How might creating interactive literacy notebooks impact motivation in writing in a first grade classroom?

Seminar Title

How might creating interactive literacy notebooks impact motivation in writing in a first grade classroom?

Motivation and Engagement

1st Grade

Elementary

Language Arts

All Disciplines

What is it about writing that scares students so much? Do you ever want to pull your hair out while going over student writing samples? How could they forget a capital letter after we just learned that? What is it about choosing one topic and coming up with three relating details that is so incredibly difficult every time?! When you look around the room do you notice kids that lack motivation and are disengaged? Why is this happening? Is it that they don’t understand, or they don’t care? If you can relate to my thoughts, keep reading! For my research, I decided to try and improve the quality and overall experience my students have while writing. To do this, we created interactive literacy notebooks to serve as a self-created tool to produce quality writing, and a more enjoyable experience. I am excited to share my journey with you and hear what motivational strategies you use in your classroom!

The question that guided my research is as follows: How might creating literacy interactive notebooks impact motivation in writing in my first grade classroom? Year after year I notice students that struggle to create a quality piece of writing on their own. While one child rushes carelessly to be done with the task, another may sit there feeling stressed and frustrated. My goal was to find a way to make writing an enjoyable process for each child. A review of the literature highlighted some major concepts surrounding motivation such as: engagement, value, development, and choice. The concept of engagement seemed to stand out and really resonate with me over and over throughout my research, so I began searching for a way to motivate my students to be better writers by providing engaging opportunities for them to build the foundational skills. I discovered the practice of incorporating interactive notebooks into the classroom and knew right away this was something I had to try. I really loved the potential idea of having a self-created tool to serve as a reference for my students to use all year. Various data collection methods allowed me to see if creating interactive literacy notebooks would make an impact on student motivation. My student surveys gave me insight as to how students felt about writing initially, as well as throughout the year. I created a checklist of observations made during writing tasks which showed me levels of student engagement from day to day. I also have a collection of writing samples that are assessed based on a rubric that show me if skills learned during our interactive notebook lessons are being applied to their writing. With this data I can look for trends that help me decipher whether or not these engaging notebooks are a contributing factor to the quality of my students writing as well as their overall motivation towards writing. As a result of my interest in using interactive literacy notebooks to motivate my students to better understand the writing process, I’m able to reflect on our work with interactive notebooks and their future use. I feel I have taken what I’ve experienced and found that while students may not be ready to use them as a reference during writing, they’re a powerful and valuable tool for teaching foundational writing skills. They have had an indirect impact on student motivation and confidence in the sense that student understandings are now solidified in a way that I have not experienced before. They’re retaining and applying the writing skills we’ve addressed through these notebooks, making the writing process more enjoyable and less stressful.