6 Tips to Decrease Anxiety When Writing

Many students who struggle with handwriting and writing assignments may encounter feelings of anxiety and stress when faced with school assignments.  Here are a few tips to help decrease anxiety with writing assignments:

Try playing some background music.  According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, who conducted research on sound therapy and found that listening to that one song — “Weightless” — resulted in a 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates.  You can listen to the complete 8 minute song on You Tube.  You can even listen to it for 10 hours on You Tube if you wish!

Allow for free writing on the first draft.  Encourage the students to just write and not to erase.  Don’t put too much pressure on the first draft just focus on getting your ideas and thoughts on the paper.  Educate students that sometimes the first step is just getting ideas down and not to worry about proper grammar or spelling.

Use highly engaging writing prompts. Search for prompts that encourage students to share their lives, opinions, and prior knowledge.

Share your writing when done.  Students can share writing with peers, small groups or teachers.

Abandon the topic if necessary.  Just like sometimes we have to abandon reading a book, if you are bogged down by the writing process perhaps you need to tweak or abandon the topic to allow for improve written expression.

Provide choices.  Whenever possible provide choices so the student can pick topics that are highly engaging and meaningful to him or her.

References:
Alber, Rebecca. New Teachers: Inspire Your Students to Write, Write, Write.  Edutopia.  Retrieved from the web on 11/15/16 at http://ift.tt/2fdMpD4

Curtin, Melanie.  Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent.  Inc.  Retrieved from the web on 11/15/16 at http://ift.tt/2ev4nSt

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