The Beauty of Writing

It was unconventional, but it worked.  The 3^rd grade students had traded papers with their neighbors and were correcting their morning work when I heard a paper rip and saw a student crying.  I pulled the girl in pigtails aside and handed her a tissue to wipe the tears beneath her glasses. “What’s the matter?” I asked.  When no words would come, I had her take three deep breaths. I waited patiently until she could confess she ripped her classmate’s paper after her table group teased her for spelling a word wrong. She wiped away more tears as I called over the perpetrator.  “I just told her that she spelled “what” wrong and the others asked me how she spelled it. Then she ripped my paper and started crying.” “Well, you hurt her feelings and need to apologize,” I said.  “I’m sorry,” said the girl. “And you need to say “It’s OK” I told the first student. “It’s OK,” she sniffled. “And, you also need to apologize to the paper for hurting it.”  I tried to be serious but it was so absurd I started laughing. The student’s tears also turned to laughter and she did apologize to the paper then returned to her seat. I got the class’s attention because I saw this as a teachable moment. “The beauty of writing,” I said, “is that you can always edit it.  It is more important to get your ideas on paper first and then worry about the rules of grammar.  In Teacher College, they taught us to encourage students to use ‘invented spelling’ where you write things down the way they sound so you don’t lose your flow of thinking. Then, you can always go back to correct spelling and make other changes.  That is what is so wonderful about writing – that you are able to edit your words.”