Writing for Readers

Lucy Calkins' writing program has  greatly supported teachers in the teaching of writing, even given them a vote of confidence with everything from a yearlong plan down to dialog you "could" use when working with these young writers.  She has carefully thought out the steps and questions everyday writers like you and I have.

Writing for Readers has been in our year long plan for a few years, but due to time constraints and the want of teaching other writing units, many parts of  it have been carefully put aside.  In the recent weeks, I got to delve into it deeply. Before, I had used the personal word walls and spacing lessons.  But what a hidden treasure I found that I had missed when I discovered the lesson on Writing for Partners.  I must admit, the last few days (almost a week) , I have been dragging my feet about this lesson, even skipped it for worry about the outcome.

Could a six year old actually give good advice and carefully think of the feelings of these writers? 

I know what happens to a crushed writer...they never write again.  And certainly, I didn't want this to happen to these wonderful writers.  But something kept nagging me to try it, at least once.

I decided to brave it and presented it to the class, allowing them to give me advice on what I could do as a writer to make MY writing more readable.  They were fabulous!   AND, they took such good care of my feelings. I cautioned them to use the same caring way they used on me for each other to help us all become better writers.

As you can see by the picture, kids were everywhere, on top of desks and on the floor, eagerly reading each other's writing.  They didn't even know I had a camera.  They were so engaged!  As I eavesdropped, I heard conversations like, "I really like this part..." "You have great details in your pictures..."  "I really want to read your story, but I'm having trouble reading it.  Could you put spaces in between your words?"

I had had that mini conferences several times with this one student, and it didn't click until his classmate said that.  I saw the lightbulb glowing out loud!!!

So, it is with great gratitude to not only Lucy for her passion, dedication and team of wonderful teacher researchers, but I am also thankful to my friend Chelsey, who helped me first see what it could look like in the classroom.   And lastly, I'm thankful for my dear friend Tammy, who jumped on board with me for her vision and our writerly conversations. 

What a blessing to know these little ones and their lives.

I urge you. Take the plunge!

~ Marie