An Independent Moment

Since September I have consistently had 6 students who are not confident enough to write without having some one-to-one support.

As you can imagine, this is pretty difficult to do as there is only one of me! And six of them!!!!!

Since the beginning of this month, I have been pushing the whole class to focus on improving their writing as we move towards the half way mark in our school year. We've reviewed expectations: Letter size. Spacing. Punctuation. Neatness. etc. etc. etc.

We've looked at examples of good writing. A couple of us who showed marked improvement shared our writing with other teachers (who gave out stickers and certificates for great progress.)And we've tried to write as often as possible. Non-fiction writing. Poetry. Fiction. Writing. Writing. Writing.

We have been talking about publishing some of our best pieces before the end of the year. Our school librarian has agreed to barcode and shelve any book we write. How cool is that?!?!

After many, many, many conversations, I have been pleasantly surprised to see some of the students really get into their writing this week and rise to the challenge of producing a better product than before.

But, my consistent 6 students, have stayed consistent. Not writing much without one-to-one support. Some not writing anything at all!

Then, this week...a break through!

One of the students who has never, ever, ever written anything without adult support in sounding out wrote this. All. By. Himself. (Yep, you heard me. All by himself):



Dear Mom and Dad. It is almost Pajama Day. I am going to wear my spider pajamas.

Yay! (insert visual of me doing my happy dance!!!!!)

Two times this week, this little one wrote on his own. (Today he needed a bit of help. But, really, how often does one write the word router (as in the electronic kind) in daily grade 1 activities?) I am over the moon!!!

Does it meet expectations for this time of year? Not quite.

Is it awesome anyways? You bet!!!!!

Now to use this writing as an example for the other reluctant writers to see and, maybe, just maybe, it will give them the confidence to do something similar on their own.

Fingers are crossed!