BOY Writing: Setting the Stage for the Year
Ahh, the first days of school. Exciting and oh so overwhelming!
There is so much to incorporate into those first days; routines, procedures, get-to-know-you activities, academics and, most importantly, the culture you are creating for your new classroom community of learners. Even just thinking of building culture brings up so many thoughts of what that entails. I think of all the ways I wanted my students to feel-safe, happy, excited and respected. I think of how I wanted them to treat each other and work together and how they would participate in and take ownership of their learning. Whew! What a responsibility teachers have!
I recently watched a new TedX talk with Dr. Caitlin Tucker, “Education Reimagined: Student-led Learning”, and it is a must watch for ANY stakeholder in education. In her speech, Dr. Tucker stresses the need for students to be at the center of their learning experiences. She speaks of a mindset shift needed “to create more effective, empowering and equitable learning environments”. This idea is a large part of my philosophy for writing instruction, and it got me thinking…Did the writing activities I chose for my students on those first days of school help to establish the culture I wanted for them? Did they set the stage for what I wanted writing time to be?
A Look Back
I know that in my last few years of teaching, I began writer’s workshop by at least the second or third day of school, and I always started that time with an excitement and energy that sparked students’ interest as well as with students having complete choice over what they wrote during that first independent writing time. However, often on the very first day, the first type of writing I asked them to produce was a prompted piece, provided with limited explanation and certainly not quite as much enthusiasm. As I look back at this, I know there are many reasons for my choice. I’m sure I thought of having something to hang on the wall, show to their parents at Back-to-School Night or keep for them to look back on at the end of the year. I would also think I was influenced by what fellow grade-level teachers were having their students do on that first day of school. And maybe, it was just what I had always done (which really stinks because I despise that reason for instructional decisions!).
Now, I really just want to go back in time and ask myself why, if I was so passionate about the student-led, workshop model of reading and writing, didn’t I ensure my students’ first writing experience in my classroom stayed true to that belief? UGH!
What Could Be
If I wanted my students to be the center of their writing experiences, feel safe and respected, be excited about writing, and have autonomy over their choices as writers, I should have provided opportunity for all of those aspects from the very start. Instead of utilizing a scripted, typical writing prompt with a common outcome, I should have valued each student’s writing identity and present state of mind and offered them a chance to memorialize that first day of first or second grade in their own, unique way. I didn’t need every student’s piece to look the same in order to hang it in the hallway or to use it to compare it to their “end of year” work. All I needed was what they created!
Instead of ignoring the likelihood that many of my young students were feeling anxious in general but also nervous about their capabilities as writers, I should have begun our first writing experience together by allowing space for those feelings, helping them see they are not alone, minimizing any fear of failure they may have felt and showing them how much I value them as people and as writers. This could have looked like providing options for their writing piece; a letter to a parent or friend talking about their day or asking them about theirs, a drawing or poster sharing one part of the day so far, a card, a note, a book of their own genre…you get the idea! Providing choice for this first writing piece not only makes it more accessible and motivating for students but also gives them immediate insight into the future writing activities in which they will participate. I could also have been sure to provide space and time for discussion about the worries they may be having (or the excitement) as well as telling them about what writing time will be like for them-just to give them a taste and set them at ease.
What Will Be
My classroom was always filled with 6- and 7-year-olds, but your students may be 9, 11 or 13. So, as you think of your first day, the writing experience and discussion may look different from mine. What’s important is that you consider what you want for your students as writers, and you choose a writing activity for that first day (or first time with writing) that reflects that idea. The first day of school does not have to consist of what everyone always does. It should look and feel like you want the rest of the year to feel. With that in mind, I invite you to think of the activity you have chosen for your students’ first writing experience in your classroom and decide if it will do so. If it won’t, imagine what will and make it happen for your writers!
