TJ's writing

Writing – It’s always in the back of my mind because writing is important for our jobs and important for our kids when they hit the job world.  Writing workshop offers a great deal of promise to help engage kids in writing. I know some of you have adapted much of the writing workshop model into your curriculum.  However, I think it’s hard to tame the “writing tiger” – such things as formulate a writing philosophy, identify the necessary components that encourage writers and to provide guidance and instruction along the way.  Pretty big categories, right? 

So, when Maddie and Rosemary informed me that T.J. one of their second graders liked to write I decided to interview him – check out the interview here.  T.J. shares some great writing “stuff” –

• He started writing in kindergarten – stories!
• He has some favorite authors and books – and likes the shocking endings on some of the books.  So rewriting a different shocking ending is a writing groove for him.
• He likes to share his writing – and especially likes the attention he gets from his uncles reading his writing.
• His mom bought him a desk and created a special corner for him where he can go to write.
• He writes often – every couple of days at least.
• He shared that he worked with several students on co-authoring a book, but he couldn’t wait for them – he finished writing the book on his own.
• He thinks reading and writing go together and they’re his favorite subjects.
• He has a collection of his written work – evidence that he is a writer.
• He has a youtube channel (Duck Tales TJ)

T.J. did a fantastic job of sharing his passion for writing.  After viewing the interview again, I think I didn’t respond as well as I could have to T.J.  I wished I had restated more of his “gems”; for instance, “T.J. I think you really like writing endings to stories and endings are your specialty.  It’s taking a story that seems to be heading in a certain direction and you take the story in a totally different direction.  And that excites you, is that right, T.J.” 

There are lots of “goodies” in this article featuring insights from a writing professor. 1)  "help every student develop a portfolio of high-quality work, which will serve as irrefutable evidence that they are capable of writing” -  T.J. has his portfolio started - he has some 8 or 10 books!  He sees himself as a writer.  How about developing a folder or notebook of each student's writing over the year?  Some of you do that already. 2) "read student work in front of the class" - what kid isn't going to want to write more when you do this 3) Use comments such as "This is so interesting.  I never thought of it this way", or "I'm so intrigued by the point you are making here.  Could you tell me more what you mean by that?"  These comments are encouraging and push the writer deeper.  

I will try to meet with T.J. again and ask him to read one of his endings.  It’s obvious that T.J. has wonderful support for his writing – his uncles!! Way to go – uncles! We want to keep encouraging T.J. and all the T.J.’s in our classrooms to write.