Fun writing assignments for the reluctant writer

We’re back to school, so welcome back writing assignments!

Some kids embrace writing assignments with so much enthusiasm you need to enforce a strict word count or page limit. Others would rather visit the dentist or eat rutabagas instead of writing a paragraph. What do you do if your child pulls the emergency brake and protests big time? Today, I thought I’d share some ideas to ease your reluctant writer into the assignment. While I used these ideas in my homeschool, other teachers may incorporate them into the curriculum too.

Start Simple

We know writing is a valuable skill set, but sometimes students wonder about the relevancy because writing a literary analysis just doesn’t pop up in most jobs unless one pursues an academic career. Start simple with a personal letter or email. Encourage him to write as he would talk in conversation to his friend, grandparent, or other relative. Set it aside until the next day. After proofreading it and asking him to self-edit, send it. What a pleasant gift it is to receive a reply, especially in the mail.

Next, write an opinion piece and send it to the local newspaper. Nothing inspires confidence like seeing your essay and byline in the newspaper.

Make a video

One fun writing assignment my kids loved was writing their own commercial script. Someone advertised a fake medicine with outrageous side effects. The sillier they got, the better time they had. After they wrote it, they gathered siblings to help in acting and filming. After several tries, they had a short clip to share. They loved using an old video camera or phone to record, and we enjoyed viewing their work.

Print a Chapbook

When we studied poetry, some of my students groaned and protested. For this unit, I sat down and wrote my own poems alongside them. It’s good for them to see the parent counting syllables per line and searching for the right rhyming scheme. We wrote eight different types of poetry: limericks, haiku, sonnets, free verse, blank verse, song lyrics, group poems, and sestinas. Each child compiled his or her poems into a typed and bound booklet. If they wanted to illustrate, they did. If they didn’t, they didn’t have to.  Not only did they have fun, but they were proud of their book of poems. Sometimes their poems were silly. Other times serious. Some forms were more popular than others. Haiku became a favorite, maybe because they are short, but I liked the 5/7/5 challenge.

Three More Tips

1. Make it fun. Reluctance may occur due to pressure to perform well. Alleviate this pressure by breaking the assignments into steps and guiding him the first few times. Remind students that the first draft is to just get your ideas down so it’s not going to be pretty or perfect.
2. Be sure to address a specific topic and make it relevant. Often the choice of topics may be vague, limited, uninteresting, or too broad. For example, if the assignment is to write an essay about what you believe, a person could be overwhelmed with possibilities. Believe about what? Will sharing make a difference? Someone at the DNR might care what you believe about allowing ATVs on the walking and biking trail, but debating whether pancakes or waffles make the best Saturday breakfast might not interest anyone else. If a person doesn’t care about the topic, of course it will be boring and frustrating to write about.
3. Sit with your child and brainstorm his interests and how the assignment might be incorporated. For example, if you need to write a how-to article, let him write about how to do something he excels at. Let him write about how to perfect the kicking of a football or how to build a bird house. When you free him from the pressures of perfection and encourage him to have fun with it, he might just get excited. He can write it just as he would accomplish the task, step by step.

I hope these ideas spur some of your own ideas. School writing projects can be fun! Share some of your own experiences in the comments! I’d love to hear them.

First photo by Simeon Frank on Unsplash. Second photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash.