Have you ever written a list of things you needed to do? Or write an essay for a class? Maybe you jot down ideas from stories every once in a while, or write long Twitter posts. Congrats your a writer, see every form of writer is valid and it all makes us writers, but a lot of the time people don’t feel like they are writers at all in fact sometimes they think its an unreachable goal. So how can we as teachers make our students feel more like writers? Here are five ways.
- Give Diverse and Fun Assignments
Writing as an incredibly diverse subject that encompasses every thing from list making to book writing. A lot of the times students only ever get to experience one way to write and that’s academic writing. In this case the student feels like they are not really writers, since they may only have a grasp on a small part of writing. Instead of just having students write an essay on a book, ask them to write an article about something that is important to them, or write to an official. Creating assignments that are diverse and meaningful can go a long way to helping students discover that they are writers.
- Explain What a Writer is
I think a lot of the time students only think of authors as people who write big books, and I agree sometimes it’s hard to give yourself the same title of writer as someone who has written masterpieces of books, but many students have this capability without even realizing it. We as teachers have to deconstruct what it means to be a writer for our students so that they can understand it’s not just authors of famous book but everyone who puts pen to paper.
- Creative Writing
I don’t know about you all but I daydream, a lot. So much so that I have entire worlds in my head about fantasy and whatnot. I’m willing to bet a lot of students are the exact same way, spending a lot of their boring classes thinking about stories in their head, so why not when they come into class offer them a way to get that onto paper! Perhaps every class give students a ten minute period to write creatively. This way they can see their ideas take form in a way, with that they will be much more excited to come to class and continue what they write.
- Skip the Grammar Lesson (For now)
Writing can be very complicated when it comes to grammar and rules on how to write. So much so that many students may get overwhelmed and think that this is something that is just out of their grasp. Perhaps we should ease up a bit on the rules to instead focus more on the joy of writing. That’s not to say ignore grammar all together but the days of spending whole class days on long winded lectures about how and when to use commas are not helping a student feel like a writer.
- Address Your Students as writers
Lastly in order to make our students feel more like writers I have a bit of a silly piece of advice. Perhaps we should call our students writers. I know it’s a bit obvious but I think that it could go a very long way. If everyday a student comes into a class room and is addressed as a writer, they might start to believe it. In one of my classes this semester, Mentoring Young Writers, one of my professors calls the class his teaching colleagues, and to be honest I like hearing that a lot since it makes me feel more like a teacher. If students hear someone calling them a writer they may feel better about writing in general.
Cheese Bistro 