Writing Artifacts

A post-it note book and some of the materials needed to make the book!

The spring semester is beginning soon, and I am going to be teaching a class about teaching writing. This is one of my favorite classes to teach because I love working with students on writing. It is always interesting to learn more about kids’ lives and what they enjoy doing outside of school. Writing is also a good place to learn more about reactions to books and what kids are thinking about as they are reading as well as the connections that they are making.

At the start of the semester, I often ask the students to pay attention to the writing they do throughout a week. They need to keep a few artifacts about the writing that they are engaging in as they go about their week. Often, students will tell me that they do not write much – but when they come to class, it’s the opposite! The writing that they do during the week may not be in the form of an essay, but they are writing!

Some of the writing that they do includes sending text messages, writing emails, posting to social media, writing lesson plans, and notes to parents. That’s a lot of writing! That does not include writing lists (which is another popular form of writing) or filling out forms online (something I am doing a lot of these days). So, as adults we do a substantial amount of writing – it just may look different than the more formal writing assignments we completed in school.

I like to think about this when working with elementary students. Kids will often say that they only write in school, but that is probably not completely true. I have been keeping track of the writing that my girls are doing when they are home. Recently, they have found my drawer full post-it notes that are all different sizes and colors. They also found my stapler! They put the two together and are making books out of post-it notes. I am finding these books all over the house. When I look at the post-it notes, I’m noticing that my kindergartener is writing the cover of her book in the format of a book – with a title and her name as the author. She is also using speech bubbles for the dialogue that she is including in her books. My second grader is making books for her toys and coming up with clever titles and funny storylines.

So, how do you use writing in your daily life? What about your students? What writing do they do at home? You can ask them to bring in some of their writing artifacts from home and show how often we write!