How to help students write

Motivation, etc.

Motivation There are two types of motivation:

intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is one’s internal desire

to do something. Extrinsic motivation comes from

somewhere else—someone else rewards or punishes you for something.

MotivationOur goal as teachers: to get children to be intrinsically motivated to write. To provide an environment where children feel good when they write. HOWEVER, intrinsic motivation is based on a feeling and you cannot force someone to have feelings. What you can do is ENTICE. You can INVITE. And there are some things you can do when enticement and invitations fail.

EnticementsAuthenticity—have children write for real reasons. Pen pals, classroom publishing, solving problems, communication with parents, etc. Children should have real audiences for their work—each other, their parents, other students in the school, the community. Writing that is simply written by the student and then read by you, writing that is created simply to prove that a student understands a concept or has read a text, is not authentic writing.

EnticementsSupport for risk taking—make sure that your response to children’s writing supports their creativity. Look for REAL good in every child’s writing and praise that before you begin to correct. Respond to the message in their writing before you edit. Sometimes children will do something that you don’t expect when you assign a piece of writing. Be sure you keep an open mind to all possibilities that students find in your assignments—and you and they will enjoy the process more.

EnticementsGive children experiences that are interesting to write about. It gets boring writing in a journal every day about the same basic stuff. That’s the nice thing about music class—you can give them new experiences that give them something new to say in their writing.

EnticementsGet children outside themselves. Let them write as other people. They can pretend to be historical people or they pretend to interview historical people. They can pretend to be characters in books they like and write their advice. They can write a day in Beethoven’s journal or they could write a letter to Bach, signing it George Handel.

EnticementsGive kids cool tools to write with. It doesn’t cost too much to have gel pens and funky stationery. This is especially true if the students’ regular classroom writing is a bit dry. Writing in music class becomes really fun when you allow them to use colored pens and fun paper.

EnticementsProvide resources such as rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, dictionary, etc. Get the Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary (for younger students—it does not contain “adult” words). If you want students to write songs, the rhyming dictionary will help. In my experience, when children have access to these, their “off task” behavior usually involves reading the rhyming dictionary, which is good for their phonemic awareness.

EnticementsTry new genres. Try poems of all sorts, different kinds of stories, even genres such as travel brochures, recipes, instructions, etc. Remember, if you assign it, you have to assess it. If you assign dry, tired writing, you will have to grade dry, tired writing. If you assign interesting, fun writing, you will enjoy the grading process a lot more (take it from one who knows).

Extrinsic MotivationWhen a child is not enticed into writing, you need to let him or her know that writing is not optional. Kids don’t like vaccines or vegetables, but they have to have them anyway. Likewise, after we have tried to make writing interesting, we must still require it.

Figure out the problem Is there a learning disability? This student

might find writing frustrating and may need the task broken down into more manageable parts. Talk to the other teachers to find out if there is a learning disability or other issue, and try to break down the task into smaller parts so the student can succeed. Read the student’s IEP.

Figuring out the problem Is the child bored or not challenged

enough? You might need to provide some special opportunities. Think about the range of activities that could be used to address the skills you want students to develop. If you are asking students to learn about composers, provide a full range of biographies—easy ones, medium ones, and challenging ones.

Figuring out the problem Is there a potential mental health problem

such as depression? Not only might you need to make referrals, but a person with depression needs extrinsic motivation just to get through the day. Check with other teachers and the school counselor. In the meantime, see if there is some topic that the student really likes and you can adapt to the learning goals in your class.

Figuring out the problem Does the child have difficulty sitting still and

concentrating? This student may or may not have ADHD—you can find out from the other teachers or the student’s record. The important thing is to give the student a successful way of working—through breaking down the task, and also through making sure the topic is interesting to the student. In my experience, students with ADHD who find something interesting are often willing to work for a long period of time on it.

Figuring out the problem Has there been a bad experience with

writing in the past? You will need to build trust with this student. Again, this is why building an environment where students can take risks is so important.

Figuring out the problem Are there authority issues? This is a bigger

problem than just writing. You will need to establish your authority by being extremely consistent with this student. Work on this first and then writing when you see improvements. (By the way, this means working really hard to catch the student doing something positive along with being honest and consistent about negative consequences for problematic behavior).

Figuring out the problem Do you simply have a hard time getting along with the

student? Do your best to find out more about what is going on with the student—that often helps you to have a more positive relationship with students. I was in a class recently and found out that one student’s mother had been murdered and that another student was dealing with domestic violence. These issues make it hard for some children to behave in school and their behavior can be off-putting for their teachers. When you understand what is going on in a student’s life, it is easier to communicate caring to the student even while you are being consistent about behavior problems.

SolutionsAsk the student what he or she thinks is going on and have a conversation about what might solve the problem. Students might not be able to think of a solution right away, but might be able to choose one from a list of options. The process of choosing supports intrinsic motivation.

Solutions Students cannot choose whether or not to

write, but they can choose certain aspects of how they do it, such as whether they are on the floor or in a chair or with which color pen. Try to come up with some options you can live with that might make writing more tolerable.

Solutions Make a deal for writing within a certain

time frame. See what the student can do in 10-15 minutes. Use a timer and let the student know that they get something else they can do after the timer goes off.

Solutions Give the child some choices about how the

writing occurs in terms of subject matter and genre. Allow room for creativity.

Solutions On the other hand, some students are

overwhelmed by having lots of choices. If this is the case, narrow down the choices for such students.

Solutions You can do extrinsic rewards, such as stickers that

can be collected towards larger rewards. If you do this, be sure to negotiate the extrinsic rewards with the student (what is rewarding for one student can be a punishment for another). Extrinsic rewards should be considered a last resort option because the focus too often becomes the reward rather than writing. NEVER reward a student by excusing them from the activity (such as, if you write every time I ask you for five days, you won’t have to write on the sixth day).

Solutions Whatever you choose to do about the

problem, be consistent. Students need to know they can count on you. Be sure that you think about what you can live with in terms of consequences before you negotiate them because of the need for consistency and follow-through. Students need to know that you will live up to your word.

Solutions Set students up for success. Choose a time

for writing that is going to work for them—not after they have been doing some other kind of quiet seatwork.

Your responses What kinds of writing could you have

students do in your music classroom? What can you do to entice your students

into doing this kind of writing?