Writing: At the Beginning of Class- Nerissa Jarvis
There are more than one way to capture students’ attention when writing to start class. These activities are superb for holding lessons, stagnant classes that need a boost and even when the students restless and want to introduce a new writing unit. Listed are five activities to keep students busy:
- Pass-back Stories – A fun way to have the students to create stories together while reinforcing the different parts of a story beginning, middle and end.
- Guess- who Character Cards – Writing description of unknown persons can increase their skill of writing with a purpose.
- Guess- who Character with a twist – Adding the twist of dialogue offers writing with a voice.
- Quirky prompts – Quirky writing opens the door for students’ creativity to come to life.
- Use story starters – Just as writing is important, reading is so as well and allowing the students to use story starters will give them the opportunity to listen to each other read the writing aloud.
I find these activities to be fun ways to capture students engagement and to aide them in sparking their creativity in the writing process. I have not had the chance to execute any of these activities before but will surely make use of them when going back out into the classroom.
Photo: Teach 4 the Heart
These are such effective engagement strategies, also referred to as "warm-up" activities.
ReplyDeleteOne intriguing study by Graham and Hebert (2010) highlights the positive impact of pre-writing activities on students' overall writing performance. It found that students who engaged in warm-up writing tasks demonstrated improved writing quality and increased confidence in their writing abilities. This is all we can hope for as teacher. Very well put Nerissa!
-Diana E.
Engage, Engage, Engage! One of the most effective ways to the creative juices flowing is to engage students in introductory activities. My favourite activity mentioned is the passback stories. I can see my students having fun with one as they learn to think creatively fast on their feet.
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