North Dakota Teachers Train to Help Students Love to Write

Publication: Minot Daily News
Date: July 10, 2010

Summary: What's a teacher to do when a student says, "I hate writing," and nothing seems to work? Teachers at the Northern Plains Writing Project summer institute were discussing possible solutions.

Excerpt from Article

Glenburn Elementary teacher Vicki Routledge said she signed up for the institute because her school is putting a great emphasis on writing instruction and she thinks the course will improve her own writing skills. It is also helpful to be with other teachers and to bounce ideas off one another.

During the class on Thursday morning, the teachers in the class read the poem "Pierre: A Cautionary Tale," by Maurice Sendak, which can be used as a "writing prompt" to encourage students to write. In the poem, the little boy Pierre doesn't care about anything and is eventually eaten by a lion. The family takes the lion to the doctor, where the doctor shakes him until Pierre falls out on the floor and Pierre "rubbed his eyes and scratched his head and laughed because he wasn't dead." Pierre then decides he does care after all.

Teachers in the class suggested that the poem could be used to encourage reluctant writers. Maybe they could be asked to write about why they don't care about something, one teacher said. Others suggested that when they get a student with little interest in writing they ask the student what it would take to make him care.

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