This summer I attended the Lakota Literacy View. This was a three-day professional development workshop on teaching Reading and Writing- an opportunity I simply could not resist! Spending time learning from Lester Laminack and Ann Marie Corgill was thrilling! (If you teach writing in the primary grades, you MUST READ Ann Marie’s book: Of Primary Importance.) As I watched video clips from Ann Marie’s classroom I was amazed at the rich language that her young first graders were using as they shared teaching points from their writing conferences. I challenged myself right then to always use every opportunity to teach the authentic terms that writer’s use as they brainstorm, write, edit, and publish books.
One such opportunity came as I read Little Pea on the very first day of school. As I opened the book I pointed out the beautiful endpapers that were lime green and covered with hundreds of little peas. Well, I am thrilled to report that in the first week and a half of school my 5 and 6 year old students now request that we check out the end pages of each and every book we read, are bringing in books from home with unique endpapers, and creating their own endpapers in Writer’s Workshop.(Wahooo!!) Thank you, Ann Marie, for reminding me that I must always give even my youngest students all of the TOOLS and TERMS they need to grow as writers. Check out some of the special endpapers that the children discovered this week
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