15 minutes a day? i can do this.

I happened on this post by Two Writing Teachers about joining Laurie Halse Anderson's  "15 minutes a day" writing challenge and thought...hmmm, sounds like a good way to restart the writing engine. It obviously works for Laurie Halse Anderson, successful author of books for young readers to young adults (or readers of any age, really). 


Writing for 15 minutes a day with little purpose other than to get my pen and ideas moving will be good on so many levels. Grabbing a new notebook right now.

It's that time of year again- Slice of Life Challenge 2011

Two Writing Teachers host us again!

Over the last few years, during March I've worked in a month of daily writing through the Slice of Life Challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers. I'm tardy. But, I can't pass up the chance to think and write about those small things, to choose those just right words, or share the events as they come. Truth is having a collection of stories at the end of the month feels good.

The volume of stories and comments by fellow slicers; at once encouraging, nurturing, smart, and enjoyable is an important product of this special writing workshop. Being part of that feels pretty good, too.

As I posted the icon to the right here, I thought how one of my goals three years ago during the Challenge was to get closer to what my third grade students must go through when they are writing in class everyday. When I wrote daily, I reflected daily on my writing process. The more I wrote, the more I realized how many decisions I was making along the way. It was hard. I developed empathy in a whole new way for my student writers. I immediately changed how I conferred with my students. I'm wondering what changes in my teaching I'll be thinking about this month.

If you write or get to teach writing, I encourage you to join the Slice of Life Challenge! Click on this to learn how to get started.

teamwork

Hallelujah! Today our class wrote their introductory text for a web article they are going to post on our blog/wiki (haven't worked that part out yet). Most teams were able to put together a draft paragraph in 15 minutes of the who, what, why, where, how, when of their topics. They are working in teams of 3-4 students to develop ideas, format, media, topics, and schedule. This is their first semi-independent foray into writing for an audience as a team. Usually by holiday break, my previous classes of students have produced a team research project. Well, this class has taken a little longer than previous classes to get to a point in group work where they can respectfully disagree, consider an idea outside of their own, and offer positive feedback. I call it "intellectual tug o' war". Some might call it arguing, having a hissy fit, being controlling, or just having a verbal knock down, drag out. Anyway the last few days, teams have actually produced great ideas, positive discussion, and some specific compliments- and that's just between the students. Today they also produced some writing! Content aside, they are learning so much!
image citing: http://www.greystoneefc.com/images/GEFCImages/teamwork.jpg