Hi all. I am currently a student teacher in a 3rd grade class. I am having trouble motivating one of my students to write. He has the ideas and is intelligent, he just does not seem to like the physical process of picking up a paper and writing. When he writes, he does so extremely lightly. Any suggestions on what to do?
A couple random thoughts/questions to probe further: How is the student in the other subjects in terms of "writing" (i.e. doing math problems on a piece of paper or writing in a science notebook)? Of course they will need to be successful with handwriting pieces too, but for the sake of the writing portion, could he use a computer to write, at least after the initial planning stages?
Could you let him record his thoughts first, and then write? Often times with intelligent kids, the writing process is tough because they have so many thoughts in their heads that writing becomes frustrating when their hands just can't move as fast as their brains.
Have you tried allowing him to use other modes of writing, like perhaps with a pen or crayon, computer or iPad? Not the best answer, but it's a start. Are these papers you are writing about a specific topic or is it free writing?
At my old district (not at my current one, unfortunately) we had a program called Pixie. The students LOVED it. They could type their essays into it, add artwork, special effects, etc. Yes, there are other programs that do this, but none that I like as much as this program. It's also pretty inexpensive, I believe. I don't know if that's an option for you or your students, but it was very motivating for them to be able to write that way.
