It started with a mysterious piece of folded paper left on my desk adorned with squiggly lines.
From: ETHEN
He had already started to use the writer’s notebook we set up just hours before. Ethen visits my office often, looking for books, but this time he asked if I had “one of those books with all of the lines.” Of course I did, so he picked a color, and we wrote “Ethen’s Writing Notebook” on the cover.
I went straight to Ethen’s room after receiving the mysterious paper. “I love your story! Can you tell me about it?” He proceeded to tell me it was a God song that goes “ooh ooh.”
The next day, another folded paper with squiggly lines, but this time it included a few illustrations. When I approached Ethen with excitement, he said it was an army story.
The following day, another piece of writing. This time with words! It was a song with the lyrics written out.
The next day, we wrote together. He ate breakfast at my table and wrote a sentence at a time about Godzilla. By the end of breakfast, he had 3-4 sentences about Godzilla’s body and actions. I commended him for telling so many details about Godzilla. We even revised a sentence by adding a color word as a description.
The following day, Ethen was back and eager to draw a picture of Godzilla. He made sure to capture the details in his story with his illustration.
Our writing club continues each morning. He has written about his grandma who passed away and published his dinosaur story on chart paper to share with his classmates. He is learning his notebook is a place to record his thoughts and feelings. I am learning how to encourage a writer one step at a time. How to cultivate the joy of writing through time and questioning. How to take what I learn by writing every morning and put it into bite sized pieces for our youngest learners.
The energy I feel with my morning writing buddy sustains me throughout the day. It’s also got me thinking…How can I capture this with a larger group? Can I start a writing club? How? When? Who?
This is wonderful! Your Ethen is a magical little guy. My brain started humming as I read. How could this notion be brought into a classroom. Why couldn’t it? Special notebooks for the kids who just want to write, and share, and explore! Thank you for sharing such a small and important slice from your life!
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What an inspiring story. Seeing Ethen the writer grow each day is uplifting. I can see why this energy sustains you for the day.
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Maybe you’ll want to try out the Classroom SOLSC next month, which Kathleen and Marina are hosting, with a small group of students. I think you’ll find a lot of energy around that.
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I love the morning writing buddy idea! This line says it all- “How to take what I learn by writing every morning and put it into bite sized pieces for our youngest learners.”
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What a special moment for both you and Ethen. This is just another lesson as to the benefits of being a teacher writer – we can take what we do as writers and show our students!
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