A Few Ideas to Inspire Your Reluctant Writers

When it comes to writing, we all bring different backgrounds and experiences to the table. Some students may have immediately taken to writing poetry for its creative self-expression potential. Other students may have moved here from another country and are still learning the nuances of writing in a new language. Yet, for those of us who teach writing, you’ve probably run into a reluctant writer or two in your time.

And this is perfectly natural for some students to be slower to warm up to the writing process. After all, writing can be sort of like riding a bike. At first, it can seem scary or even risky. Still, once you get the hang of it, you find it’s really massively fun… and you can really go places! Try these ideas for how to inspire any reluctant writers you may have in your classroom. But we have to warn you: once they’re moving, they may never want to stop!

• Get them sharing – you may have noticed that social media is incredibly popular. And there’s a reason for it… people love sharing their thoughts and ideas. Bringing this desire over to essay and story writing can often help get a reluctant writer going. It doesn’t even have to be sharing with others in their class. For example, you can try pen pals or any method that gets them sharing.
• Add in a project-based lesson of their creation – in writing, there’s a certain freedom, a big wide world of exploration all on a single sheet. By pairing project-based learning with writing, you might find reluctant writers open up quickly. This is because they can match up different mediums of creativity while also giving them more to write about.
•  Start a blog – with tools like Blogger and others, it has never been more simple to start a blog in your classroom. You can help each student start their own or have a class blog. Each choice has its own benefits, but once reluctant writers see that they have a huge audience out there waiting for them, it inspires many to get writing.
• Use the Power Clap – we’ve showcased the Power Clap here at Writing with Design in the past, and it remains a wonderful way of pumping students full of motivation. With it, they get to express their confidence all together, prompting a culture of writing founded on unity and giving every student a voice in an amazing harmony.

“Yet, for those of us who teach writing, you’ve probably run into a reluctant writer or two in your time.”

Ready to try Writing with Design in your class? Give us a shout!