Before leading a staff development workshop on writing at an elementary school, I asked the teachers at the school to complete a short survey for me. On the survey, one of the items asked teachers to:

Write three words that describe how you feel when you teach writing to students.

Here are a few of the answers I received:

Teacher 1 Can't make Me!

Teacher 2 No No No

Teacher 3 No Not Today!

Teacher 4 Anything else please!

In my twelve years of leading staff writing workshops, I have learned that teachers either love to teach writing or they really despise it. They will ask to teach any other content area, just not writing!

Why is this?

My unscientific research has led me to several easy answers. First and foremost is that most teachers were never taught how to teach writing. Even worse, they were never taught how to write themselves. So how can you expect to teach something that you yourself are not comfortable doing or skilled at doing?

Secondly, teachers overwhelmingly agree that getting kids to reread and revise their writing is too hard. Lastly, teaching writing is not fun because it is long, hard and too subjective to grade students' writings once they are complete. Unfortunately, many students share the feeling that writing is not a fun time. Writing can be a creative time but teachers and students are often too focused on "getting it right". They want the wording, the grammar and the punctuation to be perfect. Plus with writing, there is no right and wrong answer. Grading a paper often can mean hurting the feelings of the writer or not understanding the meaning of the writer. Writing is personal.

Math used to be viewed as a boring, rote memory time of the day. Then teachers and companies developed fun, hands-on manipulatives, games and songs to teach math skills. Spelling was another dry, boring subject until raps, games and letter tiles paved the way to more creative learning time.

It is time to put the fun back into writing.

Teachers need to start with daily journal time. Whether they give the students a prompt or allow students to freely write, journal time is grade-free. It is a student's chance to write their thoughts on paper without worry of anyone reading it or grading it. Encourage students to take their journals with them outside during recess or home over the weekend. Once a week encourage students to read aloud their favorite journal entry.

Most importantly, during journal time, teachers need to write in a journal. Students watch everything teachers do. When they see a teacher valuing and enjoying journal time, they begin to value and enjoy it. As a teacher, read aloud your favorite journal entries. Let the children hear the fun you have with writing.

Make the journals individual works of the students. Allow them to decorate them and personalize them.

Once students begin to relax and feel comfortable with journaling, move into modeled group writing. Write about engaging, fun topics together. Brainstorm ideas before starting and list the ideas on the board. Teach students how to group their writing ideas into a beginning, middle and end by using an organizer.

Use an overhead projector to create stories together as a class. Revise and edit it together. Model for students the thinking process that goes into revising and editing. Offer tokens or learning incentives to students for each idea they have to revise their content. Again, don't worry about grading everything that students write - worry about making the kids want to write!

Work with the students to think through story ideas and add more or less detail where necessary. Help students realize that writing is a process, not a one-shot activity. Make the process fun for students by letting them work in small groups or with a buddy. Encourage them to use a thesaurus and find unusual words and descriptions. On the wall in your classroom, keep a list of the classes' favorite unusual adjectives and verbs. Encourage students to look through newspapers and magazines to find more words to add to the wall. Make it a game to fill the wall with unique words.

As students read aloud their stories, journals and paragraphs, listen for precise details and descriptions and applaud their creativity.

With writing, there will always be areas to improve. A teacher's job is to find the areas that are good quality and to build on them. Point out the positives in writing and encourage more. Allow students the freedom to experiment with their writing style without risk of failure.

Vary writing activities. Work on building strong sentences one day and work on writing an editorial the next. From attention-grabbing opening sentences to fluid transition words, there are many areas of writing to teach. Teach writing while organizing science reports and creating social studies brochures. Integrate writing throughout the school day.

Don't grade everything students write. At the end of the week, let the student pick which writing of the week he wants to have graded. Display excellent examples of writing on a bulletin board, in a hallway or in the local coffee shop.

Make sure your classroom has a writing center. Fill it with unusual writing tools - gel pens, a typewriter, carbon paper, paper cut into shapes, mechanical pencils, etc. The writing center should reflect the creative environment students need to have fun with writing.

Writing can be a fun part of the school day if teachers and students view it as a learning process. While modeling and working with students, be sure to let them see you risk and fail and risk and succeed with writing ideas. Be sure to allow them the chance to risk and fail and risk and succeed with writing ideas. Develop a writing environment in your classroom that is fun, challenging and motivating.

Working together, we can put the fun back into writing.

Alma Ammons Hoffmann is a former schoolteacher for grades K, 1,2,4 and 5, she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of North Carolina, with concentration on Early and Intermediate Education. She also has earned a Masters of Education degree from Meredith College, focusing on Elementary Education and Reading K-12 . Ms. Hoffman is an expert on developing writing lessons and teaching paragraph writing http://www.writemorestuff.com/