NaNoWriMo

My fellow teachers, pre-service teachers, parents, students, and anyone else interested in education, November is coming upon is quickly, and as many of us know, that cold, crisp, but beautiful fall month is also a month of great insanity, for November is National Novel Writing Month. (And if anyone is wondering why that sentence is so wordy, it's because I was using it as practice for NaNo.)

National Novel Writing Month, generally shortened to NaNoWriMo or, even shorter, NaNo, can be a useful tool for teachers, despite the fact that it is a potential distraction for our students when it comes to homework. Why? Because NaNo can get our students interested in writing, something that all teachers, especially we English teachers, want desperately.

Here's the deal. There are two ways we and our students can participate. There is the usual adult program, which can be found at http://www.nanowrimo.org. The object here is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Just throw caution to the wind and write, write, write! If our students are under the age of 17, and the vast majority of them will be, or if we choose to lead our class in NaNo, they can sign up for the Young Writers Program, where our students can set their own goals. This, of course, will allow our students to take pride in reaching a goal that they feel challenges them. It will also help to unleash their creativity. http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/aboutteachers This page explains how you and your class can participate.

Now, of course, you don't have to a write a novel yourself, but think of how much extra motivation that will give your students! And why should we give them something like this if we're not doing it ourselves?

Best of all, if they reach the goall that they've set for themselves, or, if they're participating in the adult program and reach 50,000 words, here is some extra incentive for your students. Createspace.com, an associate of Amazon.com, will send them a proof of their novel for free! All they have to do is log into the website on December 2nd. If they've been declared a winner, they can go to the "I wrote a novel, now what?" page and get a special code to enter at the Create Space website. They will create an account with Create Space, upload their novel and cover art, and that's it! Create Space will recognize them as a NaNo winner, and send them a proof copy of their novel.

That's in addition, of course, to the winner certificate that you get in PDF format to download and print out. This is something that can really boost self-esteem. And that, my friends, is how you get a child interested in writing.