Another week of writing from The Quickwrite Handbook by Linda Rief. I have two pieces of writing I’d like to share today. The first was a prompt after Cynthia Rylant’s When I Was Young in the Mountains. Linda Rief wrote a mentor text “When I Was Young at the Ocean.” I wrote “When I Was Young at Purple Creek.”
When I was young at Purple Creek, I dangled my toes in the trickle of water and watched minnows dart around them, sending tickles and goose pimples all the way up my skinny white legs.
When I was young at Purple Creek, I buried my Barbies in the sand, played Treasure Island on the wrip-wrap shore, and let go of the leash so Loopy could wander and explore, bark at the squirrels.
When I was young at Purple Creek, my fear of snakes was on high alert. Brother shouted a warning just to see me jump. We gathered treasures in a tin bucket (rocks, broken glass, colored leaves, mimosa seed pods, a baby frog).
My flip-flop feet toughened on summer days when I was young at Purple Creek. The trickle was my ocean. The shoreline my cave. The pine trees my towers. I was queen of Purple Creek.
Margaret Simon
The next text we read and wrote from was an Excerpt from The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John.
That Kind of Teacher
On the first day of school, you can decide what kind of teacher you want to be. You can be the smiley teacher, the one who greets everyone at the door with “How are you today?” You could be the fashionable teacher, the one who turns heads with her new outfit each day. You could be the kind of teacher who knows everything about the new reading curriculum guidelines. The teacher who decorates her classroom in rainbow colors and files everything in matching color-coded binders. You could be the teacher who stands at the board and takes roll, who finishes her report cards on time. Or you could be that teacher who works as hard as her students. The curious teacher. The open-minded teacher. The teacher with a lot of stickers on the chart. When the school year starts, you can choose what kind of teacher you will be, the kind of teacher you will be for the rest of your life.
Margaret Simon
And here’s 6th grader Chloe’s poem response for “I’m the Kind of Kid Who”
I’m the kind of kid
who leaves
at the end of class,
new kids asking why.
I say
“Guess” to hear
what they think.I’m the kind of kid
who always does their work
or finishes their homework
in class so
they have nothing left
to do.I’m the kind of kid
whose teacher lets
them eat in class
as long as
she doesn’t see me.
I’m the kind of kid
who writes every day.
If you don’t
know what I mean,
I’m doing it right now.Chloe
I’m the kind of kid
who is ready
for the weekend
and is actually
ready to come
back to school.
Adelyn, 3rd grade, wrote about her sister and posted it here on FanSchool.
Reflections on the Teche 
First, Bravo! to Chloe. That kind of kid who……warms our hearts when we read her thoughts and imagine having a kid like her in our class. I LOVE When I Was Young in the Mountains. Your Purple Creek memories bring me right there with you! Wrip-wrap shore and all of it. Also that kind of teacher…….so many kinds wrapped into one. I used to think of it as layering on learning. I think we can layer on all the strengths we want to add to our teaching skills and believe me I taught for over 40 years and was always trying to improve. But my Cynthia Rylant story. I had 5th graders make picture books with water color pictures to read to little ones at the nearby Public Library story hour……..and they wrote their own versions. One boy wrote his When I Was Young in Minnesota. His family had moved to our town when he was either in 4th or just before coming to my class. His mom was a very involved person and was my room mother. So many lovely ideas and so positive and encouraging, concerned about her son and joyous when she saw gains in any area. Anyhow his memory book was lovely. I kept them for a while or some of them. There were no color copiers at that time easily available in my school/town (we’re small), I was going to do a presentation and use them in it. Well, his mom became quite ill (cancer), though she has survived for it for many years thankfully, I mailed her his book. Our mutual good friend visited shortly after it arrived and she told me how moved and thrilled the mom was to get this treasure. Her son was now maybe in his 20s or college. It’s always nice to see how wonderful these memories can be for parents who may have forgotten or not realized how much the experience and memories meant. Anyhow, Linda Rief’s book is wonderful and I look forward to reading more about how it is going in your class this year.
Janet, thank you for sharing that heartwarming story about your student’s book. I’m loving these small moments of writing with my students and feel they are invaluable to their development as writers and as caring people.
Margaret, I love all of these examples of writing. I had Linda Rief’s book in my Amazon cart at one point. Now, after reading your work with it, I will go and put it back in the cart for a future purchase. Your student’s writing shows a sense of humor and a love for school. I like the piece you shared from your own writing, When I was young at Purple Creek (a great name for a place BTW), I especially like the language of wrip-wrap shore and flip flop feet. The musicality of those words adds so much to the piece in my opinion. It is a very descriptive form of writing as well and I really enjoyed the images your words created while I read it. Thank you for sharing these pieces!
Margaret, what a beautiful collection of writing pieces you have presented. I loved your first piece, It is such a beautiful story poem of when you were little. Thank you for sharing your students’ work. I left a comment at Adelyn’s post. Please tell Chloe that I adore the fact that she is the kind of kid who writes every day and is ready to return to school.
I read When I Was Young in the Mountains with my seventh graders the other day and we all wrote to that prompt. I love your pieces here! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Margaret, I missed last Friday’s poetry, and I’m so glad I returned today. You are convincing me that I need The Quickwrite Handbook by Linda Rief. I love the examples you share and the writings of your students and yourself. Wow! You are that kind of teacher–curious, open-minded and working as hard as your students. Wonderful. OK. Chloe’s line about the kind of kid whose teacher lets her eat in class as long as she doesn’t see her is going with me today. I am laughing aloud and loving that she came up with such a beauty!
Such rich poetic offerings here, Margaret – just a celebration of language and images. I loved standing in the flow of Purple Creek with you and watching Chloe’s wit sparkle – that kind of kid.