How To Make Writing Fun – I think I have a new love. I absolutely LOVE fanzines. A journal is a small booklet that provides information. It is a handmade booklet that can be created to explain, persuade or inform any subject.
Finding writing center activities that appeal to elementary, middle, and high school students can be difficult. The goals are to get students to practice writing and want to do it. This is where fanzines come into play. Students do not feel like they are writing an essay, as magazines look like little booklets. Also, magazines allow students to be creative. They can add illustrations, drawings, plus charts and diagrams to their text.
How To Make Writing Fun
A few days ago, I sat up early in the morning preparing math journals. I needed to review geometry with a student. Then the idea came to me, create magazines! (Go back to my blog and I’ll show you inside the fanzines.)
Tips To Make Writing Fun Again. How To Make Writing More Enjoyable
Magazines have also inspired me to create my latest mission cards. This is a view from inside my task cards page. Access them here.
The senior high school students I worked with for a while really put a smile on my face. I introduced them to the idea of making a fanzine and they LOVED it. The students did not want to move on to the next activity. We explored how we could create journals as an alternative to flashcards to review concepts in all topics.
This is an example of my primary writing paper. Great for elementary students but need something different for older students. Have you ever been excited for a lesson and only met with groans and groans from your students? This happens almost every time I say the word “write”! I absolutely love incorporating writing with cross-curricular ideas into my routine and sprinkling it throughout the day. You can incorporate writing activities into your ELA, Science, Social Studies or even Mathematics lessons! Did I mention this can be fun too?!? Add these 13 ways to make writing fun this year to engage your students and be greeted with applause instead of groans!
What comes to mind when you hear the word writing? Paper and pen, sitting in your chair, writing a story. Well, during my fifteen years of education I quickly learned that paper and pencil don’t work and my students are really tired of using our whiteboards to practice our CVC words and sounds.
Handwriting And Writing Fun Activities And Resources
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Hands-on, multi-sensory activities give students more ways to connect with the content of the lesson, making the lesson more enjoyable and memorable. When students are engaged, the activities result in better recall of the taught skill. While all students can benefit from multi-sensory learning, it can be particularly helpful for children who learn and think differently. I use all 13 of these ideas in my classroom, but be sure to check out #13, it’s my personal favourite!
Before my students can express themselves independently, I need to make sure I provide some direct teaching opportunities. Yes, we can’t just hand our students a writing instrument and expect them to magically write a sentence. Well… that’s a good sentence! Like teaching any other subject, an effective educator provides opportunities for direct teaching, modeling, and practice.
I like to take mini-lessons where I focus on a particular skill by taking baby steps. I like to start with some brainstorming activities because sometimes I find that this is the most difficult phase for my students. Students just have a hard time coming up with an idea of what to write about. I focus on brainstorming before moving on to other writing concepts such as punctuation, staying on topic, and adding details or descriptive words like in my link chart below, through dialogue, exercises, and even link tables.
Writing Activities That Make Writing Fun
Sometimes you need to let students create their own journeys. I don’t know about your students, but mine LOVES to tell stories. So much so that sometimes that’s all they want to do (anything to delay work, right?). It’s time to literally put these stories into words.
My students love to create through conversion stations! With just a cue, my students transform it into a car, a Ferris wheel, a ring, or even a remote or camera like the one pictured above! It shocks me that a sign can be 25 different things without repetition! I love that my students take the lead in writing and will work great for students who struggle to find a writing prompt during freelance writing.
Remember how I mentioned earlier that I love a cross-curricular moment? How would you like to bring writing to the world of science? Personally, I try to incorporate writing into as many topics as I can. It may sound surprising, but Science is one of the subjects I find the easiest to match writing. Think about it… observations, the sequence of events that make up an experiment, hypotheses, and much more!
There are hundreds or even thousands of different scientific facts in this world. Did you know that wombat poop is cube-shaped? What about turtles can breathe out of their ass?!? I look forward to introducing some of these facts for my students to receive and work with. They LOVE learning a new science fact and will tell everyone who walks through my door!
Back To School Writing Tips
As educators sometimes we need to be creative! During one of my first years as a First Grade teacher, I found myself in front of a large group of disinterested and reluctant writers. Whenever I said “Time to write a diary”… I could hear audible groans and disgusted faces.
So I started thinking about how to incorporate some writing into penless activities for these reluctant writers. In my early years as a teacher at Early Intervention, I learned something from some very creative Occupational Therapists that I knew would fit perfectly.
Hands-on, multi-sensory activities give students more ways to connect with the content of the lesson, making the lesson more enjoyable and memorable. When students are engaged, the activities result in better recall of the taught skill. While all students can benefit from multi-sensory learning, it can be particularly helpful for children who learn and think differently.
Once my students have a basic understanding of punctuation and capitalization, I like to do an occasional challenge. I usually have my students write a sentence to write on their whiteboard. However, I flip the script every now and then!
Fun (& Free) Ways To Get Students Writing After Fall Break
Sometimes I will write a sentence on the board, but I deliberately make a few mistakes. It is my students’ responsibility to properly organize the sentence. I will say, “There are five (or any number of) errors in this sentence (or paragraph).” Next, my students will rewrite the sentence/paragraph on their whiteboard, correcting mistakes. We will then return to our entire group and invite students to identify errors. When a student points out a correct mistake they see, I will use the appropriate symbols to organize the paragraph.
Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to take action. Sometimes I don’t have time for a full brainstorming session before I write. However, many of my students struggle to find a topic to write about. They will sit there staring at a blank page. They will literally just sit there with nothing on their papers for the entire semester. If you ask them why they didn’t start or why there is nothing on their page… their answer? “I didn’t know what to write”
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes we just need a little nudge. If you’re like me and some days need to save time and can’t use brainstorming, graphic editor, or web activity… Diary prompts are a saving grace! Whether I need a quick and easy direction, a themed writing idea, a funny question or a discussion question. I just need to place a daily prompt slide on my smartboard and we’re ready to go!
One thing (among many) missing from teacher preparation programs is how to get students to write. How to get students to write well, ie. Also, personally, if you don’t like writing as an adult, you might as well walk away from the various writing activities for your students because you don’t enjoy them!
How To Make Essay Writing Fun And Easy?
How about a mentor text? I believe it’s safe to say that most educators love a good read aloud. Reading aloud is one of my favorite things! If I can match a book with a lesson, I’m happy and have everything! Whether you like typing like me or you really don’t, mentor texts are the way to go!
With a guide, you can teach a multitude of writing skills safely and comfortably! Real text for your students
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