One of Those Teaching Days

Here's my slice of life for Two Writing Teachers today.  Please stop by and join us!

I love teaching days like today! (Can't believe I'm saying this about a Monday!!) Those days where all the exact pieces of the puzzle fall into place for a great lesson...one where the students are actively engaged, moving, participating and learning. The kind of lesson where I, the teacher, get out of their way as they learn. 

We're reviewing figurative language. Today was similes and metaphors. This is nothing new, but in sixth grade my challenge is to extend the metaphors and similes to be meaningful and to make their writing better. Working in groups, the students made lists of similes and metaphors about reading. They recorded any and all similes and metaphors their group suggested. I heard things like, "No, that's not a simile. There's no comparison." And, "Why are you comparing it to a picnic table? What do they have in common?" Listening to the conversations inspired me and made me so incredibly proud!

Once they created their lists, each group shared out their prized simile or metaphor. They typed it on the promethean board. I took the six lines and showed them what I could do with them. I revised them. Rearranged. Deleted. Added words and made their ideas my own and turned them into a poem. Here's one attempt...

Their challenge was next. "It's your turn now."

I'm in awe! The quickly written first draft poems contain brilliant, funny, creative examples of figurative language. They challenged me to write a poem about reading where I address the negatives of reading. I tried. Here it is... 

(Following the lead of Penny Kittle, I wrote this draft in front of them, while they were writing. That's something new I do this year which is amazing and scary and hard and necessary! Students love to see me struggle with my words and ideas too. It's real and authentic. They told me that they like to see me writing because it helps them when they are writing.)

More importantly, read these...

I had to remind myself that it's still September. My students have many drafts written in their notebooks. I love that we leapt, with both feet, into writing workshop! It's already amazing! I'd love to hear about one of those moments in your teaching life in the comments!