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Mrs. Rosen |
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Spotlight on Creative WritingSpotlight on Creative Writing
Jennifer Rosen Writing is one of my favorite subjects to teach, because it involves children’s self-expression. It gives me the opportunity to discover each child’s personality, uniqueness, and his/her understanding of the world around them. Together we stir laughter, feel God’s presence, and tighten our bonds with one another. My goal for my students is to learn to love and be excited about the oral and written language. I like to spark the children’s excitement and imagination by reading and expressively sharing various types of literature and poetry. When the students see and feel my excitement, it can be quite contagious. It is only when we begin to feel the power of language that we can become motivated to write. I want the children to feel comfortable when putting their thoughts down on paper and enjoy learning to express themselves. If students can begin to put ideas down on paper at an early age, they will be able to overcome the barriers of writer’s block in the grades ahead. Writing helps the students to unfold themselves, and gives them the confidence to question, explore, fantasize and be honest with themselves.
To avoid writer’s block, I create a variety of writing lessons that will motivate my students to want to write. These lessons are created in a way that all students can feel success and gain confidence in their writings. We discuss the meaning, vocabulary, characterization, and humor of the language. Writing lessons include patterned and rhyming poetry, mad libs, personal narratives, and choral readings. We use holidays, seasons, pictures, and God’s gifts to write about the senses.
A great motivator for writing is letting the students create projects to display their published pieces. We complete many writing projects and carry it to the publishing stage to give them a feeling of self-worth. It lets them know their writings are valuable and a job well done. We all enjoy the excitement and successes of the published pieces as we share and listen to one another. There is always something to learn from one another.
For a final celebration of the students’ hard work and dedication, the students create a personal DVD to take home at the end of the year. I take individual pictures of their published writing projects, and the students record themselves reading each piece of their writing. Each recorded piece is attached to its picture. The individual and class dramatizations are are also recorded. The DVD is a precious keepsake memory of some of their great successes in 2nd grade. |
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