What is writing?

I am blessed to work in a school filled with many cultures. One day, I was teaching about solid shapes and pulled up a picture of the Egyptian Pyramids. We took a minute to discuss the flat shape of the triangle we could see on the face, but we knew it wasn't just a triangle. Then, I had one of my favorite moments in teaching. I asked the kids, "How do you know it's not just a triangle? What do you see?" One little guy raised his hand and shared that when he visited the Pyramids during the summer, he saw that there were lots of triangles put together to make the Pyramids. My jaw dropped. A 5 year-old schooled me on what he saw! He had seen it and touched it. He even shared with us what it was like to ride a camel, because that's how they got to the Pyramids.

Here's where I made my mistake. I told him to go write about it. I did it in the most encouraging way. All excitement, giant smile, but it didn't work. I mean, he wrote, but it wasn't the same. Now, I wish I had said, "Draw me a picture." Or "Record your story on the iPad."

In the 2019-2020 school year, I was honored to be the teacher of identical twin boys who spoke three languages. Can you image, at 5, you understand Spanish, Italian, and English? However, English was difficult for them. It was my job to help break the barrier and do composition in English. Now, I wish I would have had them record a story. We could have worked on translating it together and help me understand more. We could have worked on pictures to match the story. We could have made simple sentences. It would have been fun.

Shawna Coppola encourages us to "expand the idea of what constitutes as writing." In fact, the first three standards in writing for Kindergarten include these words, "Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose..." You mean to tell me that even the state of Ohio is ok with my kids drawing a picture and telling a story to go with it? Why on Earth have I spent so much time sucking the joy out of writing? I've taken these amazing stories and told them to go write. Put pencil on paper. Work on your words first.

I didn't see the limits I was placing on my students. This year, I want to focus on telling a story. Draw it, record it, write it, sing it, however it comes out. We will focus on our voice in the story.

Bibliography

Coppola, Shawna. Writing, Redefined : Broadening Our Ideas of What It Means to Compose. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Stenhouse Publishers, 2019.

Ohio Learning Standards-English Language Arts 2018. 2017, education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/English-Language-Art/English-Language-Arts-Standards/ELA-Learning-Standards-2017.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US. Accessed 15 July 2020.