FIRST DRAFTS...

Today I met with some of my students who are ready to publish their first draft of their Feature Articles. Many of my students are still in the drafting process, however, I spoke with some of my colleagues & they felt that moving on with my three was important.

At first, I wasn't sure that this was the best move... I didn't want my three to feel rushed in their writing process. But after our small mini-lesson on revision I WAS SO GLAD THAT I DID! My three came together after some discussion of the revision process and peer conferred on their articles. They read each others pieces and then had the writer read it out loud. Each student made a comment on what they were listening to and used post-it notes to track their thoughts and ideas for their friends.

One stated during discussion, "Now T. I love the beginning, but I am not sure that those words best describe this, this, and this (pointing to the part)." The three then began to work together to help the student form some other words that he might want to use! HOW COOL WAS THAT!

What I learned from this is that I need to stop underestimating my treasures ability to move on to bigger things. I think this is that part of risk taking that as an educator I must keep near me this year. Today, I am glad that I took that risk. Today I was the student.