Chapter 2 Reflections

 When and how do I celebrate my students’ first grade writing?  Honestly, I can say that I have not taken the time to celebrate the achievements that my young authors deserve.  Regie Routman contends that the celebration of children’s writing needs to be an essential teaching goal.  Due to time constraints, I usually read aloud the students’ writing before displaying them on a hall bulletin board.  As mentioned in my previous post, I intend to utilize the author’s chair (as I had when I began Writer’s Workhop many years ago) so my students can sit while reading their writing aloud to the other children. 

Our New Author's Chair!

Another important point that she discusses in chapter 2 is the idea of celebrating and pointing out the risk taking of students.  We need to ask questions such as “Who tried something new?” or “Who has a great lead for their story?”  This communication amongst the students is very beneficial to their learning.

I read through the section on choosing your topics carefully with great interest.  Routman recommends that you pick a story topic that is easy for students to relate to, appropriate to share with students, important to you, and lets students know more about you.  As I was modeling my writing on Friday, I shared the story about how our oldest son, Matt, told me that he needed $3620 for his spring college tuition.  I told my kids that I was flabbergasted when I heard the amount - $3620 – that’s a huge amount of money!  The students right away asked what tuition was and how would I come up with that much money and would I still have enough money to pay for food for our family?  Their comments were very funny and thoughtful.  I proceeded to tell them the whole story before I wrote it down on chart paper.

My writing that I did on Friday in front of my students.

As I was thinking about this writing experience and what I learned in chapter 2, it made me realize the importance of sharing our life experiences in a meaningful, personal way.  In the past I had been cautious as to what I wrote as my students watched.  Maybe this is why many of the stories my children wrote were pretty dry and boring, as well . . .