Teaching Reluctant Writers

Overview

All educators will encounter students who struggle with writing. This course first focuses on the reasons student writers may be reluctant and then provides learners with a variety of strategies and practices to help reluctant writers develop a greater comfort and confidence with writing. Learners will examine classroom relationships, mentoring, scaffolding, conferencing, low-risk writing and mini-lessons, all tools and techniques that can be brought right into the classroom to help struggling writers increase student participation and success in writing. They'll conduct their own study of one reluctant writer and use their learning to help create a plan for teaching reluctant writers in their current and future classrooms.

Syllabus

Understanding Reluctant Writers

Nearly all students find that writing presents challenges, but some students struggle so much that they dread having to put even a few words on the page. Why do these reluctant writers struggle with writing? In this module, learners will examine possible reasons students may exhibit reluctance to writing in classrooms. They’ll reflect on their own relationship to writing, select and begin to study a reluctant writer, and begin to explore and reflect upon methods for helping reluctant writers grow more comfortable with expressing themselves in writing.

Engaging Reluctant Writers

Producing words is the first step in helping our reluctant writers become confident writers. As we’ve said before, a writer needs to write in order to grow and improve as a writer, and a daily writing habit is of critical importance in increasing writing fluency. In this module, learners will examine some of the tools and techniques that can help reluctant writers improve their confidence and comfort level. We’ll look at the strategies and practices involving daybooks, mentor texts, mini-lessons and scaffolding. You’ll learn about Vygotsky and the ZPD, and you’ll continue working on your reluctant writer case study.

Empowering Reluctant Writers

In this module, we look at ways to move from engaging with reluctant writers to empowering them. We’ll examine two of the most important practices that help us focus on the specific needs and growth of each individual student, conferencing and reflection. Every reluctant writer has his or her own areas of strength and areas in need of improvement, and in student conferences, we can identify those specific needs by working with students one-on-one. Through reflection, students can become empowered as they come to identify and understand their own processes of learning and growth. In seeing writing – and even learning overall – as a series of choices they make, students can realize they have the power to determine what those choices will be. We'll also examine the value of writing for an authentic audience, and at the end of this module, you’ll complete your case study of one reluctant writer and you’ll reflect on how you might use your learning to help reluctant writers you currently teach or will teach in the future.