What excites students

Having fun with students is the key to getting students engaged in their learning. Finding out what 'sparks' their love of learning and creating learning experiences for these students. Fine motor skills, selecting words and spelling have been areas that have been holding these students back. Getting rid of 'writers block' and as Daly & Miller, 1975 from Motivation to Learn - integrating Theory and Practice page 205 - D. Stipek discusses writing anxiety. That there is anxiety in writing and low expectations for success and writing quality. They have also found the anxiety in writing is higher for boys than girls. We can already see this with my students in my group - a high majority of these students are boys. How can we change this? Through my writing groups students have been working collaboratively, having props to support their ideas (books/ cards/ bookmarks), brainstorming with a buddy. Taking writing out of the class, hiding under the stage, looking at the clouds, blowing bubbles, finding pictures/ books/ videos etc that will excite/ engage students.

Below are a few examples of what I have been working on with my target group.

Reading a book that we have been reading helps students to develop their ideas. Students are able to 'copy' and develop these ideas. Writers supporting writers.

Working Collaboratively:

Hiding in the stage was exciting, scary and motivating. Students can up with so many ideas that they developed. Here are a few examples:

Darkness under the stage!

 Developing sentences from brainstorm of ideas shared at the beginning of the session. Having time with these students to develop their ideas/ being successful has power for young reluctant writers.

"Teachers who what to enhance learning in the classroom have a variety of motivation systems to engage. ... Extrinsic rewards maximizes alternative systems of motivation..." Chapter 11 Maximizing intrinsic motivation, academic values and learning goals.  

Motivation to learning - D. Stipek

Six Sentence Challenges - Sheena Cameron - short narratives making students think about how simple sentences can make a powerful stories - it doesn't need to be pages long!

 Sheena Cameron 
Warm Ups : great way to motivate students with their writing. Writing examples below:



















The  dark moon  was by the castle. There  were tall trees surrounding the castle with beautiful flowers rolling down the windows of building. Next to the castle there was an antique bridge with flowers curling over the handles.

The little boy with a red and blue biny wanted to explore the outer jungle. So he creaked out of his oled he wanted to start a new life.He scrabiled  into his backyard

 The mudy house had brick walls that had mucky moss on them. It was a log shed with a humongous fire.  The clouds covered up the sun, rain started to pour down onto the roof of the house. You could hear the pitter patter of the rain and see the rain emerge through the holes.

The tiny little robot with white and red metal zoomed down the humongous spaceship. While pulling a cotton candy scent around the rusted old staggered robots,  he ran because a giant wave of water was occurring. Suddenly his wheels zoomed at 2000 kilometers per second to the escape pod and he leapt into  the front door to the escape pod however the pod dropped onto the wrong planet!!!

There was lightning one night there was a robot could mr robot some lightning went bang boom right   next to him and BAM BOOM


Trying these ideas were very successful for their structure and deeper features. I did find that these took a while to get off the ground because of everything else that is happening. I have learned that conversations are extremely important to develop idea and not to rush students through their learning. BUT we often do this and I find this myself rushing through a reading lesson to get to a writing lesson and so on - this should be a literacy hour where both are happening at the same time. How does this look and how do you do this in a MLE ? These pieces show what can be achieved when you take your time and have fun with learning. After attending a Sheena Cameron & Louise Dempsey conference, I left thinking that things in my programme need to change and stop and allow students to think, converse and talk...

"Talk can externalise the thinking process involved in being a reader, enabling children to internalise cognitive strategies, and articulate their thoughts, feelings and ideas."

C Warner - Talk for Reading.

'...Students need to learn the skills of reading and writing, they also need to express themselves orally, in a fluent manner. when students have mastered good oral language skills, they become more fluent readers and writers.'

Jill Eggleton - Lighting the Literacy Fire