Tough Love

Since school began, my students have been writing in their writer's notebooks constantly. At the beginning of the year, we compared it to a sketch pad where they can collect ideas for longer writing. Today, they began the selection process of choosing what America's Choice calls a seed piece that can develop into a longer story. I know from listening to another teacher who did this last year that they will get very frustrated at how much time and effort they will spend on this one story. So, I pointed out the plants in our classroom and explained that they had once been tiny little seeds, but that with love, water, and sun they had grown into bigger, beautiful plants. I told them their seed pieces would be that way. We would work and work on them until they were these long, beautiful stories that we could publish into a class book.

At the end of my instruction, the students moved on to their work period where they began sifting through their writing. One of our more difficult students that all the teachers have been struggling with began setting his paper up correctly without instruction, but called me over. When I got close, he so softly asked, "Miss, can we really do that?" Confused, I asked, "Do what?" He responded, "Plant seeds and love them until they grow into something else?" I answered him with an eager, "Of course! I'll get seeds this weekend!" So, thanks to this tough boy, my class will be planting seeds they can watch grow and develop as their narratives do the same.