Saturday, April 28, 2012

Saturday Sayings!

Happy Saturday!  Welcome to Saturday Sayings!
I have joined Tammy at Forever in First, Julie at Lighting a Fire in Third Grade, and Lori at Conversations in Literacy, during the month of April to share our favorite quotes and reflections. This is the final post for our April series.  It has been a great experience.  Thank you ladies for such a great exchange of ideas!  

Please visit all of our blogs and join the discussion.  We would love to hear from you!

My quote today is from Ralph Fletcher...
"I am not a big believer in story starters.  I believe that the best ideas are living inside you.  Your challenge is to dig them out."

I really like Ralph Fletcher's approach to the question, "What should I write about?"  Rather than giving students a topic to write about, he gives ideas to jump-start imaginations.  You can find the ideas HERE.  
We can use his ideas to have conversations with our students that will lead to authentic writing.  Every writer gets stuck and needs a little help to get those creative juices flowing again!

I want to share a video clip that I found this week.  It is a great example of how Writing Workshop can work in a primary classroom.  I hope you enjoy it!
Sandi




3 comments:

  1. Sandi, I agree, Ralph Fletcher is great! I don't like story starters either, but conversations about how to get their ideas out are powerful. Loved the video-students are capable of such wonderful writing. I have enjoyed doing these Saturday Sayings with you and reading your great ideas!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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  2. Wow! That was a great video. In less that 15 minutes, I have so many ideas running through my brain! Thanks for sharing!
    Julie
    Light A Fire in Third

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  3. That's such an enjoyable and inspiring video. I'd like to go hang out in that school for a week or two. Anyone want to join me? I can't believe I haven't read Ralph Fletcher yet. He's definitely on my list. I hope I can get to him this summer in fact. Thanks so much for joining me this month Sandi. It's been such a pleasure!
    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

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