A Few of My Favorite Writing Things by Alexis Ennis

When I first started teaching, I was most nervous about teaching writing. Six years later, writing has become one of my favorite experiences I share with my students and some of my best memories of our class comes from a writing activity.

Here are a few of my favorite (writing) things.

Favorite Book About Writing
Colby Sharp’s Creativity Project. There is so much a teacher can do with this book. You could read it for entertainment. You could write to the prompts. My hope is to make a book with my students using his idea!

Writing Events
I like to keep things exciting and new for my students. Some students come into my class without a positive writing experience or not being given the chance to explore writing freely. Here are some events and activities that I do each year.

• International Writing Cup and other challenges through Night Zookeeper 
• Marathon writing -traveling through the school and writing
• Picture prompts
• Poetry challenge (poem-a-day)
• Power writing
• Round Robin writing 

Showcase and Share 
After writing, it is important that the students feel that their work is valued. Hang it up around the room or in the hall. Tweet it. Share it. Take pictures of the process. Also, let them share. We are social beings, embrace the need to socialize and encourage them to read their stories and share their writing process with others.



Alexis Ennis is a 6th grade ELA teacher. You can follow her on Twitter @Mrs_Ennis_OMS, on Instagram @Mrs_bookdragon, and on her blog www.mrsbookdragon.com.