Doing the Work of a Writer

"Look what I wrote!" Zealous second graders clamored for me to read their story first.

"My story is about ...," a first grader in the water cooler line offered.

"My grandmother died this weekend and I wrote about that," a fifth grader shared.

Writing is taking a front row seat in our curriculum, and I am inspired by our students' excitement.

I, too, am fired up about writing again, and I'm learning along with our students and faculty.

I joined a third grade class for a lesson on developing a story about a place.  First, we drew that place. Then, we wrote a story, a small moment - a seed, about that place.  The next day we were reminded of dialogue and how speakers can make our writing come alive, to help our readers live in the moment.  We revised our stories to include dialogue.

Hey, pssst ... did you notice I transferred that learning to this new piece of writing?  

A fifth grade teacher asked me to teach one of the lessons from our new program. I was happy to oblige, but first I needed to study all of the previous lessons to know what students had been taught and what work they had already produced. This is not a pick-and-choose curriculum; it is spiral - every lesson builds on the previous one.

Fortunately, I was able to use the stories I had written a few days earlier to demonstrate the revision technique for the fifth grade lesson.  Without that, I couldn't have taught the lesson.

When I observed in eighth grade, the teacher was sharing her writer's notebook with students, illustrating techniques for the students to emulate. She, too, has been writing along with students, and often in advance, to work through the curriculum, to provide models for students, to experience the frustration and the triumph that comes with writing.

I look forward to seeing students' progress from first attempt to strategy experimentation to revision to published piece.

Will you, as the teacher, also put yourself into student mode to take the learning path from first to final draft?

In a Nutshell
We all must be learners.  We cannot become better writers or better writing teachers without doing the work of a writer.

source: https://twowritingteachers.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/mem-fox-quote.png