One of my favorite teachers (I’ll call her Ms. Bunny) once told me that every child has something to say, and they love to talk about themselves. How true! Every year she has her kindergarteners start a writing journal. Yes, most of them don’t know how to write their own names yet, but they have a writing journal that they write in at least 2 times a week, if not more! She tells them that they will be writing stories about themselves, their families, the things they like, and the activities they enjoy doing. They start out by using pictures, words with made up spelling, whatever they are capable of doing. She gives them a writing prompt such as, “what is your favorite animal?” or “what did you do this weekend?” or “if you could have any pet, what would it be?” and off they go. Sometimes she has them sound out words themselves; sometimes in the beginning, she will have them dictate to her what they want her to write to go with their picture.
From time to time she has them share what they have been writing with the class. “Who wants to share with us what you wrote?” Even the kid who only drew a picture the first week of school raises his hand to share. They bring their journals up to the document camera and tell their classmates all about the “story” they wrote. Their classmates ask questions and they proudly answer. Ms. Bunny is sure to give very specific praise for something that they did well, for all to hear, and they are now confident that they can be a writer, too.
As the year progresses, I love to look through the journals from beginning to end. The progress they make is amazing! Words start to show up, then sentences and whole stories. From time to time, Ms. Bunny has them look back in their own journals, pointing out to them how much they have learned and how hard they have all worked. “Remember when we first started Kindergarten….? Look at what you just wrote. WOW!”
This is just one of the literacy activities I have observed in that classroom. Reading “just right” books to themselves, their parents, and their classmates, written words posted on items all around the classroom, fabulous interactive activities on the Activeboard to learn sight words, daily reading opportunities built into the routines of the day, and the list goes on and on.
It’s an intimidating prospect, taking on the literacy education of these young minds. What we do early on has such an effect on their future as students. I only hope I can learn from those good examples I see as I go along, and always keep my eyes open for further opportunities to learn.
This is a link I found for a first grade Writer's Workshop in a real classroom:
A Day in the Life of our Writing Workshop
And another that introduces the idea of Writer's Workshop by Reading Rockets (http://www.readingrockets.org/)
Watch and Learn: Writing
From Kindergarten Chaos blog:
evolution of writing workshop
