Publication Celebration

During Work on Writing, students choose what they write about. Sometimes they self-select a topic and write whatever comes to mind. Other times they choose from a list of writing prompts and carry on from there.  Occasionally, their writing continues for two or three days and develops into a full fiction or nonfiction story. The pieces created during Work on Writing provide teachers with information about a child’s comprehension, accuracy, vocabulary, and various skills as a writer. They provide great content for writing conferences. Often, growing writers select pieces to advance to final copy. 

Recently my son’s third-grade class celebrated their writing abilities by having a Publication Celebration. It began with every child selecting a piece from their writing journal that they were interested in publishing. Then, during subsequent days of writing workshop, the developed that piece into a published work. He and his classmates worked diligently on sentence formation, punctuation, spelling, and handwriting, and even added illustrations. It ended with a celebration where every child was invited to read their piece aloud.

To add to the spirit of celebration, children were given the opportunity to dress up, a published program was created, and refreshments were served. After each reading, students completed a comment card that was later given to the author. It was truly a celebration of their hard work and writing abilities.