This week I was looking through a bin that a colleague left for me with writing samples to use this year in one of my literacy courses. I had noticed before that there were a lot of her kids' writing from their younger years in school; however, I did not realize that there were also some from when her daughter was in my class, especially from her 6th grade year.
Though the writing was not pertinent to the class that I was preparing for (emergent lit), and I had plenty of prep work to do, I just could not pull myself away from the writing. She even had the spiral bound dialogue journal. At first it felt almost like sneaking a peek at someone's diary, yet, that feeling quickly went away as I remembered that I was actually the original intended audience. I read over her thoughts that she had written in all different formats and once again found joy in all of her writing voice.
I also reflected back on those early days and months of what ended up being three years with those students (from 6th-8th grade). It was interesting to think about how I learned so much about her and her classmates through what they chose to write in their homework journals. I was also thinking about myself as a teacher.
Aside from the spiral notebook, there was also an informational picture book related to American History that the 6th graders read aloud to the younger grades. Then there was book responses and her update of a Cinderella story with a dog as the protagonist! So many artifacts providing glimpses into what was important in that first year and validating the importance of documenting life and learning.
I will probably be glimpsing back in that bin from time to time...
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