Today was a tough day at school. My students were seriously pushing me. One of the only lessons that went well was our writing workshop. I did a mini lesson on descriptive writing and although I still had to fight a couple of battles, most of the class stayed engaged. We did an imaginary tour of a forest as a whole class to focus on our senses while writing.
Some of the students giggled when I asked them to close their eyes and imagine a forest, but most of the class closed their eyes tight and really got into it. They really came up with some awesome descriptions. We spent the rest of the lesson writing and as I looked over their shoulders, I saw that a great deal of the class got the concept and was infusing their stories with beautiful description.
It’s interesting that having to teach creative writing is forcing me to think about the nuts and bolts of writing in a new way. I have to start all the way at the beginning, strip it to the core and present it to them in a variety of ways – hoping that one of those explanations will lead them to discovery and deeper understanding. I’m also realizing how far I have come as a writer in the last ten years.
Even though it was a tough day and I had a humdinger headache when I went home, I felt good about the descriptive language lesson and my ability to not crumble in front of the kiddos.
Now I have officially turned into a pumpkin…goodnight!
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