This year, one of my goals as a writing teacher is to make more of an effort to pause and celebrate process writing more often. Each year, I have multiple writing celebrations for my students and invite parents to some of them...but I realized this summer that they almost always focus on published pieces at the end of units of study. I want students to share and celebrate all the hard work they do as writers throughout the process, including all the generating and developing work they do in their writer's notebooks. This year, I am going to continue to host writing celebrations, but make sure that some of them are during the unit of study so we can celebrate the process writing.
After sharing their important stories and moments from the photos with one another, we had our Writer's Notebook Gallery. For this, students had their writer's notebooks opened up on their tables to entries they were most proud of and wanted to share with their classmates. While listening to soft music, students moved from table to table reading one another's entries. After about 10 -15 minutes, we gathered back together as a class to honor classmates and to share new ideas that were sparked by a classmates' writing.
I am going to continue to carve out time throughout the year for students to share their process writing with more people, instead of only their writing partners or posting on our writing bulletin board. I would love to hear other ways your students celebrate their process writing throughout the year with classmates, parents, or other readers. I would also love to hear your thoughts on celebrating process writing more often instead of focusing on published writing at celebrations.
Happy Writing! :)
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteLove how your class celebrated writing so early in your writing workshop. Bet they loved telling their stories and doing the gallery walk. They know that the process is valued in your room!