Liam. . .on writing

On the first day of Grade Three, Liam brought home an All About Me graphic organizer to complete. Actually, he only had to complete a couple of boxes, but he missed that part of the instructions and thought he was to finish the whole thing.  Thankfully he didn't complain about it!

He got right to work. I sat with him because he insisted he needed help. Really, he just wanted someone to bounce his own ideas off of.



Inventing a toy dispenser is the perfect job for him as he pours over toy catalogues and highlights items in the Sears Wish Book.

When it came time to write the Mini-Autobiography at the end he puzzled over what to write.  I suggested he start with, "My name is Liam. . . " to which he replied,  "wouldn't it sound even better if I said 'HELLO, my name is Liam'?"

"Yes Liam, that's an excellent way to start."
"Oh, good!  Now what?"

We chatted about how he would describe who is to a complete stranger.  Maybe sharing the places he's lived and a bit about his family.

After he wrote a couple of sentences I said, "that's a great mini-autobiography, Liam.  You're done!"
He looked at me aghast.  "MOM, Mrs. N. gave me all this space to write in, I think she expects a little more than that!"

"Quite right, Liam."  (Here I am, humbled again).

What you probably need to know is that last year Liam struggled with writing.  It was like pulling teeth to get him motivated to write.  He could tell you a terrific story; but when it came to putting the pencil to the paper he froze.

These were some of his excuses:

• "I'm tooooo tired!!!!"
• "I don't know what to write."
• "I have too many ideas in my head!!!"
• "I'm SOOOO tired!!!"
• "Can't I play?"
• "Waaahhh!!"

Luckily for Liam, his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. L.,  had barrels of patience with him.  She praised his efforts when he wrote something.  Gradually, gradually, his confidence grew.  He wrote a little, and it was celebrated.  He wrote a little more, and it was celebrated too.  This continued until the end of the year when he began to write novels (yes, you heard me, he wrote novels) in his free time.  His title for the novels?  The Wars.  Each one ended with "To Be Continued" written on the back page in bold, bright felt markers.  Mrs. L. did not step in to redirect the topic saying it wasn't appropriate for school.  She told me she didn't care if the stories were about a Pokeman war, she was just thrilled to see him writing something.

Now, here's the question of the day:  What would you do if your students wanted to write potentially violent stories in class?