Celebrating Writers!

On this rainy Saturday morning, I celebrate my student writers who have found their voices and share them with the world. They inspire me. They make me smile. They are worth celebrating! Here is a "rant" written by Jenna. Some of my sixth graders love to write rants about things that are frustrating to them. They LOVE sharing their rants!

Adhithi is new to our classroom and she wrote this beautiful poem about scars. This is one that's stayed with me. Powerful!

Sophie's notebook pages always make me smile! It's like I can see the evidence of her thinking ON the page!

Remember those rants? Laurie is the student who started writing and sharing rants. I asked her to write a "How To" about ranting and this is what she shared with me yesterday. I offer it to you here. She has found her voice and I love how she encourages others to find their own! 

 

We love watching "Kid President" videos. The genius behind those videos has begun a new adventure called, Montague Workshop.

We watched a video yesterday called "Because You Were" which inspired these words... Today I celebrate writers!

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for providing this space for sharing our celebrations. Please join us and share your own!

Why I Teach!

This is why I teach. 

In my last post, I wrote about a new mission statement that my principal wrote for our school. This comment on my post gave me a great idea...

I decided to try this out with my students and we began our journey to create a class mission statement. Yesterday, we read and analyzed some mission statements. When we felt like we understood what a mission statement is, we started brainstorming words and ideas to include in a class mission statement. Today, we visited youtube and listened to Montague's Workshop and Kid President for some inspiration. 

We continued to plan and we started to draft. Students were working hard and the room was abuzz with excitement. We aren't finished, but I couldn't wait to share these amazing mission statement drafts. Why do I teach? THIS is why I teach...

Somehow we will revise and revise and revise to create one unified mission statement. Stay tuned...

Writers in Writing Groups

Sixth grade writing groups are here. We have been writing since the first day of school. Sharing our writing too. And now, we have formed writing groups to become better writers. I remember my first writing group. I became part of a writing group ten years ago as part of a graduate class from the Northern Virginia Writing Project. My instructor was reviewing the format of the class and when I heard writing group, my first instinct was to drop the class. I panicked! The idea of sharing my writing with other people terrified me. I didn't run. I stayed and shared. It changed me. My writing group was composed of high school teachers (at the time I taught elementary). Thinking they knew more than I did, I worried they would think I was not a good writer. Boy was I wrong! They were kind and supportive. Their feedback encouraged me and I slowly took more and more risk with my writing. Since that group, I've been part of many writing groups over the years and each one has made me a better writer. I shared that with my sixth grade writers. We talked about the fears of being in a writing group. We rehearsed giving feedback. We talked about being respectful to each other. I felt the tension ease slightly as they changed seats to sit with their new group. They sat with their new groups, introduced themselves, and shook hands. We took time to talk to each other and get to know each other. I've added this part and stressed it because the relationships in writing groups are vital to effective feedback. "What do you do when someone suggests something and you don't like it?" Isn't that a great question? Many sixth graders struggle with being confident to say no to a suggestion. We talk about how to say no thank you and how to listen without defending the writing. My favorite response to that is this, "Thank you for your suggestion. I will consider it, but I am the boss of my own writing." That gives my sixth grade writers ownership and permission to say no. It sounds funny too, so it diffuses any tense moments. Listening to the writers meet and begin revising their leads made me grateful to be surrounded with these brave and creative writers! Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers.

Writers in Writing Groups

Sixth grade writing groups are here. We have been writing since the first day of school. Sharing our writing too. And now, we have formed writing groups to become better writers. I remember my first writing group. I became part of a writing group ten years ago as part of a graduate class from the Northern Virginia Writing Project. My instructor was reviewing the format of the class and when I heard writing group, my first instinct was to drop the class. I panicked! The idea of sharing my writing with other people terrified me. I didn't run. I stayed and shared. It changed me. My writing group was composed of high school teachers (at the time I taught elementary). Thinking they knew more than I did, I worried they would think I was not a good writer. Boy was I wrong! They were kind and supportive. Their feedback encouraged me and I slowly took more and more risk with my writing. Since that group, I've been part of many writing groups over the years and each one has made me a better writer. I shared that with my sixth grade writers. We talked about the fears of being in a writing group. We rehearsed giving feedback. We talked about being respectful to each other. I felt the tension ease slightly as they changed seats to sit with their new group. They sat with their new groups, introduced themselves, and shook hands. We took time to talk to each other and get to know each other. I've added this part and stressed it because the relationships in writing groups are vital to effective feedback. "What do you do when someone suggests something and you don't like it?" Isn't that a great question? Many sixth graders struggle with being confident to say no to a suggestion. We talk about how to say no thank you and how to listen without defending the writing. My favorite response to that is this, "Thank you for your suggestion. I will consider it, but I am the boss of my own writing." That gives my sixth grade writers ownership and permission to say no. It sounds funny too, so it diffuses any tense moments. Listening to the writers meet and begin revising their leads made me grateful to be surrounded with these brave and creative writers! Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for this amazing platform to write and share writing! What a wonderful community you've created! I'm honored to be part of it. Join us at Two Writing Teachers.