Friday Reflections

I   have been browsing around for writing ideas and came across the ideas of Ralph   Fletcher. “Here’s the secret of writing: there is   no secret” capish!    We simply have to write to be good at   writing.   And   here’s Fletcher’s refreshing take on revising/editing: “Many young writers   think of revision as all hard work and drudgery.    But revision is no   more than just a way to   fix a broken piece of writing.    It’s also   a way to honor a good piece and make it even better.” The   more I think about a piece of writing that I would be willing to revise or want   to revise – it’s only the writing that is going to   be read by someone or   somebodies.    Is that true for most of our   kids?    Will most kids put in the time on   a target piece of writing if someone else isn’t going to read it?    Quite honestly, I would not.   Fl...

I can feel the excitement in my building – the holidays are coming!   And, as I go in and out of classrooms I can see that many of you are capitalizing on using the holidays to encourage writing.   Heidi of create dream explore expresses her thoughts about Christmas writing this way: “ All I want for Christmas are some new holiday writing!” Lucy Calkins and her followers emphasize the importance of “writing for real” and “writing for an audience” and “writing to put meaning onto the page”;   this link describes a narrative writing assignment that has the potential of encompassing all of these components. I often read the comment section following the posts like this one – it gives me food for thought. If you decide to work this idea into your writing workshop, please share your pictures, student letters or your insights; I’ll try to include them in one of my posts. Marty Max and Jineen from 1G sharing their writing a...