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How to Engage Reluctant Writers

Hey, so tell me if this sounds familiar.

You’re teaching writing. You’ve finished your explicit teaching and explained the writing task. Your students have started working and they seem to be on task and scribbling down their story ideas.

Then, you look over and see one of your students. Let’s call him Johnny. He’s got a blank piece of paper in front of him. Completely blank.

HOW TO ENGAGE RELUCTANT WRITERS

Johnny doesn’t like writing lessons. You’re lucky if you can get a few words or sentences out of him. Even then, it’s like pulling teeth. You go over and try to give him some prompts or ideas…but nothing. Johnny is a reluctant writer.

Sound familiar? It is for me. I’ve had a student who would write nothing, no matter how much 1:1 support he got.

It can be tricky figuring out how to engage reluctant writers. Even the most engaging lesson idea doesn’t help sometimes. But don’t worry, there is a solution.

roll a story writing prompts - winter
These Roll a Story prompts are such great fun in Winter! Click on the picture to check them out.

Roll A Story

Sometimes students are reluctant to write because they struggle with handwriting or spelling. However sometimes, they just can’t think of an idea or they have trouble concentrating.

I want to introduce you to an amazing solution: ‘Roll A Story’ prompts.

I discovered them when I was a new teacher and I started using them for literacy centers. I realized pretty quick that my students LOVED them! The act of rolling dice keeps them so engaged.

Roll a Story prompts are essentially a single piece of paper with a table of ideas. They usually have columns for characters, settings, problems (and sometimes solutions).

spring roll a story writing prompts

How do they work?

Students roll a die to mix and match story elements. For example, they roll once and use that number to see what their character will be. Then they roll again for to see what their setting will be.

Kids love dice. They also love that the ideas are provided to them, so they don’t have to brainstorm (they especially love it if the elements are funny or weird). The mix and match elements often create funny stories!

roll a story writing prompts christmas
These Roll a Story prompts are such great fun at Christmas! Click on the picture to check them out.

But most of all, students love having control over what their story is about. Teachers often struggle with how to engage reluctant writers because everything is so forced. Instead of forcing a reluctant writer to write about one thing, they get the choice of lots of fun ideas!

But not too much choice, like when I tried to list ideas to Johnny. Nothing stuck. But if the dice decides on something, there you go!

Pro tip: If you think the sound of dice rolling on tables is loud (or it’s annoying when dice roll on the floor), simply put the die into a container and students can gently shake the container.

dice in container hack
Isn’t this hack genius?!

Roll a Story activities can be no prep. You can simply print the page and that’s it! However, I recommend laminating the page so that you can use it over and over. It’s really great for writing stations!

I created some roll a story prompts for my students, but I didn’t just create the roll a story page! I made some planning pages and lined writing pages too. That way, my students could effectively plan their stories and have a nice place to write them.

spring roll a story writing prompts
spring roll a story writing prompts

Where can you get them?

After discovering my love for Roll a Story prompts, I decided to make some. I have a free one that you can access here in my free resource library (when you sign up as a V.I.P, you get access). I also have some Roll A Story activities that you can purchase in my TPT store.

roll a story bundle

I love my free one because it can be used all year. However, I also love a good theme, who doesn’t? So, I created Roll a Story activities for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

I even made some for Easter, Halloween, Back to School and Christmas. You can grab the bundle here. My activities also include planning and writing pages.

I hope this post helped with how to engage reluctant writers. I also hope you end up loving Roll a Story activities just as much as me!

P.S – Follow me on Instagram @terrificteachingtactics to see my resources in action!

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Hi, my name is Alex! I love creating fun, colorful, and engaging resources for the early years. I’ve taught 3rd and 1st grade and I’m passionate about creating interactive activities that engage all learners Read More…

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The first school that I ever taught at didn’t pr The first school that I ever taught at didn’t provide me with a writing curriculum, which sucks! But I hear stories of teachers being forced into using crappy curriculum…and yeah that sounds even worse 🤦🏼‍♀️

Share an emoji in the comments to tell me your thoughts? Which is worse? 
❌ no curriculum or 🤢 bad curriculum?

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Hi! For anyone new around here, I’m Alex (and th Hi! For anyone new around here, I’m Alex (and this is my little one, Lily) 🙂

I’m a former teacher and now a work from home mama. I play peekaboo most of the day and try to make teaching activities for my TPT store during nap time 😂

Lily is nearly 8 months old, if you have little ones, let me know how old they are in the comments! And tell me if it’s gets easier 😂

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I’ve never tried flair pens, can you believe? Ev I’ve never tried flair pens, can you believe? Everyone is always giving them a lot of hype, so I got some. Are they that good? 

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Comment TACO below and I’ll send you a link to t Comment TACO below and I’ll send you a link to these delicious ‘how to’ writing prompts! 

There’s 13 prompts and they each come in 4 versions (dotted and plain lines, with and without ‘First, then, next, last’).

These are perfect for procedure writing lessons, but also as writing centers, morning work, early finishers, or homework!

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Students love to write about magical and imaginary Students love to write about magical and imaginary things! 🌟 As well as extinct! 🦖 

I highly recommend getting your students to write stories about fairies, dinosaurs, aliens, unicorns, monsters, magicians, and pirates 🙌🏻

Also, if the season calls for it, leprechauns, witches, Frankenstein, etc!

This can be so engaging, especially if your students are interested in the particular topic ✅

Save this post for later! 💗

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Comment SPACE and I’ll send you a link to these Comment SPACE and I’ll send you a link to these sentence writing worksheets! 👽🪐

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Do NOT just dive into your first writing unit! ❌ Do NOT just dive into your first writing unit! ❌

Even with second and third grade, you need to review foundational skills first! 

You’ll be surprised how many students aren’t using capital letters or punctuation. Their sentences won’t make any sense! They may still be struggling with handwriting or phonics 😬

Jumping straight into your writing unit will be a disaster for everyone! You’ll be frustrated with what your students produce and your students will hate writing lessons 🥲

Instead, put off your writing genres for a sec. Spend a few weeks focusing on teaching sentence writing ✍🏻

If you teach second grade, I do have a sentence writing unit I think will really help! 

Comment SENTENCE below and I’ll send you a link 🙂

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If you’re a 2nd grade teacher, this is for you! If you’re a 2nd grade teacher, this is for you! 

My new personal narratives writing unit is here! 🎉 

If you like the look of this cute craft, comment UNIT below and I’ll send you a link so you can check out the unit 💗

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Whatever you do, don’t just jump into your narra Whatever you do, don’t just jump into your narrative unit or whatever genre you’re supposed to teach first.

Start with drawing and labeling for a while. Focus on teaching phonics and then take the time to explicitly teach sentence writing.

This will take a few months and that’s okay!

It is not developmentally appropriate to tell your kindergarteners to write a narrative straight away. ❌

Take it slow and teaching writing will be far more bearable! 🙌🏻

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Idea pins don’t seem to be hot anymore so it’s Idea pins don’t seem to be hot anymore so it’s back to video pins I think! 

Have you noticed this?
And let me know if you have any questions about video pins!

Psst! Want to learn more about Pinterest? Definitely check out my Pinterest course! There’s a link in my bio 💗

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You can’t sell it if it isn’t posted! Tell me You can’t sell it if it isn’t posted!

Tell me in the comments, how many products do you have on your computer right now that you’re procrastinating from posting? 😂

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Have you ever thought about becoming a virtual ass Have you ever thought about becoming a virtual assistant?

You can do this alongside your TPT store (to supplement your income) or instead of running a store (if it lights you up)! 🎊

My friend Chloe Tascoff is like the VA version of me 😂 she loves helping teachers become VAs! She's been on my podcast twice (if you want to see what she has to say).

Anyways, I'm SO excited to see that she's lauching a program to help teachers become VAs. 🙌

If you're a seller, you know how hard it can be to find good help sometimes! Chloe is gonna make sure she creates QUALITY VAs in the TPT space and I'm all for it.

FYI - She's a massively successful VA herself (6 figures a year), so she knows her stuff.

Anyways, be sure to check out Virtual Assistant School For Educators (VASE) that's open for the next two weeks! It's a beta launch (so at its most affordable).

I really think Chloe knows what she's talking about so I'm gonna share my affiliate link in my stories. I very rarely do affiliate stuff but honestly I wanna support Chloe AND as a seller I want quality VAs in our space!

Comment below with any questions and @teachervamentor Chloe Tascoff and I can answer them :)

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A sense of paralyzing dread hits me when I see the A sense of paralyzing dread hits me when I see the email! 😂

Let me know in the comments how it makes you feel 😂

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Little Lily May is precious but oh so time consumi Little Lily May is precious but oh so time consuming 👶🏼😂

With such limited time to juggle everything, I have made the tough decision to take a hiatus from the podcast for a while 💔

This also means I’ll be a bit quieter when it comes to emails and Instagram posts.

Listen in to the farewell episode if you want to hear more about my decision.

The good news is that I’m still going to be around on Instagram stories and in my Facebook group. 

I hope you understand! 

Let me know in the comments if you can relate. If you are busy these days, have there been things that you’ve had to press pause on?

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Are you too nervous to record reels, TikToks, FB l Are you too nervous to record reels, TikToks, FB lives, or course videos?

Instagram stories are a great way to get confident on camera on a much smaller scale! 📸 

Listen in to this week’s episode of The Terrific Teacherpreneur podcast to hear all of my tips! 

Tell me in the comments with an emoji, how confident are you on camera? 
Are we talking 👍🏻🙌🏻🎉 or 😬😭🥺?

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I earned $2.70 my first month on TPT! 😂🤦🏼 I earned $2.70 my first month on TPT! 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

I shared these kind of fun facts during last week’s podcast episode! 

As I was recording, I contemplated whether I should do an episode for years three and four and five and six etc someday, what do you think?!

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Has this ever happened to you? 😂 #Teacherjokes Has this ever happened to you? 😂

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I’m SO embarrassed to admit this but… I used I’m SO embarrassed to admit this but…

I used to be anti flatpack. As in I ‘didn’t think you should pay to flatten and secure resources when you can do it for free’ (ten million times slower 😂).

I remember arguing with someone in a Facebook group about it 🤦🏼‍♀️😬

I had some real mindset issues back then around investing in my business. I wasn’t buying good quality clip art and I didn’t understand why people took courses or got coaching.

I didn’t treat TPT like a business and my sales reflected that 😭 thank goodness I came out the other side!

When I think of hugely successful TPT sellers, they always have a business mindset. 

Anyways, we are constantly growing and evolving as business owners.

I’m willing to admit that I was wrong and I don’t mind laughing about it either! 😂

Is there anything that you realize you were wrong about when you first started? 

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