Slice of Life Writing

I like stories. That’s probably the biggest reason I read so much. But I also like watching stories, through movies and TV shows, and I think that’s true for most people. Stories are the way we share what’s going in our lives, from the important to the mundane, and it’s one of the reasons I think families are so important: they are the people who know your stories. The same is true for friends, especially long-time friends; they are the ones who can reminisce with you about the summer jobs you shared or the adventures of the tennis team.

One of the tricks of the classroom is getting to know the stories of all of your students. It would be great if we could all sit around and just share out all day, but that is not going to happen. And you know what the beginning of the year feels like: all of the kids look exactly the same, and there is a big hole where you used to feel comfortable with last year’s class, because you had gelled as a group AND you knew some of each other’s stories. So the beginning of the year is always a time where you look for opportunities to get to know the students as people with background stories. 

For me, this happens in two ways: one is guided reading groups, because they’re small enough even the quiet kids usually feel comfortable saying something; and the other way is writing.

All of this is to say that I’m thinking of trying out the Slice of Life writing beginning in December, with the start of the new trimester. I’ve been reading about it, and toying with the idea, but the latest post on the Two Writing Teachers blog (see the post by clicking on the Two Writing Teachers link to the right, and also the TWT post from August 29, 2013, where a sixth grade teacher talks about slicing in her classroom) was the tipping point for me. The writer tells about the school she works in all doing a weekly Slice of Life piece, and then posting them out in the hallway, where others can leave comments on post it notes. It was the comments that struck me the most – they are compassionate, thoughtful, and I imagine the writers love seeing the comments on their writing. And sharing your writing builds the community we need to create in order to move forward as learners.

The writing doesn’t have to be long; for most kids, it will be about two paragraphs. They need to write about something that happened to them, but it doesn’t have to be “the day the tornado almost missed our house.” It can be about what they did when they found out the cereal box was empty that morning, or something their siblings did that irritated them – you know, the everyday stuff that makes up our lives. I am going to start by hanging their writing out in the hallway, but it would be nice if eventually we had the time to post slices on our Kidblogs.

I’m going to try and get up two different writings in December. I know many classes write a slice each week, and some participate in the Slice of Life Challenge in March, where they write a slice each day.  That sounds like more that I can handle right now, but it’s something to think about for the future. I’m hoping that by giving students another forum for sharing their stories that we can learn more about each other and strengthen our classroom community.