Student Motivation for Writing: The Core We Can’t Afford to Miss

After all the kids had gone home for the summer on the last day of school, I came upon a team of teachers huddled together, listening intently to their colleague as she read aloud a student’s last-week-of-school choice writing.  I joined in.  The writing was pretty incredible.  This eight-year old had written an engaging, clear, and vivid story.  It was full of (correctly done) dialogue, description, and just the right transitions.  In short, it was, as the teacher said in disbelief, “by far the best writing the child had produced all year.” 

The teacher went on to add that when she’d asked the child why she hadn’t written like this before, the child had said, simply, that she’d never been given the chance.  In other words, never before had the child had such freedom to just write.  Clearly, not only was this student’s writing came alive when given freedom to write without so many constraints.

And because she was so motivated to write, this child rose to the occasion–and then some. On her own, she put forth her very best effort. 

Motivation plays a tremendous role in writing.  Way back in 1997, researchers Zimmerman and Risenberg explained that “skilled writing depends on high levels of self-regulation because writing is typically an intentional and self-initiated and self-sustained activity.”  

Writing involves so much:  idea generation, purpose, audience, word choice, sentence crafting, and more.  It’s a lot to keep in mind. 

Which is why it helps a whole lot to want to do it.  

In many schools today, writing has become very formulaic. It primarily asks students to answer a prompt–usually about something that was read in class.  This comes with a specific organization that is taught when asking students to write in this way, as in the Think SRSD approach.  But, as McCutchen (1988) reminds us, this type of formulaic writing means that “little attention is directed at rhetorical goals, the organization of the text, the needs of the audience, or the constraints imposed by the topic. The role of planning, revising, and other self-regulation processes are minimized, and this retrieve-and-write process typically functions like an automated and encapsulated program, operating largely without metacognitive control.”  

“We need to be careful that students don’t become compliant workers in an essay factory with rubric ready teachers supervising the assembly line.”

Shauna Cotte, Keys to Literacy, 2015

This type of very scaffolded writing, while an important piece of the puzzle, isn’t the end goal. 

Self-regulated, less boxed-in writing is the goal. While formulas absolutely can help students learn to develop writing skill, we also need to allow them to move past the formulas so that they have the opportunity to develop self-regulation as writers.  And that comes with allowing choice, voice, and the freedom to be a little messy.  We must, as writing consultant Melissa Morrison says, “provide the opportunity for students to explore the writing process, making decisions and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work for their writing.”  

It’s this sense of “I can do this” without worrying so much about “rules” and constraints that gives kids the sense of self-efficacy they need to fuel them on.  Skar, Graham, and Huebner (2023) agree.  In their study, they found that “Students who are confident about their writing competence may develop a positive attitude about writing because their perceived efficacy leads them to view writing in an optimistic light, resulting in commitment and effort when writing.”

“Expertise in writing requires high levels of skill, will, and self-regulation.”

Graham and Harris, 2000

In short, “success in writing also depends on motivation” (The Writing for Pleasure Center (2024). 

Motivation is at the core of so much of what we do.  Without motivation, we just aren’t going to invest much time, effort, or mental energy.  Especially if the task is something we also believe to be difficult.  

Student motivation matters.  A lot.

It’s why Serravallo lists engagement at the very top of her reading and writing hierarchies.  And it’s why Duke and Cartwright added it as the core foundation of their Active View of Reading.  It’s also why women seem to have no trouble losing that nagging 10 pounds right before their upcoming class reunion.  Humans thrive on motivation.

So how do we encourage student motivation for writing, especially if our curriculum only asks students to write a formulaic answer to a prompt? 

I’ve written about this topic before, so head to this post for some specific moves teachers can make to encourage student motivation.  

Teach them what other authors do and then give them the chance to try it out.  Model these moves, then allow them the time, space, and grace to get messy.  Let them play around with word choice, sentence structure, and order, providing feedback along the way.  Allow them to find their own style.  Their own voice. Allow them time to discover that they can do this work. 

It boils down to simply making space for the kind of writing that allows for choice.  

There’s room.  There has to be.

We can (and should) teach lessons on formulaic structures and we can (and must) allow space for kids to write with more freedom.  We can ask kids to write about reading and we can allow them to generate their own topic ideas.  Because self-efficacy as a writer comes from three places:  knowing how to do the nitty-gritty, underlying skills, having some freedom to make choices within those structures, and a supportive environment in which to grow (Graham, et al, 2016).  

If we want writers who blow us away with what they can do like the third grader at the end of the school year I mentioned, all of these pieces need to be in place. It’s not just nitty-gritty skills, and it’s not just freedom.  It’s both.  A supportive environment–and a supportive writing teacher–ensures room for both.  It’s key for improving student motivation for writing.

Could you use some help designing your writing instruction to both teach the skills needed to write well and allow room for student choice?   Just reach out for a coaching call.  I’m here to help!

Or, consider joining my Facebook community–a safe, supportive environment (really!)  where you can ask questions, learn ideas, and share your thoughts among other literacy-loving educators!  

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle Ruhe, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!