I shared a delightful time this morning with a student who asked to see me…she wanted to share her latest writer’s workshop example, knowing I LOVE to work with young writers.  🙂  She shared her example first, reading with great intonation, voice inflection, and enthusiasm, carefully drawing a visual image in my mind of where we were and exactly what was happening.  When I asked her how she developed this piece, this was our conversation:

• Me:  WOW, I feel like I am right in the middle of the action!  How exactly were you inspired to develop this powerful written response?
• Writer:  Our teacher made us listen to the historical conversation to set the stage but refused to show us the pictures.  She likes to do that to us you know.
• Me:  So, the idea developed from your own mind’s picture of the action.
• Writer:  Exactly!  See, I knew you would get it.  When I said right here, “…but America didn’t surrender, what we did was put up a bigger, brighter flag…we lost some of our troops and I was sad…but now America has freedom and peace…,” I was wanting the reader to feel what I felt had I really been there.

You can determined which battle (based on the content clues in her writing) she was writing about today, but the message is clear:  young writers need multiple opportunities to experience not only historical but real-life, everyday events in order to process them.  Writing is a wonderful personal outlet for processing, sharing thoughts, expressing feelings, and recording responses for any event.

Just like our teachers do in class everyday (yes, even in Kinder rooms), we encourage you to start a family journal or notebook where everyone contributes something everyday–whether a picture, a story, a joke, or just a list of ideas, it’s something the entire family can share together and look back on in the years to come.

In the meantime, thanks, Briley, for sharing time, deep conversation, and your obvious enthusiasm for writing with me today.  Thanks for also giving me permission to share your smart work with others too!  🙂  WRITE on…