Writing has always been a personal passion of mine. Whether that is writing poetry, short stories or memoirs, and this is largely in response to my fantastic grade 8 English teacher who showed me how to fall in love with the art of writing. Since becoming a teacher I have always enjoyed teaching writing above everything else, even at the expense some days of math😀.
This year I had the fantastic opportunity to use some of my professional development time to connect with other teachers within our school and work alongside my writing mentor Mr.K (that grade 8 teacher who changed my world in terms of literacy!!)
There was a large focus on getting kids to write about themselves, their feelings and their experiences, thus having them write in the most genuine authentic way. Many people are under the assumption that students in the early years can only write a sentence or two from the prompt or sentence starter given by a teacher. This is simply not the case. Students even at age 6, 7 and 8 have experienced things that are powerful, things that have affected them deeply and lived through experiences that they can transform into a high quality writing piece.
Here is an example of a writer's workshop journey I was on recently with my students...
We started by reading stories about people moving away or about relatives who have passed away, many students and adults who work in the room have shared their experiences with loss and it seemed appropriate and relevant to let my kids know that these emotions are real and to feel comfortable to share them.
We then wrote about a person, or pet that we miss. I shared how I miss my mother-in-law who passed away in 2012 from cancer. I feel it is important to always share about what I am writing about and about my life to give the students the sense that I am willing to be exposed through my writing with them.
To take this a step further we then wrote about what we would say to that person or animal if we could see them again....all I can say is WOW! The response I received from this was incredible. Tears were shed, we ran out of Kleenex and we had many students show a lot of courage by sharing these intimate feelings. Here are a few examples of their writing...
H.C-R. wrote about his Grandma who passed away.
L.C. wrote about his beloved cat who has since passed.
S.M-T. Wrote about her Lola's sister who she does not see often.
B.K. wrote about her uncle who has passed away.
This writing demonstrates so much to me in terms of my students, first, that they have the ability to write strong, powerful writing pieces, second, that they feel comfortable sharing this writing with me and finally that they feel comfortable sharing this writing with each other.
How do you structure your writing time with students? What are your challenges? What are their strengths?
Until next time...
Nicole and Room 6
