Musings from a middle school reading specialist. I encourage my students to read, talk, write, and have fun!
I parent two amazing young-adult daughters with my husband of 30+ years.

March 12, 2015

Writer's Helper SOLC #12

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In our integrated science unit, our goal and summative task is to have students explain cause and effect of fast and slow earth changes.  The first grader l.o.v.e. talking about fast changes (tornado, hurricane, VOL-CA-NOOOOOO!).  They get a little excited about slow changes, but only when I write the word erosion very slowly on the anchor chart.

Today I had them pick a fast change and a slow change.  Then we put our notebooks away.  This afternoon, we looked at pictures, talked with our buddies and then tried to write how the fast or slow change affected the earth.

Yup.  Tricky.  But not impossible.
As I was circulating and helping, jotting and talking, encouraging writing and discouraging a few arguments, I saw a little bit of magic happening at the table.

M has blossomed into a full-fledged author.  I am not kidding when I tell her that I want the first copy of the first (and second and tenth) book she publishes.  She spends nearly every day writing.  It's really exciting to talk with her about her writing.

S has a great attitude and helpful personality, but S isn't a writer yet.  She has great listening comprehension and understands what we're talking about, but the words (and sometimes letters) don't yet flow from her pencil.

I encouraged the kids to work together, talk together and write together.  S ended up next to M.  I watched M do what I do for S during writing time:

S:  I want to write about volcanos.  They melt the trees with the lava.
M:  (writing on a sticky note).  Okay.  They melt the trees.  Here you go.
S:  Do I write that?
M: Yes.  I wrote it, now you copy it.
S: Thanks!
M:  Ok!

I think my eyes were a little shiny as I made a little gasp.  Both girls looked up.
"Thank you for working together.  My heart is full of excitement about your writing!" I exclaimed.

Ok.  I'm a drama queen.  But words couldn't express how proud I was of the girls working together to find success for all of them.

Little N next to them spoke up, "Can I get some help over here?  This is hard work!"
M and S:  Okay!

3 comments:

  1. What a wonderful story!!! And good for you for valuing this collaborative writing as WRITING!! S has valuable observations to share and M helped her and they did it together!

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  2. What a wonderful story!!! And good for you for valuing this collaborative writing as WRITING!! S has valuable observations to share and M helped her and they did it together!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So not surprised Chris . . . They are modeling how helpful and caring you are! I with I was there to see the magic going on in your classroom this year! xoxo

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