Clearning the water

The school year is flying! I have such a wonderful class with such great kids who I can laugh and be silly with and learn all at the same time. That stands for a great year.
We are currently working on a persuasive unit of study in writing. Students have worked hard on researching topics that they feel strongly about. I was so happy to see that they are taking their topics and stances quite seriously, and have opted to write letters or editorials as their publishing goal.
One student came to me during an open conferring session and was concerned about her topic which was cancer. She wasn't sure how to persuade someone in this area. I too wasn't sure where she wanted to go- we all know that cancer is an awful disease and we don't need to be persuaded to understand or agree with that stance.
I asked her to talk through her process of why she wanted to stick with this topic as she has a long list of topics that she could pick from. She began to discuss that her aunt had died the previous year from cancer. She watched someone she loved so very dearly lose the battle to breast cancer. She went on to explain that she wished that she wished that her aunt would have gone to the doctor earlier like her mother wanted her to go, but she didn't. At that minute, I knew where we needed to head with this piece of writing she so badly wanted to stick with.
We discussed the idea of heading towards persuading others to go to the doctors for a regular check ups and learn more about early detection. She talked through her ideas while making a long list of reasons why early detections is so important for women. After a couple more minutes she said she felt ready to go and finish it up on her own.
I think that during conferring moments we sometimes have to focus on plain and simple talking through our students thinking as a team before they just give up on a topic or genre. Sometimes getting there is a process of not only writing, but talking, listening, and sifting through some of that murky water that kids often jump into when they first start to write.
I am excited to see what comes of my little dear student's writing. She is passionate about her topic and stance. Love her for that!