Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.
I largely believe that my blog audience is fellow teachers, but sometimes I meet readers on Main Street, and sometimes they call me on the phone. Both happened to me this weekend. I saw Mac at a local art gallery for Art Walk on Saturday evening. He started up a conversation about reading aloud and how he was happy I was doing that with my students. He told me about how his family read aloud, and he passed it on to his kids and grandchildren, and now even great grandchildren.
I got a phone call from a friend who wanted to tell me that she appreciated the work I was doing with kids to connect reading to their own lives. She shared that she is going through something very difficult, and my posts help her. What? Really? I was moved to tears.
Receiving praise for writing reaches farther and deeper than any other kind of praise because writing is so personal. I want to bring this type of understanding to my students along with the joy and pride of knowing their writing touched someone else. I work to build connections for them. On our kidblog site, we have connected to other classes. I encourage them to find a student from another class to connect with.
We teachers talk with our readers about making text to self connections. Usually these connections seem false. When we make those connections together around a shared text and then share them globally, this writing holds more meaning. The stakes are higher. The voice is authentic.
On Padlet, I posted this question for students to write about in connection to the Global Read Aloud, Fish in a Tree: “In Fish in a Tree, Ally doesn’t tell anyone about her trouble with reading. She has an opportunity in Mrs. Silver’s office and even with her mom, but she resists out of fear. Have you ever had something so troublesome that you just didn’t know how to or were afraid to tell the truth?”
To get them started, I posted my own story.
When I was very young, maybe around 6, I was playing with matches outside with the neighbors. Before we really knew what was happening, the yard was in flames. The blanket for our “campout”, my favorite doll, the pillows from my brother’s bed…in flames. Fear sent me inside. I climbed in my mother’s lap and cried and cried. She got very angry because she was on the telephone. Finally I squeezed out the word “Fire!” and she went running. I don’t remember much after that moment, but to this day I feel very guilty about that accident.
When my students read it, they immediately gasped, “Matches? You played with matches?” My mother now knows the whole story, but I still cannot shake the guilt and trauma of burning the front yard. That spot in the grass seemed to stay black forever.
I sent out a Voxer message to colleagues in California, Ohio, and Illinois. They responded by writing their own stories. So my students had 4 adult models to read Monday morning before writing their own. Thanks Julianne, Julie, and Phyllis.
Click on the image to see the Padlet.
I am excited our writing is becoming richer and holding more meaning. Making connections with text, then having someone else connect to our own writing is a powerful way to communicate and spread kindness and understanding.
Reflections on the Teche 
I totally agree with your last statement. Writing is a great way to build empathy for others. It’s one of the reasons we write. I think it’s great that you were able to reach out to other colleagues to get mentor texts. Technology is amazing! I still have to learn what Voxer is all about.
My students are also using Voxer to share their thinking. It’s so fun to connect across the miles.
You have no idea how far your writing ideas read. It is geometric! This work pushed my thinking around this very important question on the padlet. I am grateful for that. It’s helped me remember things I want to forget.
Thank you, Margaret.
Somehow in a group post, we can become braver to share those tough and shameful moments.
Thank you for sharing this. You’ve asked such a great question–and I love the answers, too!
Thanks for reading. We are loving the book and the shared experience of reading it together. We also love your videos.
You’re on the same path I am right now. Making meaning. Why am I sharing this story? What does it mean? Who will care and why? I have been working on these same things with my students. I tell them your stories matter to someone. Who is listening? Last year I wrote a blog post about how I use a treasure box to feel souls. I don’t reward behavior, but instead I find kids who are having a tough day and I give them a little sunshine (so to speak). One of my readers from Main Street send me $250 worth of gift cards to make sure I could always spread my sunshine. I cried. My writing had moved someone to action. I share that story with my students because it’s powerful. The other night I was watching a 60 minutes episode about the Make a Wish foundation. There were a couple of women talking about how the smallest towns give huge amounts of money when they find out a child is sick and needs some hope. This feeling that we are all human and need each other is so powerful. You’ve moved me today Margaret. Thank you.
Wow, Kimberley, that is so exciting how a reader supported your work with real money. Thanks for stopping by and making a connection.
When we make those connections together around a shared text and then share them globally, this writing holds more meaning. The stakes are higher. The voice is authentic.
Just. Loved. This.
Thanks, Tara, for your comment. It means a lot. This writing has connected us in a wonderful way.
Margaret, this is a great post on the National Day of Writing because it is honest and filled with connections-student to text, teacher to writing, colleagues to colleagues, and you to yourself. Revealing the story of your youth opens up a whole new side of writing. This is the basis of Blessen’s story. You captured a past experience and associated it with a fictional character. Well done.
Thanks for recognizing the story from Blessen. I did tell the students how this story from my childhood made it into my novel. We are listening to videos with Lynda Mullaly Hunt and finding that often writers use real events to inform their fiction.
Connections through writing and reading one another’s story, powerful! Stories do connect us and shrink the world. That is so cool!
It does not surprise me that you words reach out to others beyond our teaching world. I am always amazed and inspired by what you do and what you say. Thank you for always sharing your heart.
This is really smart, Margaret. Especially having 4 other adult models write before the students did. So smart. I will be sharing this post – and your audience will grow even more!