Creating Writing with Meaning

It's 10:45 in room 148. I announce it's time to clean up from spelling and take out Writer's Workshop folders. I've learned 2nd graders have two reactions to this:
1. Their eyes light up and they search frantically for their pencil to get started.
2. Groaning, asking to go to the bathroom, their pencil isn't sharp enough, anything that can delay them from starting to write.

I've found the former is much less common than the later. It's true, writing can be a daunting task for a 2nd grader. Not only do they have to try to spell words, make capitals and remember punctuation marks, but they also have to THINK of what to write! No wonder they are overwhelmed when we expect them to write a story with 3 paragraphs. But the thing is, they can do it. And it's easier to do it when they are writing about something they are excited about.

We have spent the beginning of the year looking at real authors who have written stories based on events in their life. As students were generating their own ideas we read many mentor texts from authors such as Patricia Polacco and Tomie dePaola. We kept track of meaningful topics that real writers write about on an anchor chart. I snapped a picture of it...

Happy writing!