I'm so proud!

On day two of writing camp, all but one kid in my class finished their first composition. I was hopeful. This is the second to last practice composition before the real thing next week. We've learned so much about writing and come so far in our writing abilities. I've been worried in the past because they have learned so much and when we took a writing benchmark, they forgot everything!

When I read the compositions today, I smiled. I had no other response, but pure happiness. I read some great papers. I had kids write like they've never written before in a wonderfully fabulous way. According to my grading scale, I had all but one kid pass. And the one kid was unusual. She misinterpreted the prompt and just went in the wrong direction. Her normal writing is well above passing. In all other cases, I was glowing with excitement and telling everyone I could what a wonderful job my class was doing on their writing.

The biggest highlight of today was reading one of my student's composition. When I read the composition, I couldn't stop smiling. My response when I was finished was, "WOW!" I've not felt that very often. I have often described a 4 on the TAKS Writing as reading a paper that gets a "WOW!" when you're finished. It's also a paper that you are unable to find a place for revisions. This was how I felt. I did not have any kids in my class score a 4 last year, so that is my goal this year. When the thought of a kid writing a 4 came into my mind, it reminded me why I do this. I reminded me that I have taught them these writing skills. Most of them came to me with little to no personal narrative writing experience, and to see how much they've grown amazes me.

Today made me excited for next Tuesday. I'll still be terrified come Tuesday at 8am because I don't want them to throw all of their writing strategies out the window. I'll keep my fingers crossed and give as many reminders about what I expect as possible in the next three days.