Quick Writing Reflection

This super easy "Don't Stop Until You're Proud" chart may be the best thing that happens to your writing program.  Seriously.  Student self-reflection, goal-setting, peer feedback, writing collaborating, teacher evidence, portfolio piece ... all in a 5 - 10 minute activity.  And the very best one - student pride. 

I'm lucky in that most of my students love writing every year.  They really do.  A definite credit to my fantastic coworkers who built this into our students.  We do a lot of formal writing all the time, but we also make the time to do a lot of "free writing" in my class.  Any writing style.  Any genre.  Any topic.  Just write.  10 - 15 minutes.  But ... be prepared to share your writing with a friend at the end of the time.  (You can read more about this time in my blog post - Just Let Them Write).

About every 2 - 3 weeks, I quickly title a piece of chart, "Don't Stop Until You're Proud - The Line I'm Most Proud of Today is ..." and hand out sticky notes.  The chart isn't instagram pretty, but it's easy and crazy effective.  Which makes it way better than instagram pretty in my books.  I usually have this set up before they begin writing, so they're working just a little harder while they're crafting their pieces ... knowing they will share their best at the end. 

This chart works for any kind of writing - after formal writing lessons, or after fun free writing time.  I try to do a combination of both.  Sometimes I relate the writing to a particular goal we're working on from our writing units which focus on the traits of writing, or from our independent writing goal clip chart, or I ask them to include a kind of punctuation and circle it (comma, apostrophe, etc.), and sometimes there are no rules at all.

When our writing time is up, I ask the students to read through their work, focusing on their very, very best line or sentence from their work - the sentence they are most proud of (I really play this part up).  They then buddy up to read each other what they have.  Working together, they need to make at least two improvements to their line (improve a word, fix spelling, add a phrase, etc.).  When this is done, they write their sentences on a sticky note and add them to the chart paper.  That's it.  My students are always anxious to read what others have written - and their compliments to each other are so genuine.  I love it.

So ... chart done - now what?  You could leave the activity at that - writing revision, self-reflection, peer feedback, peer collaboration ... 10 minutes ... check.  Or you could use the stickies for:

• students add them to a portfolio page where they can track the growth in their writing over a term or year
• teacher can add them to assessment binders for writing evidence - especially at the end of units or near the end of the term
• use them in student teacher conferences to set new writing goals or provide quick oral feedback
• use them as exemplars of great writing and share (can be anonymous) with the class
• use them as story starters for a quick writing activity - read the student's sentence and have the class write the next sentence (or finish the paragraph) (my classes LOVE this one)

And this chart doesn't have to be for writing - I'm going to try, "The proudest math moment I had today was ..." next year.  :)  

Writing resources in this blog post: