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party or ice cream social.
4ENCOURAGE EXPLORATION
Structured writing prompts have
their place in the classroom, but some
students will do their best work when
they are left to their own devices. En-
courage students to explore ideas by
allowing activities like freewriting, mind
mapping, or even collage. Journaling
or creating visual mind maps are great
ways for students to explore their ideas
and later organize their writing.
5 ALLOW THEM TO PUBLISH
Much like seeing their work pro-
duced in the form of a play or video, pub-
lication can motivate students to create
their best work. There are many ways
that you can provide students opportuni-
ties for publication. A blog or class Web
site is an easy way to publish all student
work throughout the year and to make it
easily accessible to other students and
to parents. Blogs also allow for reader
interaction, giving students a chance to
see how others respond to their writ-
ing. Other options can include creating a
class newsletter, a small anthology, or a
public bulletin board (in the school lobby
or hallway, for example).
6ENCOURAGE GROUP WORK
Some students need a little encour-
agement from their peers in order to find
their voice. Help struggling students by
assigning group work. When a student
has a part in a larger project such as a
story, a series of poems, or a play, he can
find inspiration in fellow students’ ideas.
While it may be intimidating to write a
piece of work from start to finish, writing
only a portion of a larger piece is much
more accessible. When the parameters
for the project are set (through the col-
laborative ideas of other students), there
is less pressure to think of compelling
ideas, making it easier to focus on and
strengthen the small part for which the
student is responsible.
7 MAKE STUDENTS
THE AUTHORITIES
Peer editing offers a number of benefits.
Student writers learn to identify weak-
nesses in their writing and how they can
improve their ideas. Student editors can
learn how to strengthen their own writing
by identifying what qualities constitute
good writing. When they are assigned
as editors, students take on a sense of
ownership. They become self-motivated
to learn the rules of good writing -- from
spelling and grammar to proper con-
struction and cohesive structure.
LEARNING HOW TO WRITE WELL IS
A LIFE-LONG PROCESS. EVERY SKILL
LEADS TO ANOTHER, AND EVEN THE
BEST WRITERS CAN IMPROVE UPON
THEIR ABILITIES WITH EXPERIENCE.
If students are not properly inspired to
write, they won’t have the motivation
to keep learning and to keep improving
their writing. Finding ways to make writ-
ing fun and interesting can keep students
motivated in the classroom and beyond.
Presenting different types of writing, en-
couraging exploration, and finding ways
to bring student work to life or offer op-
portunities for publication are just some
of the ways that teachers can make
writing fun for students who don’t like to
write. Every student is different, and what
excites and inspires one student will be
boring and tedious for another. Keep try-
ing new tactics and adapt your strategy
as needed for your individual students.
You will help your students learn a skill
that will stay with them their whole lives.
Ranting, Preaching, Other No-No’s:
Teaching Audience Awareness
I’m going to put the topic of Hitler and
the Nazis on my short list of forbidden
topics in my composition classes.
Not that I find the topic unbearable, on
the contrary, there is a lot of fine fiction
and scholarly work on the topics of the
Third Reich and the Holocaust—but this
is published work by scholars or profes-
sional writers, people who have both-
ered to research their topic and who
maintain some rationale perspective on
it. In general, professional writers don’t
make ridiculous claims that Hitler was a
great leader. However, nearly every time
students are writing to the topic of lead-
ership, someone makes this argument
on the great leadership qualities of Hit-
ler--and not just neo-Nazis, but rather or-
dinary students who clearly have not re-
searched nor taken an objective look at
the matter. If they had, they would prob-
ably determine that Hitler ruled by intimi-
dation and hate-mongering, he broke all
of his treaties with other nations, his own
generals attempted to assassinate him,
and at the end of his regime his coun-
try lay in ruins. By any rational measure,
this is not great leadership. But that is of
course the very issue—Hitler as a topic
often is used to build an emotional argu-
ment rather than rational one. In fact, it
usually precedes a rant that shows lim-
ited concern for the audience, as rants in
general and “discussions” on a number
of topics do. An essay and other rational,
formal communication are the antitheses
of ranting and preaching. However, a
number of students persist in the belief
that the essay is the occasion to spew
their own emotional views on a topic.
And when confronted, they often be-
come hostile—or more hostile than they
normally are—claiming their “freedom of
speech” is being limited. How can this be
addressed? Very carefully, but it is possi-
ble for the hostile ranter or self-righteous
preacher to be drawn into the domain of
rationale discourse.
PRINCIPLES OF
DEALING WITH
HOSTILE RANTERS
1“FREEDOM OF SPEECH”
IS RELATIVE
Students really know this, from everyday
life experience. Yes, they are “free” to tell
their girlfriends they are looking a little
chubby these days, but this is not with-
out repercussions: their girlfriends are
“free” to end the relationship. It’s no dif-
ferent with written discourse. While stu-
dents are “free” to rave about Hitler, their
reader is “free” to put the essay down.
Your classmates, having read the mate-
rial, are also “free” to avoid you.
2 YOU HAVE AN AUDIENCE
Many times students don’t fully
understand they are writing to an audi-
ence, they seem to think they are writing
in a vacuum, or to themselves or some
extension of themselves. This may be in
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