Writing

How to Get Students to Write More

Introduction 

Hello readers, 

Welcome back to my blog! Today's focus will be on "How can educators get students to write more?" Writing plays an important role in our lives, as we use writing in almost all aspects of it. As a future educator, I know that there is a bridge between student interest and writing and I hope to cultivate a passion for writing within my future students. I believe that writing is a life-long process, one that is essential within society. But if students stop writing they cannot fulfill this process. To have the motivation to write and to keep improving on writing, students need to be properly inspired to write. Some ways that could inspire students to write include: making writing fun, bringing in different types of writing, offering opportunities for publication, and encouraging exploration. I will be discussing a few ways in which educators can get students to be excited about writing.

Relating it to the curriculum 

The Ontario Language Arts Curriculum document notes that,

Writing … provides students with powerful opportunities to learn about themselves and their connections to the world. Through writing, students organize their thoughts, remember important information, solve problems, reflect on a widening range of perspectives, and learn how to communicate effectively for specific purposes and audiences. They find their voice and have opportunities to explore other voices. By putting their thoughts into words and supporting the words with visual images in a range of media, students acquire knowledge and deepen their understanding of the content in all school subjects. Writing also helps students to better understand their own thoughts and feelings and the events in their lives (Ontario, 2006, p. 12).

As the document states, writing allows students to voice out their inner thoughts and share them with others. It also works as a form of communication and works to improve students reading abilities. Good writers are good readers. and as such, it is important to foster all these skills within students as each strand within the language curriculum is interconnected and build off of one another as showcased by expectation W4.2 Interconnected Skills. To be successful in writing will lead to the success of other areas like reading, oral communication, and media literacy. The writing strand has four overall expectations across all grades, as follows: 

Students will:

1. "generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;
2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience;
3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively;
4. reflect on and identify their strengths as writers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful at different stages in the writing process." (Ontario, 2006, p. 12).

To get students to meet these expectations it starts off by inspiring them to write and have them become successful writers. 

What does it mean to be a good writer? 

We need to move past the idea of what constitutes good writing. Students may feel insecure when they feel like their writing is not good enough because we are so focused on the conventional definition of writing. We need to ensure that students understand that error-free writing does not constitute good writing and that if they are passionate about what they are writing then they are showcasing this aspect of writing. If they have a positive outlook on writing this will get them to write more. Of the four overall writing expectations, only the third one focuses on presenting written work effectively. If we want students to write and become good writers, the first step is to get them to write. By allowing students to voice out their thoughts through writing this helps them work through various curriculum expectations like the grade 8 W1.2 Developing Ideas and W2.2 Voice. As the above quote states, with writing, you do not need to get it to right the first time and as such students can later learn to proofread and edit their work once they can write effectively. Bianca Magbujos' article "What Does It Really Mean To Be A Good Writer" addresses the many qualities that make up a good writer and showcases how to be a good writer means to provoke a response from others and not to dwell on spelling errors because we are only human and mistakes are bound to happen. To get students to write more means to stray from this idea that good writing equals error-free writing.   

Providing students with different text forms 

A huge part of writing is to get students to achieve their writing purpose. That is, students need to have a reason to write and educators need to help them work through that. Section W1.1 Purpose and Audience of the grade 8 language curriculum states that students will, "identify the topic, purpose, and audience for more complex writing forms" (Ontario, 2006, p. 144). To fulfill this expectation student need to know the different forms of writing and the purpose of why they are writing. The image to the side showcases different purposes of writing. Educators need to emphasize the main reasons why writers write. Those being, to inform, to entertain, to explain, to persuade, to argue, to evaluate, and to express. Once we showcase these reasons and the various ways to work through them, this will allow students to fulfill this expectation while also fostering a purpose in their writing as writing is nothing without a meaning behind it. 

How poetry can get students to write 

The video below "A Muslim and Jewish girl's bold poetry slam" showcases two students slam poem on finding commonalities between differing people. Through the use of poetry, these students were able to put their emotions into words. The use of poetry within the classroom allows students to write better, read better, and understand texts better. Poetry inspires writing as through its use, it can teach students how poems are constructed as well as the words they contain. Each type of poem has its components. When we study poems, they teach us about how writing comes together. By having students learn to write poetry like slam poetry or other forms, this aids them in writing in other ways and styles as writing poetry is a transferable skill. This section goes hand in hand with the specific expectation of grade 8 W2.1 Form as it showcases the need for students to explore and write through various forms. 

Conclusion 

By having educators teach students to write for a purpose and inspire a love of writing within them, this will allow for students to lay a foundation for future success and achievement as writing is an essential life skill. 

Thanks for reading! If you have any comments please feel free to comment down below and let us further this discussion.

- Miss Imam