Today is Wednesday. In the past, we’ve called this “Writing Wednesday” because we spend so much of our time doing reading things, that I wanted a day specifically for students just to write. Not only to write, but to write without me giving them instructions about topics they’d complain about, nothing like that, just write.

Now, I’d moved away from Writing Wednesday because honestly, it was kind of a flop.  The work that was being produced wasn’t great, my mini-lessons to start things off weren’t great, and as a whole, I just felt the time could be better spent doing something else.

Today, I came back. I posted on a couple of instructions on Edmodo for what to do for their writing, we talked a little bit, and I turned them loose.

You’d think I’d just yelled at them. The room is a hum of keystrokes and people intent on creating something. I have a couple of students continuing stories they’d started a while ago.  There are others doing journal style entries about pretty major events happening in their lives. One or two, just plunking away on the keyboard because they have to, but they are still doing it.  We may or may not share these writings, I’m not sure yet. Our discussions lately have flowed around the right to share or not to share.

I comments to one class how proud I was of their focus during this writing time.  A few shrugged their shoulders, but many had a look of pride (that they tried to hide from me of course!).

I had students just writing to write, and I don’t get it what’s changed from the last time we did this.

But I like it.