Growing a Writer...

I had an incredible moment with one of my students today.

As I was circulating around the room during Writers' workshop, I noticed that one of my boys had crumpled up a piece of his writing paper. His head down low, he stared at the little piece of folded paper in his hands. I knelt down to his level and asked what was going on. He quietly asked if he could throw it in the garbage and get a new piece of paper. I gently took the paper from his hands and as I unfolded the paper, I asked him why he thought it was garbage. His eyes began to fill with tears as he explained that in his attempts to illustrate himself with his hands over his face, the arms just did not look right. They looked terrible. So he scribbled over the entire picture with black crayon. However, his words, though crumpled, still held the story of his fun evening of eating dinner with his father and watching "Deal or No Deal." He actually shared his writing yesterday, beaming with pride as we admired the spacing between his words.

"This is not garbage," I said. "There is treasure here. We just need to polish it up a little bit. I have some special tools that can help us." I walked over to the writing center and fetched a pair of scissors, some tape, and a blank piece of writing paper.

"Writers actually do this all of the time. They get frustrated with a piece of their work when it doesn't turn out the way they want it to. BUT! They have tools that help them with their writing." I began cutting out the words of his original piece. He watched in fascination as I taped his section with the words on to a brand new piece of writing paper. "Writers do just what I did. They cut, switch things around, and paste and tape it in a new spot. Look! Now you have a blank space for your picture." He looked at me with wide eyes, like Christmas had come early, so excited that he could try his picture again. "Are you ready to illustrate now?"

Of course he was =)

Absolutely incredible moment of helping a writer grow instead of letting them wilt. Sure, he could have thrown away the piece of paper, but when he showed emotion over it, it was clear that this piece of writing was near and dear to his heart. I feel so lucky that I was able to catch this moment and really make a teachable moment not only for him, but for me as well.

I did save his scribbled drawing. Perhaps I'll show it to him at the end of this year, perhaps I'll save it for another class to tell them the tale of a brave writer who persisted even though he encountered frustration.