Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for inspiring us to write!
I haven't been blogging lately. And tomorrow it's March. I've participated in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge since 2014. That first year I wrote about childhood memories and loved pouring over photographs and sharing stories of growing up an only child in the country. In 2015, I was inspired by Oprah's What I Know For Sure essays and wrote about my own convictions. Last year I said goodbye to our house of 11 years as we prepared to downsize into a condo. And now it's 2017. What shall I write about? I seem to be experiencing a major writer's block, and frankly, a desire to write, and it's lasted for some time now.
However, when I introduced the SOL Classroom Challenge to my 5th and 6th graders (my classes have participated since 2014, also - my 6th graders will be participating for the 2nd year this year, and my 5th graders for the first), their excitement, enthusiasm, and ideas lit a spark. Today, I ditched my original lesson plans and spent the day preparing for the challenge with my students. I picked up Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook and read the first chapter, "Unforgettable Stories" aloud. It created a buzz of chatter and lists of ideas in every class. It also inspired me to work on a Google Doc full of links to blogs, websites, and podcast series filled with unforgettable stories that would inspire questions, personal essays, arguments, reactions, opinions, connections, wonderings, etc. We started to write!! They didn't want to leave when classes were over. I love that! It was infectious, and now I can't wait to start writing and read what they write!
Here is what I compiled (feel free to give me more places to find stories in the comments):
