Writing Ideas and Tips with Kid-Inspired Curriculum

A few of my favorite ways of getting students writing who don't like to write:

1. Grammar Practice. We always had students saying as many sentences as they could with the target grammar in the time we had. Then they would practice writing out sentences using the same grammar. This builds a lot of confidence with the sentence structures that can begin to transfer over to free writing. We are usually more strict with being correct in grammar writing and much less strict with free writing. 

 

2. Brainstorming. It's often super helpful just to brainstorm lists of words students can use and organize them into categories before doing any writing assignments. 

 

3. Substitution. Provide an example paragraph (there are some provided in the curriculum and you can take from the reading texts as well for this). Then brainstorm words to substitute in like Madlibs. 

https://member.kid-inspired.com/madlibs-method-for-teaching-reading/

https://member.kid-inspired.com/esl-writing-activity-substitution/

 

4. Practice It, Say It, Write It, Change It. We used this strategy a lot. We would often write a paragraph together as a class. Practice saying it a bunch of times in some fun ways, often with actions. Then erase it and the students would practice writing it out (It didn't have to be exact, just as close as they could get it. Looking for improvement over time here not strict adherence.) Then they could change it however they wanted for homework.

https://member.kid-inspired.com/practice-say-write-change/

 

You can find more activity ideas at the link below or by going to Tools -> Activity Ideas, or by clicking on the Activity Ideas toggle on any lesson page.