Self Selected Writing
Purpose
Self selected writing provides opportunities for students to write for their own purposes and enjoyment. The more students write and make their own writing decisions, the more likely it is they will see themselves as writers, take risks and continue to build on their abilities.
Goals of self selected writing include:
- help students write for their own purposes and enjoyment
- help students practice/apply their knowledge of writing in authentic routines
Examples of self selected writing routines for younger or older students
- Interactive Journals. Students write one or a few sentences on anything they choose. Once or twice a week, the teacher reads entries and writes a message back to the student.
- Reader response journals. Students write a response once or twice a week to a text they have read for independent reading. Teachers can provide a protocol or template (e.g., name, date, book title, response such as I liked, It reminds me of, I didn't like, ..)
- Lists. Students can construct lists on a given topic or to help them prepare for activities. (E.g., Mrs. M tells me that you will be studying ocean habitats next in science. Write a list of all of the things you can thing of that live in oceans.)
- Take home notebook entry. Students can construct a message to parents about something related to their school day. This message can go in their take home notebook to share with parents. Students might also choose to include a photo or graphic with their message. (e.g., I went to gym with Coach P.) Or a student could construct an email or word processing message to email to parents about their school day (daily or weekly). They could choose a photo to attach to the message.
- Describe a picture. Students can choose a photo from their experience or from another source and write about it. Some students may be expected to write sentences; others lists of words or phrases.
- Greeting cards/ notes/ emails. Students can construct a card on the computer, write a message on printed greeting card or write a brief note/email message to a friend.
