It's the little things...

like returning to an iPad workshop after a long lunch with colleagues (who you rarely get to chat with) and finding mini chocolate bars scattered across your group table,  meeting new teachers who willingly share their creative ideas, someone you admire professionally paying you a compliment about the work you have done.  All of those "little" things got me thinking today and have inspired me to stop neglecting this blog!  Those "little" things reminded me that writing helps me reflect, remember and understand where I have been and where I am going.   It is that "big idea" or purpose of writing (reflecting, remembering, understanding) that I try to share with the handful of second graders I am lucky enough to teach each year.

In my classroom we have a Writer's Workshop.  I have been inspired by Lucy Caulkins, Regie Routman, Katie Wood Ray and Ralph Fletcher.  Recently I picked up a copy of Ralph Fletcher's book Boy Writer's: Reclaiming their voices.  10 of my 14 students are boys and for a while now I have had this underlying feeling that they were somehow different from the girl writers I work with.  I have also felt like I have shut down my male students enthusiasm for writing at times because I wouldn't honor a topic choice they had made (to violent, included weapons, a comic book with detailed drawings where they were just yelling "Agh!" page after page).  It happened just this month actually and I felt HORRIBLE about it.  I started wondering why it was that I can't get Theo to write about anything other than Mine Craft?  Does Phillip really need to spend two days of writer's workshop drawing & labeling various swords from a library book?  And what exactly is Black Ops?  It sounds so violent.  Should I really be letting Richard write a story about how he "sniped" his buddy at recess when they were playing "Black Ops?"  Should Timmy really end his personal narrative about hiking up at the lake with "Then my dad and I hiked back to the car because I had to take a poo."  In light of the recent tragedy at Sandyhook many of us may be thinking: ABSOLUTELY NOT! NO VIOLENCE! NO WEAPONS! VULGAR LITTLE FELLA! NO! NO! NO!

Well, Ralph Fletcher makes some really valid points in his book about allowing our boys to write about these topics.  Honoring their stories about the video games they love, the rough games they play, their "boy" world (which is not always violent or uncouth) and teaching them how to take those loves and write more deeply about them.  By the way, the little one who wrote about the end of his hike is one of my most dedicated writers.  He listens closely when I am teaching, he attempts the strategies taught during the mini lessons.  That was how his story really ended. I suggested he not end it that way. "But, that is how is how it really ended." he said, staring up at me with his big, serious, blue eyes. 

In Boy Writer's Ralph Fletcher says in regard to writing, "It is a life skill, a lifeline we throw out at the darkest, as well as the most triumphant, moments of our lives."  I want the writer's in my classroom (boys and girls) to understand that writing is a tool to help them reflect, remember and understand themselves.  That it is a tool they can use in their darkest hour or most triumphant moment their entire lives.  A tool they can use when they are inspired by the "little" things in life.

So how exactly will I teach my boy writer's to understand that writing is more than just a school subject you ask?  I will study them and give them opportunities to write about their interests.  I will discuss with them whether or not the weapons, blood, vomit or poo is enhancing their message or taking away from it?  I will give them lots of opportunities to talk.  I will listen. And I will continue to write myself.