Katherine Bomer · publishing · sharing · tcrwp · writing workshop

Remember to Celebrate!

Stacey Shubitz

Katherine Bomer spoke about the celebrating the work our young writers do when she delivered the Keynote Address at the TCRWP July Writing Institute. She made me reflect on the way I celebrate my students’ work, which I do at the end of each unit of study, at Publishing Parties. I’ve been throwing Publishing Parties since I finished teaching my first unit of study.

Sometimes I invite students from other classes to listen to the pieces my students have written (1-to-1), while other Publishing Parties are kids sitting in an author’s chair reading a piece of writing aloud to a group of schoolmates and community members. I tend to have a certain M.O. for my Publishing Parties. For instance, this is how the celebrations have tended in my classroom to look over the past few years:

  • Invite another class and read one-to-one: Personal Narrative, Personal Essay, Short Fiction, and Literary Essay

  • Students sit in an author’s chair and read to an audience: Persuasive Letters and Memoir

  • Small Group Share (i.e., one student reads to several people): Poetry

    • NOTE: I almost always invite my students’ families and other staff members from my school to each publishing party.

    However, after listening to Bomer speak and through reading the “Progress Shares” Section of Mermelstein’s Book Don’t Forget to Share: The Crucial Last Step in the Writing Workshop, I’ve come to realize that celebration shouldn’t wait until the end of a unit of study. By having young writers share about their process at the end of a Writing Workshop Session, we are celebrating the hard work they’ve done. Furthermore, I think celebrating a child’s unique process shows the child that their way of doing things is valued and respected in the classroom.

    Therefore, since I committed to more structured sharing (last May) in my classroom this-coming year, I think that process shares will provide me with one more way to help celebrate my students’ work. (NOTE: Process Shares are just ONE of the four kinds of shares you rotate through the end of your workshops. To learn more about them, check out Mermelstein’s Book!)

    C E L E letter R McElman_080417_6517_A T I o002 N Münster Created with Spell with Flickr.


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    Published by Stacey Shubitz

    I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

    7 thoughts on “Remember to Celebrate!”

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    4. Pingback: Hard Work Should Be Celebrated « TWO WRITING TEACHERS

    5. Hi Ryan,

      Great questions!

      Ruth used to teach reading. I presently teach it, but don’t blog that much about it. There might be some other blogs that you’d like to put your discussion thread on… perhaps A Year of Reading would be a good place to start. (The link is at the top of our blogroll.) Also, The Reading Zone and 5th Grade Reads are also excellent blogs for upper grade reading (not sure what grade you teach).

      Cheers,
      Stacey

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    6. Hi Stacey and other bloggers,

      I am revising my launching unit for reading workshop and was hoping to start a discussion thread around it- what are some of your non-negotiable goals for your launching unit AND How quickly do you introduce post it notes? How do you teach into this introduction to writing about reading?

      Ryan

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    7. Ruth and Stacey,

      I am already in back to school mode. We are trying to get moved into the beautiful new building. (It is a lot of work!) Next year I will teach writing and language to 100+ students. So I’ve been searching this morning for a poem that one of you had on the door of your classroom. Could you reprint that poem?

      Thanks,
      Lennye

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