Frustrated Student taken from Google Images
There are a myriad of students in the modern education system that dislike and try to avoid writing. According to Regina G. Richards in her article Why Students Avoid Writing, reasons for children’s disdain for writing include that it is tedious and takes too long, they struggle with the grammar and mechanics of writing, they have difficulty expressing their ideas in words, they struggle with a learning disorder, or they are simply never happy with their writing products.
Fun and interesting activities can be incorporated into the classroom to spark students’ interest in writing. The following are some examples compiled using Busy Teacher’s Cafe and Traci’s Creative Writing Activities.
Picture Prompt – Distribute pictures to the students from a coloring book with no words. Have them color the page, and write a story about them. Laminate the students’ work to create a class picture book.
Story Lists Create word lists that correspond with a topic. Allow students to pick a topic and have them use the word list to create a story.
Paragraph Order Take a paragraph, cut it into sentence strips and put the strips in an envelope. Instruct students to put the strips in an order that makes sense.
Show and Tell Instead of bringing an object to class and telling about it, students write a detailed paper describing their item and why it is significant to them.
Jumble Story Provide a list of characters, settings, and situations and have students pick one from each list and create a story using those elements.
Scavenger Hunt Host a scavenger hunt over the course of a week in which students are provided with a list of things and instead of bringing them in, they must describe how they found the items in writing.
Embellish and Ad Take an advertisement from the classified ads and ask students to write a story about the person who placed the ad, the object that they are selling, and why they are selling it.
Confess a Secret Have students invent a character who possesses a secret and roleplay as that character by writing a series of journal entries.
Memoir Have students recall a significant place or event from their childhood and describe it in writing.
Found Treasures Take a bunch of odds and ends and place them into brown paper lunch bags and distribute them to students. The students must pretend this is random treasure they found and write about the person who collected the objects, how he found them, and why they are important.
