How to Motivate Kids to Write
- 1). Find out what kids are interested in. Ask them. They will tell you. Kids become motivated to write when they are writing about things of meaning to them. Tapping into kids' interests gets them motivated; giving them meaningful assignments keeps them engaged. Some teachers, for example, have kids meet with seniors in their community and then base a writing project on meeting, interviewing and spending time with older people. Kids make connections through their own interests, while learning about another person's significant personal or historical events and experiences.
- 2). Develop meaningful class projects to tap into kids' interests. For example, if you are studying a novel in class, have students create facebook accounts for their characters and write on each others' walls in character. Another idea is to have students blog in the voice of a character, using first-person narration ("I"), and writing as Ophelia, Hamlet or Laertes, for example. Similarly, students can write in the voice of an admired sports or movie star. Getting students to tap into their imaginations motivates them to write. You can hold class readings and publish the best work in a small student-created magazine, online or print. Kids thrive with a little friendly competition.
- 3). Get kids involved in deciding what constitutes good writing. Show them examples of student writing that takes risks, has a strong voice and is successful at reaching the reader. Good examples can be found in the online or print version of The Claremont Review, an international literary journal that publishes powerful and polished young adult stories, essays and poems. Students can read Claremont's online materials, order magazines and enter contests. Have students help compile a list of features of good/effective writing. Talk about audience/purpose and voice/tone. People write differently in text messages to friends versus emailing their grandparents. Ask students to identify the different words and writing styles they use for different writing purposes. Identifying different levels of writing/audience motivates students to consciously develop skills to write for different purposes, from letters to the editor, to formal essays and stories. Kids love to communicate.
- 4). Make writing assignments meaningful. One way of doing this includes writing to other children, to newspapers or public figures -- basically entities that may write back. The awareness of a real person being on the receiving end of a piece of writing adds an element of pride and ownership of the writing. This encourages kids to write well. Writing with a purpose engages students in the writing.
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