They have a story

Empowering student voice

Just this week we finished up one of my favorite units of the school year. The Library of Congress sponsors a national letter writing contest where students spend time considering books that have had a major influence on them, and then write to the authors of those very books.

Even that stands to show how great a unit it is.

It’s one of my favorites for so many reasons. We learn to connect with people across the world and across the classroom. We take time to reflect on our reading lives. We share our stories with our classmates, authors, and the world.

We talk a lot about how this is their chance to share their story. The one only they can tell. I’m intentional about empowering them to find their voice, and be proud of their experiences. Classroom culture plays a big factor in this unit. Well, it does in all units, but you can really feel it in this one. It’s palpable. You can feel it in the weighted silences as students read one another’s writing, as they sit to compose the next piece of their story.

At the start of the letter writing process, right after choosing a book we have deeply connected with, my students write the opening and closing of their letters. I don’t structure or mandate anything here — I let them write their story as they see fit. Once our drafts our complete, we sit in a circle and read the bookends of our stories to our peers.*