Engaging Students and Building Community Through Everyday Writing

August 27, 2008

Catherine Washabaugh

The best teachers today know that students learn best when they can connect the learning with their own lives. When we work with children on writing skills, this task becomes easy. At the beginning of the school year, one way to start is by helping students generate ideas. Teachers can do this with an activity called “Everyday Topics.”

We start by connecting with the students’ lives by asking students to go back and remember the start of their day – all the little things they did or that happened before they left the house. By asking each student to remember at least 2 things, we can create a class list and then post it in the room so that this can become an “Inspiration Wall for Writing.”

By listing and acknowledging such contributions as “brushing my teeth,” and finding my shoes,” teachers can build a sense of community among students by acknowledging all the seemingly unimportant happenings that are so common to most of us.

The “Ask me questions” part can come next. Teachers can prompt the students to ask questions to get a “picture” of what that topic might look like. If the students chose the teeth-brushing topic, they may ask, “What did the toothbrush look like?” “Is the brush old or new?” “How did it feel?” “How did it taste?” “What would the toothbrush say if it could?”

At this point, students can work alone, but if students can work together in pairs, they can ask each other these questions and others, and help each other create a graphic organizer with descriptive words and phrases. This again builds community and engagement through a common sharing of their experiences.

Using the graphic organizers, students can then write a draft with the instructions to make it detailed so that a reader can picture it. When several are drafted, the teacher can further engage students by asking for volunteer readers while the class listens for characteristics of “descriptive writing.” A rubric can then be created from these characteristics.

Helping students relate to the curriculum by starting with their lives and what they know is one essential way to help students make connections and become engaged.