Classroom Idea-Sparkers:

A Recipe for Writing Motivation

This Idea-Sparker was submitted by Gina McClure and Jennifer McClure Middleton, Writing Coaches, Mobile County Public School System, Mobile, Alabama.
Published in the Spring 2008 issue of the ACEI Exchange, p 158 G


There is nothing worse than hearing moans and groans when you announce to your students that it is time for writing. Wouldn't you rather hear cheers instead of anguished cries? The answer to this problem may be found in a simple recipe-a recipe for motivation. In my experience as a writing coach, I have found that no topic seems to motivate children to write as much as food does.

During my first few years of teaching, I struggled to find a way to spark students' interest in writing. While literature connections led to success in most situations, it was not until I pulled out a bag of miniature candy bars and asked my students to describe their favorite one that I truly discovered a powerful inspiration for writing. I took it a step further, developing recipes for more "interesting" foods to heighten writing motivation. Refrigerator Surprise, Risky Chocolate Cookies, and Crawling Candy Creatures are just a few of my recipes to spark students' interest in writing. I have included writing workshop tips and the recipes and lesson plans for motivational writing activities in the descriptive, expository, and narrative modes. Perhaps these ideas will inspire you to write your own recipes for writing motivation.

Be sure to consider your students' dietary restrictions before developing recipes. The following recipes would not be appropriate for a class with a diabetic student.

A Recipe for Writing Workshop: A Process Approach


The Refrigerator Surprise: A Descriptive Writing Recipe
The following recipe creates a rather "gross" motivation for writing. While food is one degree of motivation, gross food, I have found, provides an even higher degree of motivation. Follow the recipe below to create a "surprise" for your students and then follow the "recipe" for a descriptive writing lesson.

Ingredients:
1 package of miniature pastel-colored marshmallows
1 package of white chocolate candy coating
6-8 drops of green food coloring
Chocolate sprinkles
Wax paper and cookie sheet
(20 servings)

Directions: Melt the candy coating until it is smooth and creamy. Add green food coloring and stir until it is evenly distributed throughout the candy coating. Evenly spread marshmallows out on a large cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Spoon the greenish candy coating over marshmallows, covering them as evenly as possible. Top with chocolate sprinkles before the candy coating cools. Once the concoction has cooled, cut it into square shapes.

A Recipe for Descriptive Writing
Step 1: At the beginning of the lesson, present the Refrigerator Surprise to the students in a covered plastic container. Tell them how you struggled to come up with a descriptive writing prompt and that the perfect idea hit you once you spent the evening cleaning out your refrigerator. Peel open the lid to the plastic container and allow students to glimpse the "surprise" you have brought to class for them to describe. Explain that you have no idea how old it is or what it had once been. Your students will come up with some very interesting ideas. Let them contemplate what the "surprise" could possibly be as you place a sample on each student's desk. Tell them not to touch the sample until you give permission.
Step 2: Encourage the students to use their five senses to verbally describe the Refrigerator Surprise. First, allow the students to look at the surprise and use their sense of sight. Ask them to describe what they see. Most likely, students will remember that it has been in your refrigerator for an "undetermined amount of time" and begin to make a few "gross" connections. Could the dark brown specks be some kind of droppings? Is that green color the slime of decomposition? Could the colorful spongy parts be mold? Next, ask students to use their sense of touch, and have them discuss what they feel. Then, ask students to sniff the surprise and describe what they smell. Finally, lead them in tasting your Refrigerator Surprise and describe the experience.
Step 3: After experiencing the Refrigerator Surprise, students are ready to use their ideas for writing. Ask students to work through the writing process and provide scaffolding and support as needed.

Crawling Candy Creature: An Expository Writing Recipe
The following recipe allows for student creativity and provides an opportunity to integrate writing and science. The recipe requires a wide range of candies to create bugs and creatures of all kinds. Follow the suggested recipe for one example of a Crawling Candy Creature, or come up with your own. Better yet, have your students write their own recipes and use them to explain how they made their creations in an expository writing activity.

Ingredients for a Creepy Crawly Spider:
2 crackers or cookies that are oval or elongated in shape
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
8 pretzel sticks
2 chocolate-covered raisins
2 pieces of candy corn

Directions: Create a sandwich with two crackers and a tablespoon of peanut butter. This is the spider’s body. If you want the body to be more scientifically correct, have students create an indention to separate the two body parts. Insert four pretzel sticks on each side of the spider’s body. Use two dabs of peanut butter to place the chocolate covered raisin eyes on the spider. Add fangs by using the white tips from two pieces of candy corn. Bite off the orange and yellow portions and use dabs of peanut butter to attach the fangs to the spider.

A Recipe for Expository Writings
Step 1: Provide students with an assortment of creatures made from food. You may wish to model creating your own creature to help spark students' creativity. Students should pay close attention to how they are creating their creatures. After students have completed their creatures, ask them to share them with the class.
Step 2: Tell the students that you want the class to create a recipe book for Crawling Candy Creatures. The purpose for students' writing will be to explain how they created their creatures. The steps in a process should be modeled, and students should use a graphic organizer to plan their writing.
Step 3: Once students have completed their graphic organizers, they are ready to move through the next steps in the writing process. Conduct peer and teacher conferences during the revision step. If others are not able to read the expository writing and understand how to reproduce the creature, students will need to revise the content for clarity. Students should illustrate their creatures and include the illustrations with their expository writing in the class recipe book. You may then challenge students to use each other’s writing to reproduce creative creatures.

Risky Chocolate Cookies: A Narrative Writing Recipe
The following recipe creates a "risky" experience in writing. Create your own version of this recipe or follow it to the morsel. Whatever you decide to do, the result should be an "extreme cookie." Provide students with a warning label about the risk of eating a cookie that is so filled with chocolate that it becomes a "hazard" to a person's health. Then see what happens! This is the perfect beginning to a "perilous" story.

Ingredients:
2 packages of 12-count frozen preformed chocolate chip cookies
1 package of miniature candy-coated chocolate pieces
1 package of Hershey's Kisses
Cookie sheets (24 cookies)

Directions: Distribute cookies on cookie sheets. Press about 6-8 candy coated chocolate pieces into the top of each cookie. Follow the package directions for baking. After removing the cookies from the oven, carefully press a Hershey's Kiss into the center of each cookie. Allow time for the cookies to cool. The Hershey's Kisses will soften from the heat, and they should be allowed to completely harden before the cookies can be transported.

A Recipe for Narrative Writing
Step 1: Display your Risky Chocolate Cookies and warning label before the class. Build up the excitement and "danger" of eating one of the cookies. Tell the students you are not responsible for what happens if students decide to sample one of your cookies. Brainstorm what could possibly happen. Will they turn into solid lumps of chocolate? Will the shock of chocolate send a child into a daze? Is it possible that eating one of your cookies will send a student blasting off into outer space because of the powerful taste of chocolate? These could all be dangerous (or trying/challenging) situations and make for "risky" narrative writing.
Step 2: Allow students to sample your cookies and experience the "risky" power of chocolate. Ask them to complete a graphic organizer to plan their narratives. Students should focus on planning a clear beginning, middle, and end. The beginning of the story includes eating the cookie, the middle includes the dangerous moment, and the end should tell what happens after the story's climax. Make sure you have modeled writing a narrative and provide scaffolding and support as needed.
Step 3: After students have completed their graphic organizers to plan their writing, they should then move through the drafting, revising, editing, and publishing steps of the writing process. Encourage creativity and uniqueness. Students could illustrate their stories and create books to publish.

Other Suggestions for Motivation: Alternative Recipes
Motivation for writing begins when you mix students' interests with opportunities for creativity. Stir in your own excitement and commitment to engaging students in the writing process, and you have a recipe for writing success. I have found that "gross" and "the impossible" work to motivate students just as well as food does. They never know what to expect when I walk through the door. We have described boogers and the torture chamber in the teacher's lounge, wrote stories about food fights in the cafeteria and about classroom hamsters that attack. We have explained why we should let dust bunnies form under our beds and why we should never take baths. The ingredients for your writing lesson plans should be your students' interests. Brainstorm with students and find out what they like and add it to the mix.