First Journals

It was a surprise to discover the kids in Ms. Disser's first grade class kept journals. But six year olds are just beginning to read, I thought. How can they write journals? They can't spell, or punctuate, or even hold a thought long enough to write a sentence, much less a journal page. This can't be possible.

 Wrong. They just do it.   

These kids write about what they learned last month, what's interesting in the books they are reading, what happened last week end, about their moms and dads, friends and pets. They write about baseball, dolphins, and losing a tooth. They write about many of the same things that adult writers might include in their journals. 

The fact that they don't quite know how to write does not get in their way. 

They just start writing. The use the words they know. They use invented spelling for words they don't know and keep going. They draw pictures. They add colors. They know how to work on a page, leave it and comeback later to finish it.  

The kids in Room 7 are expected to know the difference between editing and revising… Really?  Do I know the difference? Luckily, Ms. D explains, "you know, revising is going back and clarifying, adding more descriptive words, reading to make sure what you wrote makes sense vs. editing for punctuation and grammar." Ms.D always explains what she means in clear, calm terms as many times as needed until her writers get it.  

Mistakes? No problem. That's what erasers are for (though every pencil in Room 7 has an eraser that is worn flat.) Kids expect to add details, revise and fix their mistakes… and just keep writing. 

When she announces, "its' time for writers workshop", kids happily open their journals and just start writing.  Are the results perfect? No. Are their pages a spirited, funny, whimsical, inventive expressions of who they are at the moment? Definitely. 

It is a delight to read their journals.  It is fun to watch Ms. D create a happy, friendly space for her students to evolve their writing skills.  It is inspiring to watch a room full of young writers fearlessly push their limits and ...
just do it.

Source: Journals pages posted with the permission of Ms. Disser's First Grade, Sun Valley School on Happy Lane, 

San Rafael, California