My own teaching practice has gone through a metamorphosis. My students write for
authentic purposes and audiences and they see themselves as authors. How does
that happen? I treat them with respect and I honor their voices. I focus on what
my students CAN do and support them as they continue to make progress as
writers. Every child is successful in my classroom. Students have choice in what
they write. I no longer use “story starters” where each student writes to the
same inauthentic prompt and moves along through the writing process at the same
pace. It’s noisy and messy in our room most of the time because real learning is
happening. Our classroom is a community of learners where diverse ideas are
accepted and successes are celebrated. My students write informative pieces,
narratives, poetry, songs, stories, scripts, and publish in a variety of ways:
blogs, Glogs, posters, published books that are part of our classroom library,
Voice Thread, wikis, podcasts and iMovies. My students learn through writing as
they think critically and problem solve.
