The First Week of Fall 2025
It’s Friday morning, the last day of what I call ‘the longest week of the year” for students and teachers. That first full week back can feel exhausting and while I am definitely looking forward to some rest this weekend, I am celebrating a great start of this school year. I’m taking a moment today to reflect on my first week with this new batch of fifth graders.
Writing
Like teachers all over the country, our new ELA curriculum focuses on reading and writing in the service of reading (aka reader response). This means less time and opportunity for student writers’ choice of writing topic and genre. This past June, my heart felt heavy when I flipped through my students' half-filled writing notebooks. In previous years, filling a notebook was a common occurrence and cause for celebration. So, at the end of the last school year, I set a goal to incorporate more writing into my teaching this year. I am doing this in a few ways:
Daily writing in writing notebooks
First, why writing notebooks? I begin each day on my couch, with my coffee, writing in my notebook. It is how I process life, problem solve, and generate ideas for teaching. What’s more, published authors carry notebooks. I have heard children’s book author Kate DiCamillo repeatedly say that if you want to become a writer, “Carry a notebook and ride the bus.” Notebooks allow us to capture those snippets of conversation we may hear on the bus, or elsewhere. They are places where we have the freedom to write without the pressure of an audience. We can sketch, list ideas, play around with different beginnings/ endings, and sections of our writing.
Here are a few ways I have incorporated writing in notebooks into our day so far:
Quick writes: Even if it is for 5-10 minutes, we take out our notebooks daily. Some days it is about topics like empathy (the first topic of our Social Emotional Leaning (SEL) curriculum), other days it is writing inspired by a book we have read. To me, this is different from writing in the service of reading. In fact, it is the opposite, it is reading to inspire our writing. Here is an example:
I always begin my year reading, The Day You Begin by Jaqueline Woodson. This year, I followed my colleague's lead and asked students to reflect on what makes them “so fabulously different?” the question Jacqueline Woodson poses after she reads her book aloud. Check out her video here. Students wrote in response to this prompt for 10 minutes and shared.
One of my writer’s notebook
Writing Cafe
I typically begin our year with a writing cafe. We cover our desks with table cloths, place a prompt on each table, play soft music, dim the lights and write! A few of the prompts include:
Map of the heart- draw a heart and fill it with people, places, things for which you are grateful.
Write about songs/ artists/albums that inspire a memory.
Write a timeline of your life. Students place post-its in their notebook and write an event on each. **I suggest they write about events they remember. For instance, rather than listing the day you were born, or the day you joined your family (if it happened when you were very little) and write about the time a family member told you about that day and how that made you feel.
Quotes that inspire writing. For this table, I place quotes that students read, select and paste into their writing notebook. They then write what the quote makes them think about.
One of the reasons I love this activity is that it fills their notebooks with ideas for future writing pieces. The first unit of our ELA curriculum is personal narrative and while this writing lesson is not included, nor is a writing notebook, these are just a few of the ways that I have modified the curriculum so that my students identify as writers.
Gratitude heart map station of our writing cafe.
Slow down..
Typically students select a topic and write a notebook entry the day after the writing cafe. This year, students asked if they could have more time working on the prompts so I have extended the cafe for a second day.
I love how my students inspired me to slow down. It is so tempting (and in some places required) to move from one lesson to the next but if teaching for 24 years has taught me anything, that following my students' lead brings me joy. When they ask for more time, it is worth lingering. This is also one of the many reasons I love this job; every year is different because every student and group of students bring their own particular identities to our classroom. They are indeed, ‘fabulously different.”
Reading
I am the kind of reader who…
I love this activity and have written about it in previous posts (link here). Basically, I ask students to finish this statement in their reading notebooks. After writing for 5-10 minutes, we share a line or ideas using symphony share (a practice where students read a line out loud without raising their hands; one voice after the other like instruments playing a symphony). I almost forgot how much joy this experience brings until students started reading the other day. It offers so much information about who they are and how they see themselves as readers.
Book shelf bulletin boards
We launched our book shelf bulletin board this week. After each student completes a book, they write the title, author and their name on a book spine and place it in a bin. I then staple it onto the bulletin board. I was delighted the other day when I came back after being out for the afternoon to find several book spines waiting for me; a testament that they have embraced this practice of celebrating reading.
Strong start for our reading bulletin board!
What a great week! I have loved getting to know my students as readers, writers, thinkers and most importantly, individuals. I am excited about the year ahead.
