How to Encourage Children's Interest in Writing

Writing is important. Being able to write well, is an indisputably valuable skill that every person should have. Whether is it completing assignments throughout the course of education, writing letters/emails, putting together reports at work, or simply journaling, writing is essential.

Success at writing - AKA effective communicating - begins with early preparation. The earlier the better. The following article was originally published in November 2010.

Getting Kids Interested in Writing

The best way to get primary school kids interested in writing is to spark their interest in reading and storytelling.  The earlier this can be done, the better their interest will be. Children are naturally curious and enjoy being given the opportunity to be creative and exercise their imaginations. Writing is a natural outlet for expressing their inventive thoughts.

Children who are readers are more likely to become good writers, but even those who are just learning to read enjoy having stories told to them and making up stories of their own. When given the opportunity to share these stories and entertain other students, kids can then experience a sense of pride in what they have accomplished. Though some kids are shy about sharing, most are excited to show off what they have done and the self-esteem boost they get from doing so is what will help them feel confident about writing and sharing more stories.

It is important, particularly with creative writing, that more emphasis be placed on story creation than on spelling, grammar and punctuation. Those things can be addressed at a later time after the stories have been completed. (Think of it as reverse engineering.) If students can get excited about writing early on they will be more likely to maintain an interest in it throughout their school careers.

Children as young as Kindergarten students can be introduced to writing at the very basic level by creating their own alphabet books. As they learn simple words they can be encouraged to create more books. They can also orally make up stories collectively as a class that the teacher can write down. These stories can be bound in simple books that the students can take home and read with their families.

Second grade students can work as a class or in teams and take turns adding parts to round-robin stories. Most children love to draw and will want to create illustrations for their stories. As their writing skills improve they can be encouraged to create stories individually. Stories can be a single paragraph or take up an entire page. The important thing is that the students learn how to give their stories a beginning, middle and end, and that they at least answer the who, what, and how questions of storytelling.

Making up their own stories is only one way to get students excited about writing. Exercises that allow students to write reflectively, particularly with students who may be having behavior issues, allow them to see how writing can be a useful tool that helps them to put the things that happen to them in perspective and even to feel better.

Third and fourth grade students should be able to interview each other and write short journalistic style stories that allow them to get to know each other better. As their skills improve they can interview family members or neighbors and learn about oral history.

As primary school students begin to think of writing as something that is useful and has value to them it will become increasingly easy to foster their interest in it.

Teacher Tips: Respect for Others

Kids often use the word respect without any actual understanding of what it means. They hear the word tossed around frequently by adults, but quite often the concept of what it is to be respectful is completely foreign to them. 

A discussion of respect at the primary school level is completely different from one at the middle or high school level. In order for young children to understand what it is to respect themselves, their class/playmates, and the adults around them, parents and educators have to tap into their sense of empathy. Kids may not yet understand intellectually, but they feel emotionally and -unless there is something wrong - they don't like to feel bad or see others hurting.

The following article was originally published November 6, 2009

How to Teach Respect for others

The key in teaching children to have respect for others is in getting them to first understand what respect actually is. Young children regularly hear adults say "you have to show respect," but for them it is just a word. They don't really understand what that means as a concept. They need to be told very specifically how to show respect for others and they need the adults in their lives to model respectful behavior for them to follow.

To teach primary school children to have respect for others begin with lessons in caring and why caring is important. Children can relate to caring because they understand what it is to be mean as well as what it is to have your feelings hurt. When they understand that not showing respect is having bad manners and that they might even hurt someone's feelings they are more likely to want to show respect for others because it means they are nice when they behave well towards others.

Reading and discussing story books on how to be a friend is a good way to begin to get children to understand what it means to show respect for others as well as for themselves. By looking at the different ways in which friends behave, children will begin to understand the respect concept as being nice, showing manners, taking turns, and never using rude or mean words. These concepts can later be expanded on to show how they apply to the classroom. For instance, taking turns can be compared to not talking when it is the teacher's turn to talk.

Students talking out of turn is a common problem teachers face while they are trying to give instructions or relay information. The response from the teacher to the student is usually to call the student out and admonish the behavior in some way. Instead, a teacher could use this situation as an opportunity to reinforce the respect concept by saying something like: "Jane, you are talking while I am trying to give the class their spelling words. That is rude and disruptive and it is very disrespectful to me and your fellow students. I would appreciate it if you would give me your full attention when I am speaking."

Helping children to understand that rude behavior is inappropriate is the next step in getting them to grasp the concept of respect. When someone tells a child they are disrespectful it doesn't make an impact on them until they understand just why and how the behavior is disrespectful. When a child realizes that behaving rudely towards someone (i.e., cursing) is being disrespectful towards them they can begin to connect the concepts they already know to make the connection that mean words equal rude behavior which equals disrespect.

One key factor in teaching children to have respect for others is self esteem. If a child does not feel good about him or herself or has significant anger issues, this child is not going to care about being respectful. Misery loves company and because this child has a reason to feel bad they will feel it is their mission to make others feel bad too. To address this problem have students engage in individual and cooperative activities that are designed to improve self awareness and self esteem.

Another key factor in having children behave with respect for others is having others, including the adults in their lives show respect for them. It is impossible to never become impatient in the classroom, but it is extremely important to not turn nasty or sound mean when addressing a child. Sarcasm or talking down to a child in any way is never appropriate and will certainly not get them to respect you.

There is no one specific means for teaching respect, however, to successfully address the respect concept with primary school students it is extremely important that students see teachers, administrators and other staff members modeling the behavior of showing respect for others at all times. Children learn what they live and they will always emulate what they see the adults around them doing.

School Bulletin Board Ideas: The Voting Process

It's that time of the year again... election day brings excitement for some and disdain for others. The politicians start campaigning so early, and the media coverage is so redundant, that by the time the day rolls around most of us just want elections to be over already.

Elections are a great way to teach students about the voting process, however. The following article was composed with high school students in mind, but the suggestions can easily be adapted for middle or elementary school bulletin boards as well.

Originally published, June 2012

High School Bulletin Boards the Voting Process

High School bulletin board displays on the voting process are an opportunity to supplement classroom learning and prepare young adult students for life beyond the classroom. A colorful and attractive board seen by students on a daily basis can help interest them in voting and inspire them to learn more about the process.

Most high school students have some idea of how the voting process works. By the time they become old enough to register, they have voted in at least one classroom and/or school-wide election of some kind. Many have listened to their parents and other adults discussing candidates during numerous election periods and have most likely accompanied their parents to a polling location on voting day.

Quite often with the average teen information goes in one ear and out the other. In some communities teachers may find that teens not only do not understand how to register to vote, they may not are about voting or understand why it is important. In situations like these, a voting process bulletin board that includes a historic timeline across the top or bottom might be a good idea.

Other useful items to include on this type of bulletin board display are a copy of a voter registration card, as well as a National Mail Voter Registration Form. These can be used with arrows and graphics to show the various stages of the voter process from registration to actual voting.

Graphics such as Uncle Sam pointing in the “wants you” pose, an image of a poll box or voting booth, photos of popular celebrities that students admire with quotes on voting, can be combined with the factual information on the voting process to help illustrate the bulletin board’s theme.

If multiple boards are being created on the voting process each one can be dedicated to a different aspect of it. If only one board will be used, it will be important to get as many of the most important facts across as possible in the available space.

When creating a bulletin board display for more informed student populations, it may be useful to include a list of the constitutional amendments that have extended voting privileges. A FAQ of relevant bullet points can also reinforce what students have already learned or introduce little known facts about the voting process and its history.

Voting isn’t the most exciting topic for teens, but an attractive, brightly colored bulletin board featuring the favorite hip hop artist, reality star, or athlete of the week wearing a Rock the Vote T-shirt, will more than likely get them to stop and read about the voting process.

Teacher Tips: Getting Costumes For The School Play

Remember back in the day when the moms got together and made their kids' costumes for the school play? Back when participation was what was important, as opposed to keeping up with/doing better than... or even having the perfect Instagrammable moments?

Not everything has to be fancy or flashy, and sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you have. Here's a brief article with some suggestions on how to get costumes for a school play when you have limited resources.

The following article was originally published December 26, 2010

How to get Costumes for a School Play

Putting on a school play can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. Choosing a play (or writing one); casting the performers; directing the action; staging rehearsals; coming up with the sets, props and costumes; and perhaps hardest of all, drawing an audience, all require a lot of organized effort.

When it comes to getting the costumes for a school play, there are a few different options to consider. Costumes can be rented, purchased or they can be made by someone such as a staff person or a parent or even the students themselves. Deciding which option is best will depend on the size of the play.

For a simple production with little kids (i.e., K-1), it may be enough to have the kids wear masks. They could also wear leotards or long-sleeved T-shirts with sweat or dance pants in a solid color to coordinate with their mask. Or, to make things simpler, they could all wear black.

For older groups of students (grades 2-4) who can learn and recite enough for a full one- or two-act play with multiple scenes, clothing, jewelry and accessories could be purchased in appropriate sizes from a thrift store to create costumes. The advantage of purchasing thrift store clothing is that it is cheap in cost and, because it’s already “made”, the items are easier to adapt for costumes than creating wardrobe from scratch.

Thrift store clothing can easily be cut down, dyed or painted to suit the needs of the production. Students can wear ballet, character, jazz, or other suitable dance shoes to complete their costumes, and quite often parents will be willing to pay for these.

When mounting a school play with middle and high school students, art and home economics classes can be a good source of potential costumers and even set-builders. Coordinating with other teachers to have their students participate in play production will help to delegate some of the responsibility, and if the school has a music teacher, enlist his or her help as well to find music students willing to participate.

Making costumes for a school play is a great way to get students involved in other aspects of play production and allows students who do not have a speaking part to be involved. Having original costumes also adds to the play’s uniqueness, particularly if the script is not original. If students are too young to make costumes, try enlisting parents or volunteers from church groups or college service organizations.

If making costumes is not an option even with adapting clothing purchased at a thrift store, the next best option will be to rent costumes. Your local telephone directory or a quick Internet search will help you determine where the nearest costume rental company is that may have what you need. Whichever route you choose for obtaining costumes for your school play, enlisting at least one other person to help with the work load will help things go smoother.

Halloween Craft Ideas For Teachers

Author's Note: The following piece was originally published you-know-where without any images because the platform wasn't set up for them at the time. Looking through the articles I salvaged just now I realized the timing was good to re-publish this one right now. Perhaps an update with pictures will appear in the future...

Originally published September 2009

Halloween Craft Ideas for Teachers

Crafting at Halloween can be a fun time for teachers who are particularly creative, but for those who don't see themselves in quite that light coming up with crafty ideas in the classroom can sometimes present a ghoulish challenge, particularly with little hands. Whether it is crafts for decorating the classroom, or projects for students to do, Halloween crafts need not be daunting.

Everything from templates to coloring sheets can be found online with a quick Google search of Halloween printables. Crafting with young children need not be complicated to be engaging. All you need is a simple project that can be completed in ten to twenty minutes in between your academic lessons.

When creating Halloween crafts with kindergarteners, you will want to keep things simple without too many steps. Keeping things simple also means you will have an easy time of cleanup as well. You may want to reserve activities that require the use of paint for days when you have extra time for setup and cleanup.

One fun and easy classroom craft for little hands requires only a pumpkin coloring sheet, squares of orange craft tissue and glue. Cut the tissue into 2 inch squares and have the students wad the individual sheets into balls and glue them onto the pumpkin. Alternatively, black tissue or even yarn can be used to create facial features and other details before adding the crumpled orange tissue. This tactile craft is great for improving hand-eye coordination.

Another quick and simple craft for small hands is to have students color their pumpkins with orange markers and then put green glitter around the edges. Minimize the mess by drawing a line of glue around the edge of the pumpkins and giving students small amounts of glitter to sprinkle over it. Older kids can cut their pumpkins out and paste them onto black construction paper with glue sticks. Alternatively students can make collage pumpkins by tearing or cutting colored tissue or other paper and gluing it onto a pumpkin printout.

First graders can make cute Halloween crafts by pressing their thumbprints on paper and then using a pencil to create legs or wings for spiders or bats. The pencil lines can then be traced over with fine tipped black markers. Older students with more drawing ability can turn their thumbprints into black cats. The students' thumbprint creatures can adorn greeting cards or be placed in a mat for framing. To add a language arts component to your Halloween crafting have students create their own comic strips by placing words above their thumbprint critters.

For second and third grade students who are able to skillfully cut out shapes with scissors try making paper doll style chains of Halloween themed figures. Make a sample first by accordion folding white paper wide enough to accommodate the chosen figure and then trace the desired shape on top so that the side edges of the figure are up against the folds of the paper. Carefully cut out the shapes leaving a bit of the sides intact against the paper folds so that when you open up the paper the figures will be linked together as if holding hands.

Printable coloring sheets can also be used to create puppets, garland, mobiles or even custom Halloween trick or treat bags. Simply print out the coloring sheet or other printable and enlarge or reduce the designs on a copy machine as needed to create your desired project. Crafts from paper supplies are not only inexpensive, they are easy to organize and execute.

For older children, Halloween crafting doesn't have to mean ghosts and goblins. Friendship bracelets in orange and black or beading projects made with those colors is more than sufficient. Kids love wearable art projects and they provide the added benefit of helping to develop self esteem. To allow for more individuality, provide students with additional white or gold beads and floss for more color variety.

In keeping with the idea of non-traditional Halloween crafts, students can create their own one-of-a-kind pair of socks using tie dye techniques and seasonal colors. For an even quicker simple, wearable craft, give students orange and black sharpies and let them create their own shoe laces. Be sure to protect desks or work surfaces before beginning to protect them from becoming stained by the sharpies.

Halloween crafting in the classroom can be smooth and easy with a little planning. Always create a sample project ahead of time to be sure of the difficulty level and the amount of time it will take to complete. Plan on it taking almost twice as much time for some students and less for others. Have a supply of coloring sheets, puzzles or other printables on hand for early finishers.

Teacher Tips: Teaching Kids to Learn

It may seem strange that you'd have to teach the idea or process of learning, but in reality no one is actually born knowing how to do anything, at least not on a conscious level. Until we start to think and become aware of specifically what we are doing and how, everything happens via instinct in a series of actions and reactions.

Originally published September 2012

Tips for Teaching Pupils to Learn how to Learn

Teaching pupils how to learn is extremely important to their academic success. It isn’t enough to have students memorize a bunch of facts and figures in order to pass standardized tests and matriculate. The ability to learn is an important life skill that can serve them through a variety of situations in and out of the classroom and well beyond their school years.

The key in teaching pupils how to learn is in getting them to think for themselves. Too often students merely repeat what they have been told without questioning why something is so.  These pupils are unable to define words they use daily, or even explain the most basic of concepts. Given an open-book test with fill in the blank questions phrased exactly as the information appears in their textbook, the majority of them will be unable to perform.

Having the ability to learn information for themselves provides pupils with an opportunity to “go beyond the book” or required reading (as they are often encouraged to do), and explore a subject further for themselves.  Learning becomes an adventure, and with any luck, develops into a passion.

The best way to teach pupils how to learn is to engage them in a mix of long and short-term activities, projects, and experiences that allow them to have practical opportunities for hands-on problem solving and discovery.  Having the chance to see for themselves why something is the way it is will ignite their curiosity, raise their awareness, and allow them to explain the subject to others, which increases their self-esteem and desire to learn more.

Lesson plans that follow a show and tell approach, that can provide students with tangible examples they can see and touch for themselves will provide students with a better understanding of subject matter and encourage them to want to learn and explore further.

Some specific classroom activities that encourage pupils to learn are treasure hunting with a map, cooperative exercises that rely on memory and/or problem solving such as building things, and art projects that are applicable to math, (i.e. art from fractions).

Playing games in the classroom is another way to teach pupils how to learn. When learning is disguised as play, children are engaged and don’t even realize they are learning. Charades and Boggle are two games that are great for the classroom. They encourage critical thinking and help students learn concepts, as well as expand their vocabularies.

Teaching pupils how to learn is fairly simple. Usually it just comes down to showing them that they can and using subjects and activities they enjoy to inspire them to do so. 

Teacher Tips: Passive student discipline

The following article was previously published in July 2009.

Using Passive Discipline in the Classroom

Teaching is a challenging task that is simultaneously as frustrating as it is gratifying. Even on a good day it can leave you feeling drained after just a couple of hours, especially if you have to spend a large amount of precious instruction time managing behavior.

Passive Discipline may sound like an oxymoron but if properly used it can be an effective classroom tool. Whether they realize it or not, students are already attuned to body language and hand signals. Non-verbal communication is a lot less likely to end up in a battle or control struggle.

Often times when students are chattering away amongst themselves and not paying attention a teacher will simply stand (or sit) calmly and wait for the students to notice he or she is waiting. At least one kid will notice and alert another creating a ripple effect around the room. If there are any holdouts a combination of eye contact and a raised eyebrow will usually do the trick.

The reason passive discipline is effective is that visual reminders serve as instant memory activators. It also creates a means to developing awareness so that students will be more accountable. Often a mere look will cause a student to stop and say "what?" If you continue to look expectantly at them quite often something will trigger and they will say "Oh!" and correct or adjust the behavior without you having to utter a word. They may even smile at you in the process.

Using non-verbal communication in the classroom has the added advantage of not disturbing students who are quietly working and the offending student can not succeed in baiting you into a non-productive verbal exchange while drawing attention to themselves and disrupting the lesson.

A Few Gestures and Hand Signals

Holding a hand (or both hands) up with the palm facing outward generally means stop, especially if you look downward while doing so. Unfortunately this gesture is also seen by some to be negative, perhaps because of the popular "talk to the hand" expression that was prevalent in the nineties. For an alternative gesture hold the hand out to your side with the palm facing downward.

The palm facing downward is a great gesture because it is multifunctional. If used in motion by lowering the hand slightly it can mean "slow down and walk," when a student is running in the hall. The same motion can also tell a student to bring the volume down when they are talking too loud.

Moving the hand across the throat vertically is universal for cut it out. A finger to the lips combined with eye contact reminds a student it is time to be quiet. The same finger against the lips combined with shaking the head "no" tells a student they are not following procedure when talking out of turn.

Often when you are assisting one student another will impatiently call your name over and over demanding your attention. Instead of responding with equal impatience holding up one hand with your index finger pointing up tells the student you will be with them in one moment.

If the impatient student persists you can combine the gesture with shaking the head no and holding the palm outward to say "stop" and then holding up the index finger again to let the student know you will be with them momentarily. If they continue to persist, stop what you are doing and look at them impassively while making eye contact and repeat the gesture.

Another non-verbal way to tell a student you want them to stop what they are doing is to place both hands in front of your body with one slightly above the other and move the hands outward to either side. Even if you have to repeat the gesture or combine it with another, the student will usually get the message without you having to speak a word.

Other Non-Verbal Options

When a student is off task and out of their seat, merely pointing from the child to their empty chair sends the message "please return to your seat." It is better to repeat the gesture than to plead with the student for several minutes in an attempt to get them to do what you ask. Not every student will comply easily, however and additional steps will be necessary.

Some schools use a mark system to manage behavior. Writing a student's name on the board can be a warning signal that some stronger form of disciplinary action such as the giving of a mark is about to be taken. If the student doesn't take the warning to return to their seat, for example, the letters OS can be placed next to their name. This is also a warning to the rest of the class not to join in to the behavior.

If the mark is ignored the next step will be to send the student out for disciplinary action. Most students do not want to serve detention or have their parents telephoned and once they see the situation is serious they will not want to be the next to be sent out. Having a step by step procedure beginning with a warning gives the student a chance to make the decision to comply before serious action is taken against them.

From the very first day, the class rules and expectations should be clearly outlined and if possible, reminders should be posted visibly around the room so that your non-verbal gestures serve to reinforce the behavior the students have already been told they should be exhibiting.

Passive discipline is an important tool that can often save valuable time in classroom management. Engaging with a student verbally can often lead to confrontation. Using gestures and body language appropriately to correct students can save you a lot of grief in the long run.