Arts-Based Strategies for Writing

3 Min Read  •  Arts Integration

I was recently talking with a friend whose son struggles with writing in the classroom. He’s a creative, bright, and charismatic boy, and when he’s engaged in a task, he is focused and shows great determination to complete what he’s started, to have arts-based writing strategies.

But in school, when faced with writing prompts that are inauthentic or don’t engage him, he struggles. And it is such a shame, because this clever, engineering young mind now believes there is something wrong because he can’t complete the writing prompts handed to him.  He might just need some arts-based writing strategies to open up his own possibilities.

What if changed the nature of this boy’s writing exercises to engage him, to make his writing more personally relevant, and to increase his ownership of the task at hand? What a great place for arts integration to step in! Here’s a few arts-based writing strategies to use in the classroom that will hopefully engage and motivate your struggling writers.

Visual Art

Art Stories

Students summarize key points of a story or a book by creating a piece of visual art. Students will then write an artist’s statement about their piece and how it reflects the key points of the story, describing their artistic choices.

Storytelling

Cut up several old picture books, and have students mix up the art to make up a new story.

Drama

Stepping Into the Painting

Using a piece of art or an image, students become a character or an object they see. After students choose their character or object, they must begin to verbally tell a story. They give background into what they are seeing, thinking, and feeling. Once the exercise has been completed, have students write their story. See more about the Stepping into the Painting strategy HERE.

Character Letters

Have students write a letter to someone of their choosing: a character from a story, a composer of a piece of music, an artist, etc. Have the student introduce themselves, ask questions, and express opinions. Extension: have students switch letters and write a reply.

Music

Guided Active Listening

Have students listen to a piece of music, preferably one that features a particular instrument. Have students write a monologue from the point of view of that instrument. You can also have students listen to a piece and write a creative story about an imagined event within the piece. See more HERE.

Song Stories

Have students select a piece of music of their choosing and brainstorm who wrote the song and why. Students will then write a story about how the song came to be.

Dance

Key Topic Dance

Have students brainstorm important words or topics in a story or book. Next, list movements, shapes, levels, and energy that could be used to convey the topic. Have small groups plan a dance or movement around a chosen topic word. After the performance, have students write a response about what they did and how they felt, making reference to the key topic they conveyed as well as elements of dance.

These strategies and many more can be found in Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts by Claudia E. Cornett.

What arts-based writing strategies do you use to help your struggling students? We’d love to hear from you!