Want a community of writers in your classroom? Looking for less sighs and groans when it’s time to write? Join me today to explore ideas and strategies that will help you create a culture of writing in your classroom.
Engagement with writing is one of the first skills I explore in my classroom before moving onto more complex writing skills. If a student is struggling to engage in writing or the writing process, it won’t matter what I teach! Check out my engagement tracker at annotatedela.com/free
Make it Routine
Having an expectation, creates routine, which creates a culture. It can be difficult to find the time to stop and write; it feels like a waste of time. Let’s be honest, I never thought I had the time to give to just writing and just reading – I am cringing as I type that!
Once I let go of trying to do so many things, things that were not serving my students, I was able to commit to 5 minutes of writing every day. It has been a classroom changing event. Those five minutes settle the class for the day and allow us time to write as peers. It is our routine and it has created a culture of writing.
Write with Your Students
Modeling is a powerful tool. I write with my students because I am able to use it as a teachable moment; when I am in the “trenches” with my students it opens my eyes to a new way of thinking about and engaging in the activity.
I can also share my thought process with the students and expose them to what a writer thinks when writing.
Writing with my students creates an opportunity for students to revise and edit my writing – always fun!
Finally, it puts us on the same playing field as writers. WE ARE WRITERS, working together on the same task. This is powerful because it exposes the students to the writing process and the hard work that goes into the written word.
Spending time writing with students creates a culture of writing.
Have a Special Place to Keep Student Writing
If it matters, it should have a space. Words and writing are powerful, so having a special place to keep those words creates a culture of writing.
One suggestion would be to have students keep a notebook in class or with them that is for their writing. The notebook can “store” their sections, but there is a special place in the notebook for all writing.
We spend time decorating and organizing the notebook, because it matters and should be viewed as special.
If you want more information on notebooks, check out the posts at the end of this article or grab my free notebook challenge at www.annotatedela.com/notebook
Provide Choice to Create a Culture of Writing
Choice and engagement are partners. I hope that my students will “buy in” into writing and find a level of engagement that suits them; one way to open the door to writing is to let them choose what they want to write about.
One simple way to provide choice is to make writing prompts available for students to use. Looking for prompts? Check out my Writing Prompts Bundle.
Another way to create choice is to ask the students. Students are free to drop ideas for writing in a bowl or email ideas to be used as prompts for free write topics during the five minutes of writing. Having a way for students to share ideas for writing prompts will motivate students to write!
This is not always possible, as there are school, district, and state requirements for writing that we all have to meet, but when I can, I let the students have some choice on their writing topics.
Competition Can Create a Culture of Writing
Hear me out, I know competition does not create a culture, but a little friendly competition can bring reluctant writers out of their shells and create a culture of writing.
Some quick ideas are to have students compete for the most words written or the class with the most shares that week.
After writing, have students tally up the number of words they have written on that page in their notebook that day. Take a quick tally and track it on an anchor chart or on the board. At the end of the month, or any length of time, announce the winning class and award a prize. You can even award a most valuable writer for the student who wrote the most words as an individual.
Another way to compete is to tally the class who shares the most. If we have time after our five minutes of writing, my students will share what they have written. This takes time, because for some it can be scary to share. But, over time, it becomes a chance to get feedback and share their thoughts with their classmates.
Set Goals, Monitor Progress, and Celebrate
Setting goals is something we do when we are invested in achieving, so setting goals for our writing creates an investment. Of course, the important part comes in monitoring the progress of the goal and celebrating the achievement of the goal.
Progress monitoring is where motivation comes into play because seeing progress and improvement provide a taste of success and encourage us to keep going.
Creating a culture of writing takes time, but is an essential piece for encouraging a love of writing with our students.
