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Motivating Students to Write

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Title: Motivating Students to Write


1
Motivating Students to Write
  • Kindergarten Grade Workshop

2
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

3
Reasons Students are Unmotivated
4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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.

8
Instruction to Support Motivation
9
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

10
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)

11
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

12
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

13
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

14
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

15
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

16
Strategies and Techniques to Support Motivation
17
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

18
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

19
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

20
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

21
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

22
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

23
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

24
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

25
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

26
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

27
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

28
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

29
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

30
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

31
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

32
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

33
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

34
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

35
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
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