One way to help draw your students into a new writing assignment is to model it for them. NYC Educator writes about the usefulness of occasionally participating in the students’ assignments as they work in class. This model of literacy-in-action can help some learners acquire new writing behaviors (e.g., writing fluently) and can provide others with motivation for the task.
NYC Educator notes the benefit of modeling your thinking during the writing process (e.g., “I got to the ending and could not think of a resolution” or “I think my dialogue sounds strange so I am going to go back and fix that”). See other ideas and extensions in the comments section of the post.
Do you have any “show me” students who learn better by seeing? If so, try this simple technique for 10 minutes or so in your classroom. Ask for student reactions to assess its effectiveness.
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