Today was the perfect day to begin something new with my class. For the rest of the year their journal at the beginning of class will be a "Word of the Day" I have a calendar hanging so if they miss a day they can go back and see what it is and write. I will also post the word on Schoology so if they check it from home they will be able to see the word.
I chose the word perfect because we often expect our students to do their work as close to perfect as possible. One student wrote "What is perfect? I know I never think my drawings are perfect." I used her as an example of what to do. They seem to accept this form of writing easier than a lot of other writing. The reason it is so difficult to get my students to write is because they are being bombarded with essay writing. I hate that our district does this to them. They prefer round robin writing or stories attached to things like candy canes where all the prompts attached to them are about candy canes. I have a special one for them before spring break. I have key prompts tied to antique looking keys. I can't wait to see where that one takes them. Kids don't hate writing. They hate being told what to write and being told how to make it perfect. They don't buy into this lie because they have a teacher like me who tells them we can improve it but it will never be perfect. Maybe that is why they don't fight me on the writing
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