5 Ways to Motivate Young Writers

Have you ever felt like your students are reluctant writers?  Or that your students’ reading and writing skills don’t match?

We’ve been there.  We’re not saying we’ve completely closed that gap, but we have a few tricks up our sleeves ;)

1. Routine - From the very beginning of the year, we establish a routine of independent writing daily in our classrooms. 
   
   Robyn uses journal prompts as a bell-ringer before beginning morning tubs.  This is a great way for her students to get their minds focused on school and learning in a fun, low-risk situation. 
   
   During our guided reading stations, 20 minutes are devoted to writing independently.  Students understand the expectation:  writing happens the whole time; keep adding details. 
   
   We use chants and gestures to build the routine of writing a paragraph.  We teach our firsties to write 6 sentence paragraphs (hook, topic, 3 details, closing).

   

   Sample morning journal writing

   
   

2. Baby steps - Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Getting your young students to build confidence and stamina when writing takes time.  Start slow, but always build.
   
   At the beginning of the year during independent writing time, students use cut up sentences, scrambled sentences, and sentence starters.  We quickly move to drawing 5 star illustrations before writing (grab the freebie rubric here).  This helps our students see their narrative before putting it on paper.  Then, we begin slowly introducing the parts of a paragraph.  We spend about a week (sometimes more) on each part, starting with a topic sentence, then details, circle back to a hook, and finish with a closing sentence.  By the end of the first quarter, most students are able to write 3 sentences (topic + details) about a given topic.
   
   Simultaneously, our guided writing emphasizes the importance of sentence mechanics (5 star sentences - capitalization, punctuation, handwriting, finger spaces, and makes sense).  Students write about their reading, which allows us to focus on mechanics rather than topic development.  Students are trained during this time to self-assess.
   
   

   

   Guided writing practice mid-year.

   
   
   
   
   
   

Spelling… it’s definitely not easy, especially for young learners.  What we’ve found is to encourage students to try their best, underline the word, and move on.  Otherwise, we’re all drowning in “How do you spell ____?” and no one is getting their job done (teacher included).

3. High Expectations - If you don’t expect it, it won’t happen.  When we have high expectations for all of our students, they will rise to the occasion.   Expose your students to good writing - from published authors and their peers.  Find something good in every child’s writing, and your students will have all the motivation they need to continue writing. 
   
   

4. Celebrate students as writers - You can make your students believe they are prestigious authors by simply being excited about their work.  How?  Read your students’ work aloud every day.  Then, find something amazing in their work.  Your students will clap and cheer each other on within days.  We promise. 
   
   Show their work OFF!  Put it in the hallways on display.  Share with previous teachers, the principal, the custodian, everyone.  Your students need to believe you are proud of them.  They will be glowing when all is said and done.
   
   When reading and sharing their work, give specific praise and constructive feedback.  Notice when they take your suggestions and praise them for trying new things. 
   
   

   

   Hallway display for showing off student work

   
   

5. Publish their writing - There are so many ways to go about publishing student work.  It can be as simple as posting in the hallway, or as complicated as publishing an actual class book.  You can take a picture of wonderful work and post it on Class Dojo.  Our school has a news channel, and we send writers to share their work often.  We also create and publish a class book using Student Treasures.  These are a lot of work, but SO worth it in the end.  The kit is free, and the books are fairly priced if families want to purchase one.  Check out studentreasures.com to learn more!

   

   Page from The Best Part of Me book we published.

   
   

   

   Cover of What I See in the Sea book we published.

   
   
   
   

Writing can be intimidating and hard for young learners, but we have found these tricks to work wonders.  What else would you add to this list?