How to Create a Culture of Writing to Engage and Motivate Students
Want a community of writers in your classroom? Creating a culture of writing in your classroom is easier than you think!
It doesn’t have to be a fairytale! Although let’s be real; not all students will be dream writers - BUT they will write. When people want to get better at something, they spend time practicing and doing the activity. The same is true for writing. Students need time to practice the craft.
Check out some ideas for creating a culture of writing in your classroom to engage and motivate your students.
In this episode, we will explore
Make it part of the routine
Write with your students
Have a “special” place for the writing
Provide choice
Friendly competition
Set goals, monitor progress, and celebrate!
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Melissa Burch 0:00
Hey, welcome to another episode of Annotated ELA. I'm so excited, you're here today! We are going to explore creating a culture of writing in your classroom. And I cannot wait to dive in. So let's get to it.
Melissa Burch 0:16
So one of the first steps for creating a culture of writing is to make it a routine. Just make it something that is expected, and that you do daily, weekly, or monthly. Whenever it is, it's just part of the routine in the classroom. I know that for us, we write every day, five minutes at the beginning of class, there is time to write, usually a free write. Unless we're in a writing unit, and then we are working on that topic for writing. But if it's an expectation, if it's just part of the routine in the classroom, then there is a culture of writing the students know that they are just doing it.
Melissa Burch 0:56
Which leads me to number two of how to create a culture of writing in the classroom and that is that teachers should write with their students. Modeling that behavior and also modeling what's going through your mind and the process of those five minutes is such a powerful practice, and lets the students know that writing is important.
Melissa Burch 1:18
The third way to create a culture of writing in the classroom is to have a special or sacred place for the students to keep their writing. Writer's notebooks are the perfect place to keep writing. Writer's notebooks can be used in several ways. Depending on what works in your classroom. You can set it up as a notebook for all things ELA with a section for writing, or it can be dedicated solely to the craft of writing, that is completely up to you and what works for your classroom. Over the years, I have used it in all the ways I have had it as a place for all things ELA, where we keep bell ringers, vocabulary reading response, writing, and a toolkit for notes that help us with reading and writing. This past year, it was just a writing notebook, where we kept a list of writing topics; a space just to write all of our rough drafts, and all of our lists, all of our ideas, and then a section in the back as our writer's toolkit. I will say that I think next year, I am going back to a space for reading, a space for writing, a space for vocab, and a toolkit. I like having it all in one place and we generally don't run out of room. But I'll report on how that goes next year. Having a space for the writing is so important if it's going to be part of the routine. And if you're going to do it with them, I suggest having a notebook too; it just makes it feel special. We decorate it, we set it up together. We love on that notebook because our writing is powerful. Our words and our thoughts are powerful, and they should have a special place to live, which would create a culture of writing.
Melissa Burch 3:05
Let's recap quickly the first three ideas for creating a culture of writing. One is to make it a routine, whether that's daily or weekly, or monthly. Number two is to write with your students and model that powerful process of writing. And number three, is to have a special or sacred place to keep all of those powerful words and thoughts.
Melissa Burch 3:28
So idea number four is to provide choice, it is not always possible to give them choice on what they're writing. And that is okay. But whenever you can, give them free writing time. This is a slippery slope because many students will complain that they have nothing to write about. I try and combat that at the beginning of the year by setting up a collection of ideas and thoughts. Kelly Gallagher, a wonderful, wonderful writing teacher has many books on the topic. But one of my favorite activities to do with the students is one of his ideas called Writing Territories where we make a list of everything that we know anything about. This is tricky at first too, because the students are sitting there in front of me, eyes wide open, thinking I don't know anything. So I often have a list ready to go that I've kept throughout the years to show them. I put up on the board before they even get into making the list. And my list has things such as being the oldest sibling, having a younger brother, having pets, having dogs, having cats, breaking a bone, falling off my bike, learning to ride my bike, ice skating, roller skating, snowboarding, and skiing. I might list the places I've lived if I've lived other places. If not I'll just list the one place. Passing elementary school, being in elementary school, being in middle school, being in high school, whatever it is, they can list it. And so I have a long list of things that I know, even the tiniest bit about. This gives them a list of topics when it's time to free write. There are many other ways to build a collection. And if you're interested in learning more, I do have a free notebook resource, you can find it at annotatedela.com/notebook, and I'll link it in the show notes. There are many ways to build topics and collections for students so that they aren't shouting, "I have nothing to write about," when it comes time to free write. Remember, though, that if you don't have a lot of time for free writing, it's okay. Still set aside that time to write. I know that when a writing unit is coming up for us, I might have their writing be more focused on that genre of writing. Or I'll be providing prompts that lend to the topic or the essential question that we will be working with when it comes time to do our writing unit. So that's idea number four, to provide choice.
Melissa Burch 6:08
Idea number five is to have friendly competitions between students or between other classes. This may not work for all, but I know my students love a friendly competition. So every day after our five minutes of writing, a lot of students will tally up how many words they wrote, and we will track the number of words written. We also sometimes track the number of shares for the week. If time permits, I like to allow my students who feel like it, the chance to share what they wrote about; especially if we're doing persuasive topics. Nothing is more exciting for them than getting up and sharing their writing. If we're working with the genre of persuasive or argumentative, I will spend some time allowing them to share. And as a class we might discuss what they've done well, we could even have a debate if we had time. But the friendly competition doesn't need to take much time. And you can provide awards weekly, or monthly. Depending on what you decide to do. My classes compete for most words written. And at the end of the month, the prize is 20 minutes of free time on a Friday. They love it. It's super fun and exciting. And with all of the excitement, I have a cherry on top of engaging some of my reluctant writers, because they would love to be a part of it. The student in the winning class with the most words out of everyone gets a special treat. So that just encourages them to be our most valuable writer for that month.
Melissa Burch 7:48
And finally, one of the last ways to create a culture of writing in your classroom is to set goals, monitor the progress, and then celebrateI don't know about you, but feeling or seeing a little bit of improvement or success gets me excited and keeps me going. And I think it's the same for our students. I like to set a goal partway through the first quarter with each student for their writing, and monitor that goal. And that is a little bit further down the road in the school year. However, after seeing some of their writing and getting to know them as writers, it is time to set goals. After several writing pieces, we can monitor their progress toward that goal. And when they meet it, we celebrate. But even just showing them different writing pieces that show improvement and what they're working on is exciting and it's motivating, and it makes them want to keep writing and keep going.
Melissa Burch 8:52
Let's go ahead and recap all of the ideas for creating a culture of writing in your classroom to engage and motivate students. Idea one is to make it part of the routine. Idea two is to write with your students. Three, have a special place to keep that student writing. Four, provide choice. Five, have your students compete in a friendly way. And finally, set goals, monitor the progress, and celebrate. I hope that you have found one, two, or several ideas that will help you and your students enjoy the process. If you've enjoyed today's episode, I would love nothing more than if you would leave a review on Apple or hit that follow or subscribe button so that you don't miss an episode. I've enjoyed our time together. Until next time, friends bye for now.
