Do you have a learner who is writing avoidant? Do they shy away from writing tasks, insisting they'd prefer to do anything else? 

If so, I invite you to read along! 

Writing is a fundamentally creative activity. It asks students to come up with ideas and share those ideas using the magic of their own written voice.

This one-time course invokes the Writer's Workshop Model of writing to inspire kids to write about what matters to them in an inviting, creative manner. While some writing curriculums stress grammar and mechanics before creativity, Writer's Workshop invites students to tap into their creative minds from the beginning, while learning and honing grammar and mechanics along the way. Many avoidant writers are avoidant because they are overcome with the stress of writing the "right" way--with proper grammar and mechanics from the get-go. That, or they feel uninspired to respond to writing tasks that don't interest them. Writer's Workshop can help to mitigate both of these issues. Firstly, Writer's Workshop teachers students that writing is a process: no writer writes their perfect piece right away. Even published authors write multiple drafts before they're done writing. This can help ease the stress students may feel of writing perfectly the first time. Secondly, Writer's Workshop gives students the freedom to write what they want to write about. They are encouraged to tap into their interests and explore the topics that they want to explore in writing. This can help encourage students who feel uninspired by teacher-created prompts. 

In this course, students will be introduced to the Writer's Workshop by being asked to tap into their creativity. We will discuss what it means to be creative and why creativity is important for writing. We will learn about "writing territories", and how they can help us become stronger writers. Students will create a list of writing territories, and then they will be asked to write a short piece using one of their writing territories. Finally, there will be an opportunity to share out pieces if students are interested. 

The goal of this course is to stress that writing is a truly creative endeavor and that all students have something worthwhile to write about. This course will offer a safe environment for reluctant or struggling writers to engage in the writing process in an inviting, creative manner. When students begin to understand that they have the power to creatively share what is important to them in their writing, they will learn to value the writing process and become life long writers in the process.