Today I’m working with a literacy coach and one thing we’re going to study is how to help students reflect on their writing. So I thought I’d take a moment to do some reflecting on my Slice of Life writing so far.
I’m a writer who has written poems, lists, and reflections on growing up as a Taiwanese-American, my family, my dog (who is also family).
I’m a writer who likes to write with humor at times and about hard topics too. I like to write personal essays.
I’m a writer who worries about my unclear sentence structure and the words I tend to skip that never get noticed until after I hit publish.
I’m a writer who feels proud of writing something every day and trying different genres like poetry.
I’m a writer who has struggled with using too many parentheses (see above) and finding focus.
I’m a writer who wants to try a six word memoir, to be more descriptive, and to learn from others doing this challenge.
I used the sentence stems from the book Teaching Writers to Reflect: Strategies for a More Thoughtful Writing Workshop by Anne Elrod Whitney, Colleen McCracken, and Deana Washell.
I love this format here! I’m bookmarking it for a possible idea to use with some of my loveys. One thing I love in particular about your writing? The way you start off expressing your fondness for poetry and lists – both of which strike me because it seems precisely what you’ve done with this piece. (I say this as a writer who also loves poetry, and lists, and parentheses, and perhaps the comma, and probably elipses…)
You have a very clear picture about yourself, that is so good. Thank you for sharing and all the best.
I love this piece! I wrote a “why I write” piece at the beginning of the year (a challenge from my local national writing project co-op) that reminds me of this thinking. Maybe this would help your kiddos too? Here’s mine for an example! Happy writing and reflecting!
Why Do I Write?
I write because…
I want to remember
I want to forget.
I want to be listened to and heard
To make connections
And to have tangible value
I want to inspire
But also feed my ego
I want to create
I want to contribute
I want to escape
I want to keep romance alive
I want to explore
I write because I want my students to write and I want their words to be valued too
I write because I want to be available, even when I’m not
Thanks for sharing!
This is a great way to get a sense of who we are as writers. Knowing who we are helps us grow.
I love your self-reflection and could identify with many of this points on your list. I think I’ll try this myself. Thank you.
I love those stems. I’m adding them to upcoming lesson plans now. Thanks for sharing!
Reflection is so important to learning… and can spark more ideas for writing! I really like that you are trying out the same work that you plan to have students do. Thank you for sharing!
I enjoyed reading your reflection. You know yourself well as a writer. These stems were new for me. Thank you for the book recommendation.
I work with those book authors and they’re amazing teacher writers as well. Happy you have found your writer identity! Thanks for sharing!
I love this & will likely use it with my students and for my own growth and self reflection!
A great exercise – and powerful thoughts around being a writer. It frames goals and channels effort and energy. It’s so important to acknowledge what you want to accomplish, and what you “worry” about as well. That reflection on writing – yours as well as the students’- is bueatiful empowering work!
This is a great way to create that slice! They give us a great picture of you as a writer and another piece of you as a person. Thank you for sharing the stems, the book recommendation, and this slice! 🙂
May I use this format?! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. What an excellent reflection!
Of course! I highly recommend the book it came from. =)