As a blogger, I know the power of the audience. It's you, readers out there, that make me want to blog, and make me want to make quality blog posts! Don't our children need this same sense of audience to motivate their writing? I think so!
Here are some ideas for celebrating the children's writing:
1. Share in Class! Have one child read his/ her story to the class. The class is expected to listen and ask questions that "prove they were listening." This works well when the child is "mid-story" in order to get ideas on where to go from this point.
2. Small Group Shares! Have children work in groups of 2 or three to share their stories as above.
3. Share Your Best Sentence! I like this one because there's usually enough time for each child to share one sentence. If the children know it's coming, that helps motivate them to work on the quality of their sentences.
4. Share With Someone Else in the Building! There are lots of adults in an elementary school who would be thrilled to "play along" with this one! It's a great motivator to promise a child that they can read their story to the custodian, secretary, or cafeteria workers. It's a win-win!
5. Share With Another Class! Plan to get together with another class in your own grade or another grade to pair the children up for a big shared activity! There are advantages to each age group: older, younger, or peers!
6. Skype! - Do you have a class with whom you Skype? What a great opportunity for children to share their writing!
7. Write Letters! See THIS BLOG POST for the benefits of letter writing and a resource to make it easy!
8. Bulletin Boards! Post the children's writing on the wall for others to see!
9. Class Books and Newspapers! These will be read by classmates (and parents) over and over!
10. Publish! It's amazing how special a story becomes when it's typed up and given a fancy cover. I allow students to take out each other's published books for Independent Reading time. It gets really interesting when we're talking about the Author's purpose... the author is sitting right there in the classroom!
11. Have an "Author's Tea"! Invite parents, grandparents, and administrators, and give the children an opportunity to read one of their stories to the group. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you make it. It's a great opportunity for a party, and a great opportunity to motivate your young writers with a live audience!
12. Have a Class Blog! I must admit, I've never done this before, but I plan to start a class blog very soon! Imagine the thrill of seeing your own written work displayed on the internet! Wait... I know what that's like, and that's why I'm eager to give my students the same opportunity!
