Empowering Mentors at a Multiage Writing Celebration

As the second graders in my classroom worked on narrative pieces, I pondered a way to celebrate the end of our narrative writing unit. We’ve written extensively about writing celebrations on #TWTBlog because they’re the perfect way to motivate students with a purpose and an authentic audience. One common celebration is inviting younger or older students into the classroom to read student work and offer compliments.

As I considered how to “level up” our celebration this year, I realized that a focus on craft, rather than the product, could be an interesting twist. Since Mrs. Amanda Canty’s first grade class was also working on narrative writing, I thought this was a great opportunity for multiage mentorship and collaboration within the narrative genre.

How It Works: We structured this event around the first graders. They would have the opportunity to share and hear compliments. Then, they’d listen to a second grade mentor’s work and hear a teaching point. Mrs. Canty sent me a list of her students and the name of the narrative piece they wanted to celebrate and share. I tried to pair similar topics together to make intentional partnerships and match interests.

Building Mentors: In the week before the mentees joined us, second graders chose a narrative piece to polish for the celebration. I asked them to choose one aspect of narrative writing they felt their piece showcased. Kids researched within their piece to identify their teaching point and rehearsed their instruction.

The Big Day: The classroom buzzed with energy as second graders awaited their first grade partners. Writers had helped me craft the following agenda for the event. When they asked me what to do when they finished, it was their idea to write with their mentee.

The writers from my classroom showed empathy and maturity as they complimented the younger writers’ work.

One second grader even walked her mentee through an anchor chart in the classroom.

As second grade mentors finished their to-do list, many explained the writing center to their partner and began to write with them.

Next Steps: Amanda and I were impressed as we watched the writers engage in meaningful teaching and learning together. She commented, “Wow, I actually wish we had done this in the middle of the unit rather than at the end. The first graders are learning so much! It’s been hard for this group to analyze their own writing with a peer. We tried revising with checklists, and it didn’t go well.” I replied, “Normally I’d agree, but this group of second graders has shown a lot of success using checklists already. Are you doing information writing next? Shall we have a mid-unit checklist fest?”

Our spur-of-the-moment idea elicited lots of excitement from the partnerships when we concluded the celebration with a discussion. I asked, “If you are a writer who learned something today, can you raise your hand?” Lots of first and second grade hands went up. I continued, “If you’re a first grader who learned something today, please share.” Writers responded:

• “I learned to use a… what was it called again?” She paused as her partner whispered in her ear. “Oh, mentor text!”
• “I learned that [my partner] has written thirty books and I want to write that many too.”
• “I learned about how to write a beginning for my story.”

Trying something new and challenging reaffirmed my belief that students are often capable of more metacognition than we expect. I know the second grade writers grew in their reflection and academic language abilities. I’m grateful to Amanda Canty for trying something new with me. Stay tuned to hear how our next mentorship event goes!