Writing Joy

Today in both classes I had the best time during our daily writing time.  I always enjoy our writing time but today every second I turned around I saw something that I loved.

The first thing I noticed as I was walking around the room for conferences was a student with a poem out.  Now this does not seem like much but it was a poem that we had not talked about in some time.  I asked the student why he had the poem out.  "I wanted to write a poem about my family and make it like this poem."  I could not have been happier.  Good writers get ideas from other good writers.  Here was an author putting that into practice.  The poem this author shared during share time was brilliant.

Then I turned around and what did I hear, "That does not sound right."  Amazing words coming from a young author.  I leaned down and conference number two started.  These words, "That does not sound right," show so much about this young author.  First of all it shows that the student is going back and rereading their writing as they write.  This student realizes that revising does not just happen when a draft is finished it is constant.  I also love that this student has realized that writing needs to sound write.  This author got to work and when it was time to share it sounded amazing.

Later in the day I was having another conference and I saw a student who had written words in a very interesting pattern.  Some of the letters were up and some were down.  I asked why they had decided to write the letters in this interesting pattern.  "Mr. Tarr the poem is about fall and the wind is blowing the letters up and down like leaves."  Brilliant.  This author realizes that authors make choices and those choices need to have a reason behind them.  The poem was outstanding.

Finally (although I could share more) I had a conference with a student who was flipping back-and- forth between two pages.  When I asked why, the student showed me the first version of this poem.  I was so impressed and I told the student that I loved that he was reworking the poem.  Then it got even better he showed me the very first draft.  Here was a young author working on his poem for the third time before his first draft.  Here was a young author who has realized that good writers do not just crank out a first draft.  They work and work and work to make their writing better.  The amazing thing, each draft did get better.

I love when I can walk around our class and see students putting what they are learning into practice.  I am lucky to be blessed with such amazing students who are willing to try these things that will help make them better writers.

I hope you had a great start to your week.