Writing Tips for Teachers and Parents
Why Don’t Students Enjoy Writing?
When it comes to writing for students, many seem to possess a negative viewpoint and disliking. This turn off towards writing is due to a few different factors. First, writing is difficult, thus, students lack motivation because of the challenge it brings. Second, if the teacher and parent of the student does not like writing, consequently the students will not want to write either. Lastly, writing assignments given in school tend to focus too much on punctuation and grammar rules resulting in the creativity and fun in which come along with writing to be lost. So now the question is, how do we fix the problem?
Engaging Lessons for Writing
The following ideas are great ways to engage students to not only want to write but also enjoy the process of creating their own pieces of writing. Also, these can be facilitated by a teacher in the classroom or a parent at home.
Six Word Poem
Student creates a poem about anything but it can only be six words long
Creative Writing Prompts
If you could create your own planet what would it consist of?
Who is your hero? Why?
Rewrite a fairy tale with your own ending
Free write journaling
Let students have time to write in a journal each day about how they are feeling and what they have been doing
Writing Mini-lessons
Within this mini-lesson, the teacher spends a short time introducing the genre or theme of the writing, next the students spend time on their own creating their piece of writing, finally, the writing is shared among the class.
Ideas to Teach
The ideas to have students focus on when writing depends on their age however, there are some that work for students of all ages including
Adding a hook sentence to the beginning
Adding details to paint a picture for the reader
Creating a beginning, middle and end structure
Tips for Editing
It is important to give a student feedback one-on-one about her or his writing. During this feedback, be sure to listen to the writing and not hold your own opinion for how you think the story should be; the plot line should always be up to the students. Also, be sure to only give one or two editing tips at a time to not overwhelm the student. When the student is reading his or her writing to you, be sure to give specific praise and let them know how you are feeling about their writing.
Extra Tips
As a teacher or parent, it is important to be writing yourself and sharing your writing with your child or student. This will motivate them to want to write and let them know that someone is going through the writing process with them. Moreover, it is also crucial to create a comfortable environment for students to work on their writing in. This type of environment may include things like comfy chairs, enough personal space for all, and motivating posters on the wall. Also, you want this environment to be safe where a student feels comfortable sharing their work and taking risks with what they choose to write about.In all. the most important goal to reach when it comes to teaching writing is to ensure the students are enjoying the process.