Five Fun & Effective Ways to Teach Writing Online

5 Fun & Effective Ways to
Teach Writing Online:

1. Create collaborative writing: Invite your students to write two or three sentences in response to a writing prompt. Ask them to post their sentences in the class chat. Copy their sentences from the chat and into a Word doc, adding space and a marker like an asterik in-between each set of sentences, forming a collaborative collage. Display the final result on screen and read it aloud. Ask students what they think of the result, and to suggest, then vote, on a title for their class collaboration. students what they think of the result, and to suggest, then vote, on a title for their class collaboration.

2. Make space for interactive feedback: Assign breakout rooms to small groups of students. Ask them to share and respond to their in-class writing experiments. Beforehand, model guides for them to use.

3. Break out of the online bubble: Ask students to take a photo of something they find visually interesting in their current environment to launch an in-class writing experiment. Have them share their photos with one another online.

4. Use immediate sensory stimuli: During class, ask students to compose and record a 3-minute sound (creaking door? table tapping?) that appeals to them in their current environment. Have them share their recording with a designated partner for an in-class writing experiment.

5. Invite students to DJ writing warm-ups: Schedule individual students to choose and play a piece of music at the start of class and have students free-write to the song as a warm-up. Ask students to share how the particular music impacted their writing’s content and/or style.