Bailey's expression here matches how I was feeling today while my students were working on a quick write. The students were making a list of "authorities" - things that they are very knowledgeable about. My "slice of life" happened towards the end of the quick write. I decided to sit next to one of my reluctant writers. This writer is able to express ideas verbally, but when it comes to putting ideas into written language, this student struggles with this task. While we were writing, I looked over at this writer's paper and noticed the long list this student was creating in his notebook. I whispered to him how proud I was for the amount of writing he was doing and this fueled him to keep writing.
As we wrapped up our quick write and the students were transitioning to our next activity, this particular writer came up to me and asked to see my list. As I showed him, he started to count my list of "authorities" and then compared it to his. When he realized he wrote more than me, this writer's face was beaming. I challenged him by writing several more ideas. He rose to the occasion and continued to add to his list.
This was one of those small moments in which I saw a reluctant writer take off with a writing prompt. While right now, the writing task was just making a list, I hope to help build this student's stamina and confidence in his own writing abilities. As teachers, we are constantly looking for these little victories to remind us of the positive impact we can have on each student who enters our classrooms.
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