Getting Students to Write: The Power of Suggestion
Getting students who don’t like to write to do just that can actually be an incredibly easy thing to do—just give them suggestions of topics they enjoy and a few leading sentences to get the gears in their brains moving.
First of all, you’ve got to know your students well enough to know what they like. (Journals are great tools for this. They will write [especially the boys] about things that they might not tell you otherwise.) Listen to their conversations and watch what they do.
This month, I’ve had two of my more challenging students, (when it comes to writing anyway), write some of the most creative work I’ve ever seen them do, all because I just suggested topics that they enjoy.
The first was a parallel story assignment for a junior high school English class. This student loves three-dimensional printers and anything that has to do with them. I went to the first-grade classroom, grabbed a handful of books (part of the assignment), suggested the topic of three-dimensional printers, said something like, “One printer, two printer, green printer, blue printer, and then you just keep going like that!” and got this:
One printer, two printer, red printer, blue printer,
Black printer, blue printer, old printer, new printer.
This one is printing a little blue star.
This one is printing a tiny black car.
Wow! What a lot of 3-D printers there are.
Some are red, and some are blue.
Some are broken. And some are new
And some are very, very fast.
Why are they broken and new and fast? I don’t know.
Go ask your class.
Some are small. And some are tall.
From there to here, from here to there,
3D printers are everywhere.
Some print two colors and some print four.
Some print six colors and some print more.
Where do they come from? I won’t say,
But if you buy one, you won’t be in dismay.
- Isaac Weaver
No, it’s not Shakespeare, but the enthusiasm with which this student was writing and then editing it was honestly inspiring.
Another student in another class was working on a speech. When I suggested his favorite interests – flying and woodworking for topics, he began working on a detailed outline. It was the most thorough one I’ve seen him do in three years. It included not just subtopics A and B but a few Cs and Ds as well, with numerous Arabic numerals 1, 2, and 3 under the subtopics. His introduction was revised before it was ever handed in. I was incredulous.
Give your students ideas beyond the suggestions in the textbooks. Think of creative topics that you know they enjoy and would be excited about. Give them a sentence or two to steer them in the right direction. Cheer them on and then enjoy the results.
