Happy National Day on Writing! 8 Tips to Inspire Students to Write & Other Resources
In honor of the National Day on Writing (October 20), we are re-posting these helpful writing resources for you! Be sure to comment below and let us know how you're inspiring your students to write — we love hearing what creative educators are doing in the classroom.
Peter H. Reynolds' 8 Tips for Inspiring Students to Write
In his post "The Brave Heart: Protecting the Passion, Keeping Wings Outstretched for a Daring Journey," NY Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds discusses how the pressure to write "correctly" can cause many beginning writers to pack up their creative wings. Encourage your students to write with wings outstretched! Here are a few quick tips from Peter to inspire bravery in your students.
- Step off the path and write with your wings outstretched. Break a rule or two as you go.
- Don't let a jumbled thought stop you — plant it and keep going.
- Don't let a misspelled word slow you down. Go back and attend to it later.
- Listen to your inner voice and transcribe what you hear without trying to edit it.
- Try writing for yourself. Not for your audience. Try to ignore the critics' voices you may hear.
- Invent a word.
- Skip punctuation or invent your own ...__...> and see what it feels like.
- Borrow an idea from your favorite author and twist it a few times. Turn it inside out. Make it your own!
For more ideas, read Peter's entire post at our Educational Resources Page. Click on "Sparking the Creative Spirit" and visit the section titled "The Brave Heart."
Get Students Writing With Our Irresistible Tool to Encourage Writing
Sometimes a blank page can be intimidating to students. Stationery Studio is an award-winning writing tool that provides over 400 curriculum-based borders and shapes featuring art by Peter H. Reynolds — alldesigned to inspire even the most reluctant writer! Students can type at the computer or print stationery for writing by hand. Teachers can easily customize line width, layout, and fonts to match an individual students' objectives and writing level. The program also includes incredible cross-curricular activities by Dr. Peggy Healy Stearns, award-winning software designer and educator.
Students love using Stationery Studio to write poems, stories, book reports, letters, essays, and more. To start envisioning the types of projects your students could create with the program, try the free trial with select borders and shapes today!
Great Free Poetry Resources at the Guyku Haiku WebsiteMake a point of visiting the Guyku Haiku website, based on the book Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys (written by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds). FableVision partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to create this playful website, which offers a multitude of fun, free activities and resources for educators who want to spark a passion for poetry in young writers!
What do you do to encourage your students to write? Let us know!