Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Slice-by-Slice Building Writers Day 12

My class and I have slicing for 12 days now and I think it's fair to say we are all obsessed with #SOL14!  Today our class had a guest teacher and tonight I found 11 #SOL14 post! Yesterday, we had only 3 computers in our room and still we had 10 participants!  Our writers are writing in notebooks, on blogs and even in writing folders.

We write versus stories and we write about food, MineCraft, families, vacations, missing teeth, pets and recently I've even seen a few non-fiction stories and poems beginning to emerge.  In our room the #SOL14 is a way to write and write and write and write for an audience. Its a way to put your work out where it can been shared with an audience outside of our classroom and these writers get it, and they L-O-V-E it!  Thanks TWT for hosting this amazing event!  I introduced the challenge to my class with the hope of having a few writers join and increasing their writing and audience. I was happily overwhelmed when 19 of 21 writers jumped on board!

I am learning so much about my students. I am seeing first hand what interest them, what motivates them, what writing tools they have control of in writing.  As I watched my writers write and read their post I noticed the writing they were doing for the challenge was different from the writing I see in the classroom.  I tried to tell myself, they're writing and that's great. I found myself fighting the urge to jump in and nudge them forward, help them write with all the craft and interest they use in the classroom.

Finally, I could resist no more!  I decided to nudge… as our focus lesson in writers workshop I wrote my #SOL14 post on MY KidBlog!  (Yes, so I am participating on THREE LEVELS!)  I showed the writers how I use color, print size and various punctuation choices to add craft and interest.  I showed them how I visit the "Get Inspired" section of the TWT blog for ideas. The writing that has come for these modeled lessons is beginning to emerge and I like what I am seeing!

Jordan- When I Get Freaked Out! (Jordan has posted a video to read his poem to you, a real treat!)
Jonathan- Wiffle Ball

You can visit even more on our blog!

4 comments:

  1. Deb,
    It has been an excited journey. I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow to share some of your student slices with the writers in my classroom. I think it will add a little energy.

    Cathy

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can "hear" the enthusiasm in your writing, Deb! I would so love to come to your classroom to see all of the writing and the energy in your room!!! They are so lucky to have you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's awesome. I've shared some of my sol posts with my students, but I haven't asked my students to join in. I may have to do that next year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved reading your students' writing earlier this week. I'm going to visit a few more of their blogs right now.

    ReplyDelete