September 13th, 2011
The 4th and 5th graders have been working on writing memoirs. They have gathered special artifacts and pictures from home to inspire them to write and create a sense of safety and comfort in the classroom. I have been reading a fabulous book by Lucy Calkins titled Living Between the Lines. Here is a quote from the book that helps to explain why I feel it is important to gather these items:
“The way to establish a School for Children in each classroom is not to rush about filling the room with a variety of paper, bulletin boards, conference areas, editing checklists, and an authors chair- these will all come in time- but instead, to fill the classroom with children’s lives. Imagine the message we would convey if we began the year by asking everyone to bring photograph albums from home and spend an hour in twos and threes sharing the moments and people in our lives.”
The children are truly writing from their hearts and using their wealth of memories to create multiple drafts of memoirs. They are sharing their ideas and drafts with friends, and offering respectful critiques. As we move through the weeks ahead, the children will be working with me to create a rubric to assess their writing, and they will be choosing a draft to take through the writing process. They will use their peers as editors, and we will work through arts integration projects to go deeper into our memories and add beautiful details and descriptions.
Jessica DiLorenzo
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