Anna started Kindergarten in
September and truly loves every second of it.
As her mother, I have been trying to expose her to reading and writing
since before she could talk and she has been overwhelmingly
receptive to my attempts. She started
asking about how to spell family names and write the letters of the alphabet while in the four year
old class at her incredible nursery school.
She “read” books by flipping through the text, describing the pictures,
and creating voices for the various characters she saw on the pages before
her.
But yesterday afternoon something
completely new and amazing happened.
Anna sat down at around 3:45
PM and asked my mother, who was watching my children at the time, for 27 pieces
of white paper. She then proceeded to
copy the names of all of her classmates on separate pages, add pictures, and
pile them up. When she was done with
this arduous task, she asked me for 27 envelopes into which she would put the
newly decorated notes. Two hours into this
project (with no stoppage for snacks, television, Barbie doll breaks…), she
proceeded to delve into the “art cart” and grab some stickers, which she would
use to decorate the envelopes. She
again, wrote each of her friends’ names onto the outside of the envelope and
signed the back with a “love Anna” so the recipients knew who had created this
mystery gift. She pulled off the paper
that hid the adhesive (demanding that I not throw them out because she was
going to use them as “sentence strips”), sealed them up and placed each one
into a Target plastic bag. When I
thought she was done (two and a half hours later), she asked me to sit with her
on the couch and allow her to read the front and back of each envelope showing
me both what she had accomplished and her reading prowess. She recognized that some didn’t have her
signature “love Anna” on them and that she had spelled Brady’s name without the
“d”. So back to the kitchen table she
went to revise and edit her work.
As I watched Anna throughout
this process I kept asking myself how she
was able to sustain her interest and focus.
She was so intent and intense during this project. As I reflected later that evening, I realized
that Anna was doing what students in workshop classrooms do each day. She was “given” things that teachers around
the country give to their students in workshop classrooms each day. Anna had the following:
- Choice to write about what interested her and about which she cared
- A real audience to whom she was writing
- A true purpose for writing- I can’t wait to hear all about how she delivered them and her friends’ reactions when she gets home today!
- Materials that suited her task- as much as I was not crazy about handing over 27 envelopes to her (especially the self-stick ones!!), I knew they were integral to this project
- An understanding that writing takes time and is a process but the payoff is tremendous!
- Writing aids to help her feel confident and comfortable as she wrote (she used a calendar sent home to parents for the “Adventures of Baby Bear” which included ALL of her friends’ names spelled for her). Anchor charts and writing resources are pivotal if we want our students to become more confident and independent.
As I tucked Anna in last
night I explained to her that she should feel so proud of herself for all that
she'd done this afternoon. I told her that she was a “real writer”. And as she rolled over with her puppy doll, her
face lit up with a smile that let me know she knew I was telling her the
truth.
Anna hard at work!
Anna checking off the names of the friends' to whom she has already written notes
The "Writing Resource" that allowed Anna to write each friends' name without any help from me. She marked off when she finished their note with a pink dot.
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