Feb 6, 20223 min read

How I Learned to Love Teaching Writing (and how you can learn to love it too!)

Updated: Mar 27, 2022

Anyone who has ever had to sit down and write something-an essay, a story, a journal entry, a letter, etc., knows the unique difficulty that comes from having to pull words out of thin air and turn them into something great.

For teachers, teaching writing presents its own challenges; including, how to get students excited for writing. Writing is subjective, abstract and time consuming. Let's face it. Writing is messy. And, there is very little explicit teacher training that focuses on the "how" of teaching writing, so writing is often pushed to the back burner.

Teacher's are given teacher's guides with step by step instructions on how to systematically teach reading, phonics, math, social studies, and science, but writing is (almost) always missing (or, at least it was in my years as a classroom teacher).

I was embarrassed that I didn't intuitively know how to teach writing, so I winged it. I "taught" writing by giving students a topic and having them write in their journals for a set amount of time. And, as a result, I had students who hated writing and (worst of all) left my class not really know how to write.

Flash forward a few years and a 2-year writing lead teacher training program later and here are some of the things I have learned:

YOU AREN'T A BAD TEACHER IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH HOW TO TEACH WRITING.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH WRITING.

IMPLEMENTING DAILY WRITING INTO YOUR ALREADY BUSY SCHEDULE IS POSSIBLE.

YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS CAN LEARN TO LOVE WRITING.

Now that we have that out of the way, where do you begin?

The answer is...at the beginning. Start small. Start with what you are comfortable with and increase from there. Use teacher resources that help scaffold writing for you and your students using one of the simplest writing genres-narrative writing.

Regardless of the age of your students, they have heard stories, watched stories, and have told stories, so they have experience with this genre. Use that experience as a springboard into writing.

For example, in the month of February there are numerous celebration days. (Probably more than any other month in the school year!). Meaning that February is the PERFECT month to start writing with your students. Focus on the days that your students are most excited about.

Groundhog's Day.

Chinese New Year.

Valentine's Day.

100th Day of School.

President's Day.

And, this year we even have the Winter Olympics and "Two's Day" (2-2-22 &/or 2-22-22) to choose from.

Use those fun days to spark an interest in writing.

Now, jump in with both feet. Set aside a "fun-sized" (AKA-bite-sized or small) chunk of time. Start with 30-minutes. Introduce the writing task. Model brainstorming ideas with your students and let them write.

Next, walk around the room and notice stuff. What are your students doing? What are they not doing? What is the mood like in the room? What positive things can you publicly spotlight to spark pride in your students?

Finally, use that information to craft tomorrow's lesson.

That's it! You've done it. You've just taught writing in a meaningful way, as well as set you and your students up for success tomorrow.

To help you teach writing to your students, I have the PERFECT resource for you--My monthly narrative writing packs.