Creative writing gets kids reading and makes them better at writing too!
Do you notice in your class that many children have no desire to read at all? Do you have the feeling that you have tried everything to make them enthusiastic, but that nothing helps? Then try to get your class to write creatively. You can read more about that in this article.
As a teacher, you obviously know that reading is very important to stimulate children’s language development. However, what many teachers face is that children never feel like reading. One way to make it more fun for the children is to let them write a story in which they are allowed to use their imagination.
Spelling and grammar in learning to improve
The idea then is that, as a teacher, you don’t pay attention to spelling and grammar for a while. Make it clear to the children that they cannot get it wrong and that they can write down anything they want. The effects of creative writing on reading behavior have been demonstrated in multiple studies. Once the writing engine is running, reading will follow naturally.
Practical tips to help children perform better with creative writing
To give children a hand with creative writing you can give them an assignment to get used to it. A fun assignment is for children to draw a picture of their own face, surrounded by words that describe themselves, such as: hobbies, sports, age, and so on. Then you show each drawing to the class and then the children get to guess who is who.
Another assignment could be that you give the beginning of a story and then the children can finish it. If you don’t have much inspiration yourself, then show them this video in which children’s book author gives a nice start of a story. Tip: Perhaps you have some of her books at school. Show them to your class after the film, which will give an extra reading impulse.
How can you teach children to write well?
Another assignment is to have the children write a diary from the future. This is especially suitable for the slightly older children, because they have to write something that happens in the future, but where they have to use the past tense. If they find this very difficult, you can give them partial assignments (describe your pet, job, family) but be careful not to direct them too much. The idea is to make them feel like they came up with it themselves: that makes them proud of their own work and encourages them to do it more often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y_pXbcfqOk