piece of
  writing
• Can be done in small group or whole class format
• Writing is done at a higher level because the
  teacher is there to support the process, in turn
  allows students to increase reading abilities
• Provides a wonderful opportunity for modeling of
  thinking by both teacher and students

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Interactive Writing (cont.)

• Displays how the writing process takes time, as
  an interactive piece takes longer than just a day
• Each day pieces are reread and edited/revised to
  also model theses processes as well
• Allows for inclusion of all students in the
  lesson
• Useful in classrooms with students with special
  needs
• Can be used across the curriculum
• Can be used after a variety of instructional
  practices in the classroom, especially read aloud
  and shared reading
• Final products can be hung up and used for
  students later on when students do a follow up
  activity, independent writing, or for reading
  around the classroom

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Describe This

• Children want to learn, they are knowledge
  seekers. Provide opportunities for children to
  absorb information and then write
• Ask them to describe this and they will come up
  with wonderful language and ideas
• Even at the picture stage students can write to
  describe the topic and come up with a piece of
  writing that has meaning to them
• The act of describing will not only help them in
  using sensory details, but will also help them to
  carry over the knowledge they have learned
  because writing is an aid to memory
• Essential and useful to incorporating writing
  across the curriculum

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Real-Life Writing

• Writing can become more meaningful when it is put
  in a real-world perspective
• Real-Life writing can be used across the
  curriculum providing for ample opportunities to
  write throughout the school day

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Real-Life Writing (cont.)

• There are a variety of real activities that
  students can do to encourage writing and promote
  enthusiasm
• Classroom Mailbox
• As part of its TEN Ideas to Get Kids Writing,
  The National Writing Project recommends that
  Focusing on important communication with a
  friend, students are thinking not at all about
  the writing proficiency test, yet with most every
  exchange they are becoming demonstrably more
  proficient writers.
• Newspaper
• Lists
• Teacher can provide laminated flyers for the
  grocery store or toy store that students can make
  shopping lists for
• Recipes
• E-mail

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Innovations

• Take a favorite text like Brown Bear, Brown Bear,
  What Do You See? and create a new text using the
  same language model
• Students integrate new words and make stories
  their own
• These texts can become an independent publication
  or a page in a class book
• Texts that contain little or no words are also
  great opportunities for students to develop their
  own story based on what the illustrations tell
  them
• The Snowman
• Tuesday

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Writing About Literature

• Students are often very excited after listening
  to a read aloud or shared reading experience
• By incorporating writing after the experience,
  students will can enhance their comprehension of
  the story, as writing is based on thought and
  understanding
• Example After reading The Grouchy Ladybug,
  students can answer why was the ladybug so
  grouchy? with words and illustrations
• The Flat Stanley Project

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Vocabulators

• Designed by Melissa Forney, they are intended to
  be used for interaction with words
• Can be used independently or in small groups
• Vocabulators can be used to give students ideas
  of what to write about
• Would make a great addition to a writing center
• Can be used in conjunction with Houghton Mifflin
  themes
• can get the students thinking about the stories
  they have read in the theme and encourage them to
  practice different genres

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Write the Room

• Because Kindergarten classrooms are print rich,
  students can be invited to write the room as
  part of a writing center or writing workshop
  activity
• Writing the Room allows for students to walk
  around looking for examples of words that display
  a certain skill in which they are learning

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Publishing

• When students have the opportunity to make a
  piece of writing something more tangible, in
  published format, they will be more motivated to
  complete their assignment
• The National Writing Project points out that a
  published student writer is a motivated student
  writer
• There are a variety of ways that books can be
  published in the classroom
• Blank books and bound books
• Studentreasures.com
• Student-made books
• http//teacherweb.com/tx/cadwallader/cchavez/index
  .html
• http//www.canby.com/hockmanchupp/student_folder_w
  ebsites.html
• http//www.bookmakingwithkids.com/?cat5

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Helpful Resources

• www.nellieedge.com
• Writing to Read in Kindergarten, pdf.
• http//www.nellieedge.com/pdf/ebook_sept08.pdf
• Joyful Writing to Read, pdf.
• http//www.nellieedge.com/pdf/ebook.pdf