Fifth Grade is Fab!: Motivating Students to Write and A Writing FREEBIE

Let's start the weekend off right with a FREEBIE. I was just thinking about how some kiddos struggle to write, and for lots of different reasons. Sometimes it's tricky to come up with a topic to write about. Sometimes it's just because they're not interested in writing. Sometimes it's because they don't have the confidence in themselves :(. Sometimes they are distracted, and sometimes they just aren't motivated. (The list could go on and on.) This didn't necessarily work for all of my students, but I turned my Book Nook into a Book Nook/Writer's Craft Area.

I created a "bulletin board" by hanging butcher roll paper on the wall and hot gluing upside down clothes pins to it. This was the area where students would see their peers' work displayed. Some students were more motivated because they knew their work could make it on the wall, and others were motivated because they got to choose which pieces would be displayed.

After putting up the bulletin board, I created a work space, made up of student desks and stools from IKEA. On top of the desks, I had containers with pencils, red pens, highlighters, post-it notes, dictionaries and thesauruses, erasers, and staplers. All of these items could be used for creating and editing work. (I also put the same objects in 6 different zipper bags labeled Writing Kit so that students could use them anywhere in the classroom.

Writing became a completely different event in my classroom. It was a time when we would turn on some music, students had the choice of where they wanted to sit in the room to get their writing minds focused, and they created amazing pieces of writing. Students started helping each other out. Sometimes they'd ask each other for help with spelling or for a suggestion using a different word. I didn't even mind that sometimes students started to have conversations that took away from their actual writing. Usually it was about their writing, which made it even more powerful. They completely took control of their writing and took pride in what they were doing. Editing became second nature, and they looked forward to scouring through the thesaurus to create a list of "better" words that they'd write on a post-it and come back to later when they were ready to make a choice. It was transformational!

Then...the best part for my students... I set out a binder with plastic sleeves. In each plastic sleeve I put 15 pages of decorative writing paper. They could use this paper to create their final drafts. They LOVED being able to flip through the binder to choose which type of paper they could use. I was amazed at how much longer and "juicier" their writing became. (Hint: On the last page in each sleeve I used a post-it and wrote Last Copy...Do Not use...Turn In to Teacher).

So, sometimes it's not the content or the lack of understanding, it's just a change in the environment that our students need to help them along. I know I enjoy a change in the environment every so often, usually in the form of a vacation or just a simple rearranging of furniture in my bedroom.

So anyway, I have a sample set of holiday themed writing paper available for FREE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. My students really enjoyed it, and I'd love to share it with you are your little (or big) writers. It might be just what you need to get the holiday writing complete. If you happen to download it, I'd love to hear your feedback. Happy Writing!!!