Alerting Student Writers to the Existence of More Ideas

UPDATED February 2022

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Our youngest writers frequently undervalue their own lives and the small and large moments that punctuate those lives, as a source for writing. They often cling to second hand experiences derived from watching movies, playing video and computer games as a narrow source of potential writing ideas. They therefore remain unaware that this means their writing is frequently a rehashing of somebody else's ideas. 

We are all influenced by such experiences, but it would be sad if it was used to the exclusion of all those rich experiences that take place beyond the world of the screen. Kids miss out on so much if this is what inspires their thinking.


So how do their teachers assist them to make stronger connections to their own experiences? After all, we write best about those things we know the most about.

We can begin by modelling how we as adult writers gain ideas for writing from a range of sources including artefacts, mementos, keepsakes, treasures, junk -you name it. Bring such items into your classroom and share the stories attached to them. Provide the rich background details about each of your items. Explain how you could use such items as writing ideas. 

Challenge young writers to go home and seek out their own treasures as a potential writing source. Ideas can be found in 'things.' An artefact could become central to a story (fact or fiction) a minor detail in a broader story, the focus of a poem, a memoir piece, a recount, or personal narrative. Possibilities abound. 

Challenge your writers to utilize their senses when identifying potential writing ideas. Small moments in their lives have enormous potential for writing, if they are tuned in. -if they have their personal radar working- if they observe and eavesdrop! Things we know writers need to do. A writer without ideas is very much a non-event!

Share some books from your personal library, pointing out the influence these authors have had on your own writing. Allow them to understand that writers must be readers.

If you have your own writer's notebooks, please share some of your collected entries. Encourage your students to be researchers and seek out the possible range of influences on your collection of entries. 

Invite them to compile lists of the various things they notice. 
Allow time for each of them to share their findings with fellow writers. 
Alert them to the potential for adding extra ideas shared in their discussions to their developing writing pieces.

 Enquire as to their writing intentions going forward from this point. Make them accountable, by asking them to articulate their next steps as writers. 

Hopefully, they will have developed a broader vision of where they might look in order to harvest additional writing ideas.





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