How Can Writing be Exciting?
How do I turn, "Mom, I hate writing!" into "Well, that wasn't so bad." or even "That was my favorite class!" ??? How can you have a kid begging to write a research report on something they are interested in, or write a story because they were inspired by a conversation? I'm not sure I have a definite answer, but I ask myself this question every year as I always come across hesitant students.
Some say they hate writing because they find it boring. Others find it challenging. Some are good at it but hate it anyway, and others can never seem to "get it right" so they don't bother trying. Every class (usually) has both extremes: the struggling student and the excelling one. Every homeschool with more than one child has this too; in my household, it seems more pronounced because my 4th grader is grades ahead in language arts, and my 2nd grader has to work a bit harder to stay on grade level in this area. How does a teacher navigate this? One simple way:
All ages, grades, and abilities can relate to excitement, so I use excitement as the common thread.
I have spent years in multi-age and multi-ability classrooms (seriously, one class had both a sixth and a twelfth grader in it). This was a tremendous blessing to me because it really stretched me as a teacher. I found that if I created an air of excitement, taught a general writing skill, and then paid attention to what each student needed in order to progress in his or her writing, we had a thriving, encouraging learning environment.
I have also learned this lesson the hard way. A few too many times, I started out the year teaching the formulas for writing. You know: how to write a paragraph, book reports, research papers etc. All important lessons, yes, but they have their place, and that place is NOT first. Few people found it easy to get excited about research reports. 😒 Those years, I had trouble building steam with some students, and while everyone was doing their homework and seemed to be learning, the atmosphere in the classroom was not what I envisioned it to be.
You see, I did not just want students to merely learn something, check off the box "done!" and then move on to the next thing. I want students to love learning, to be self-directed and proud of themselves for their ongoing accomplishments.
So, I took a step back, relaxed, did some fun writing exercises, and just focused on doing enjoyable assignments. I snuck in things like grammar and usage rules, eventually teaching paragraph and essay structure. And yes, there were groans throughout the year (often from me), and not everyone fell in love with essays. However, there was a different culture in the classroom and students seemed to be more willing to try new things.
I also encourage students to write about topics of interest to THEM. I always give choices. If a student loves video games and movies, then I ask him to write about video games and movies. I once watched an entire movie, over the course of two classes, because the atmosphere in that class was so stiff, I was willing to try anything. Every student, except one, claimed to hate writing but loved being a couch potato. True story. So, I listened. We watched a movie. This gave us a common language as we explored writing. True, this is not traditional teaching at all, and I worried about "wasting" class time. However, I NEEDED to think about what my goals were in teaching those students. Until I showed the movie, I felt like I was pulling teeth each week just to get through the 50-minute period.
For weeks afterward, we wrote about characters from the movie, wrote sequels, discussed the action, created journals, etc. Something changed after that. I think part of it was that the students saw that they could write about something they liked. Something interesting. Another part was that I was willing to put down my pride (I mean, I knew how to teach, what's wrong with THEM?), meet them halfway and that maybe, just maybe, they could then try to be open to learning from me.
This approach to writing takes A LOT of patience, especially with younger students. I originally felt like a failure at first. I mean, sure students were enjoying class, but were they learning? The first graders were at times just drawing their stories and only writing a few basic words. Older students were flying through story-writing assignments, so maybe I wasn't challenging them enough? I'm sure I made some mistakes and had some big flops; however, one of my favorite things as a teacher is seeing students blossom into beautiful writers. They may bloom later in the year than I originally thought acceptable, but when they did, man, watch out! Somewhere around the middle of last year, my first and second graders came into the classroom begging to write. Somewhere around February, my son formed a hobby of creating books (he insisted on writing in folded "books" rather than his notebook). I received thank-you notes from students I thought I had pushed too hard.
And you know what? This is all beautiful, because children have their whole lives to learn the nitty gritty of writing rules and structure, and my hope is that now they've discovered that writing can be fun, they will be more receptive to learning these important skills.
I love when my excitement about writing is catchy, and even kids that were once hesitant cave into that positive peer pressure as one by one by one, students seem to be enjoying writing.
Today, I keep some things in mind:
Some say they hate writing because they find it boring. Others find it challenging. Some are good at it but hate it anyway, and others can never seem to "get it right" so they don't bother trying. Every class (usually) has both extremes: the struggling student and the excelling one. Every homeschool with more than one child has this too; in my household, it seems more pronounced because my 4th grader is grades ahead in language arts, and my 2nd grader has to work a bit harder to stay on grade level in this area. How does a teacher navigate this? One simple way:
Make writing exciting!
All ages, grades, and abilities can relate to excitement, so I use excitement as the common thread.
I have spent years in multi-age and multi-ability classrooms (seriously, one class had both a sixth and a twelfth grader in it). This was a tremendous blessing to me because it really stretched me as a teacher. I found that if I created an air of excitement, taught a general writing skill, and then paid attention to what each student needed in order to progress in his or her writing, we had a thriving, encouraging learning environment.
I have also learned this lesson the hard way. A few too many times, I started out the year teaching the formulas for writing. You know: how to write a paragraph, book reports, research papers etc. All important lessons, yes, but they have their place, and that place is NOT first. Few people found it easy to get excited about research reports. 😒 Those years, I had trouble building steam with some students, and while everyone was doing their homework and seemed to be learning, the atmosphere in the classroom was not what I envisioned it to be.
You see, I did not just want students to merely learn something, check off the box "done!" and then move on to the next thing. I want students to love learning, to be self-directed and proud of themselves for their ongoing accomplishments.
So, I took a step back, relaxed, did some fun writing exercises, and just focused on doing enjoyable assignments. I snuck in things like grammar and usage rules, eventually teaching paragraph and essay structure. And yes, there were groans throughout the year (often from me), and not everyone fell in love with essays. However, there was a different culture in the classroom and students seemed to be more willing to try new things.
I also encourage students to write about topics of interest to THEM. I always give choices. If a student loves video games and movies, then I ask him to write about video games and movies. I once watched an entire movie, over the course of two classes, because the atmosphere in that class was so stiff, I was willing to try anything. Every student, except one, claimed to hate writing but loved being a couch potato. True story. So, I listened. We watched a movie. This gave us a common language as we explored writing. True, this is not traditional teaching at all, and I worried about "wasting" class time. However, I NEEDED to think about what my goals were in teaching those students. Until I showed the movie, I felt like I was pulling teeth each week just to get through the 50-minute period.
For weeks afterward, we wrote about characters from the movie, wrote sequels, discussed the action, created journals, etc. Something changed after that. I think part of it was that the students saw that they could write about something they liked. Something interesting. Another part was that I was willing to put down my pride (I mean, I knew how to teach, what's wrong with THEM?), meet them halfway and that maybe, just maybe, they could then try to be open to learning from me.
This approach to writing takes A LOT of patience, especially with younger students. I originally felt like a failure at first. I mean, sure students were enjoying class, but were they learning? The first graders were at times just drawing their stories and only writing a few basic words. Older students were flying through story-writing assignments, so maybe I wasn't challenging them enough? I'm sure I made some mistakes and had some big flops; however, one of my favorite things as a teacher is seeing students blossom into beautiful writers. They may bloom later in the year than I originally thought acceptable, but when they did, man, watch out! Somewhere around the middle of last year, my first and second graders came into the classroom begging to write. Somewhere around February, my son formed a hobby of creating books (he insisted on writing in folded "books" rather than his notebook). I received thank-you notes from students I thought I had pushed too hard.
And you know what? This is all beautiful, because children have their whole lives to learn the nitty gritty of writing rules and structure, and my hope is that now they've discovered that writing can be fun, they will be more receptive to learning these important skills.
I love when my excitement about writing is catchy, and even kids that were once hesitant cave into that positive peer pressure as one by one by one, students seem to be enjoying writing.
Today, I keep some things in mind:
- Show genuine, authentic excitement about whatever it is I am teaching. This is exhausting, but worth it. When I need to stop for coffee on the way home, I know I did my best.
- Find what it is a student loves and build on that.
- Teach the "fun stuff" first. It just might make the other stuff palatable.
- Use peer pressure in a positive way; build on others' excitement about topics and learning.
What are some ideas you have found helpful to build excitement about writing in your classroom or homeschool?
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