Why Writing Is Hard

We've slowly been getting our feet wet with writing since school has started.  One of our recent activities in writing was reading the book Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon.  Since we're working on retelling a story in a sequence, ask your child to retell you the story at home.

One of the realizations we made was that sometimes writing can be hard.  I polled the students as to why writing can be difficult for Ralph or any writer and here are the responses I received:

Maybe you don't know how to spell.

Maybe you don't know how to read.

Maybe you are not trying hard enough.

Maybe you are not paying attention.

Maybe you haven't been to kindergarten yet (my personal favorite!).

Maybe you don't know how to make the letters.

Maybe you just don't know what to do!

I wanted to get this feedback from the students to see what might be a hold up when we're writing.  I was so impressed with their thinking!  Now I know where to start and how to proceed with breaking down the barriers that may exist in writing.

Where are our group of writers going in kindergarten?  We'll start with learning that we all have stories to tell.  Each morning, students have an opportunity to share with me their "big news." Typically students talk about what happened to them the night before or share with us what is on their minds.  Guess what!  This is the beginning of writing.  Students have something to say!

Our upcoming lessons will focus on telling your stories (big news) with pictures and words next week.  I can't wait to see what each student has to share.  It will be a big year for writing in our classroom.  Don't worry--students will know what to do!