Who knew the Child could write?

The most interesting information that I have come across was the Writing Do's and Don'ts. I found it amusing to read that a lot of the don'ts were things that I could recall as a student being done. for instance, the "use of red pens to correct pieces or write vague comments on papers." I remember that ugly feeling of getting your draft paper back after the teacher reviewed it. You could immediately tell simply by glancing over the paper if you did well to the teachers expectations or not so good noticing all the red marks and comments that were on your page. It was really a confidence buster. Especially since I had always liked writing, and I always thought that what I was writing was great. I understand that the need for revision was necessary, however I also recall getting it revised by peers and not feeling so bad about it. The writing do that I absolutely loved is the tip to "demonstrate to students that sometimes writers abandon pieces they do not like; some writing can be for practice and needs no evaluation." I really like this because even as an adult I tend to write when I get stressed out. Sometimes I would like to write about a certain situation but never finish it because of either time, or I ran out of things to say, and the stress is gone and the fire that caused me to begin writing it is no longer there to fuel it.

I really like reading things that students write because they have such an imagination and a candid way of saying things that you couldn't really get otherwise. They are usually not afraid of what they are writing and how it will affect the reader, at the moment when they are writing it, it is something that they are feeing. Which is why it is good to not constrain the writing of the child. You wouldnt want to cut their idea short.

Patricia Polacco grew up on a small farm in Michigan, after her parents separated when she was three she would spend the school year with her mother and summers with her father. In her stories she relates the young characters interaction with an elderly character to her real life when she would be with her grandparents. She feels that this is where she learned to respect them and especially her babuska ( grandmother) that she often writes about in her stories.

As a young student Patricia often thought that she was 'dumb' because she would see her friends doing well in school and she could not. She did not learn to read until the age of 14 and was constantly teased in school. She later discovered that she had a learning disability dyslexia. I was amazed by this information because you usually assume that some one who is a prominent figure in education as she is with her books would have been a well educated person. However she did become well educated once she discovered her disability and overcame it. She eventually got her Ph.D in Art and History. She began writing children's books at the age of 41.

On the website given below, there is so much information that you can access regarding this author and her work. There are also resources that you can use and show your students. She has even provided a link to print postcards from illustrations from her book. I think this could be a good writing opportunity to write a short response to a favorite story and select the image to go along with it.

http://www.patriciapolacco.com/author/bio/bio.html

Other Stories by Patricia Polacco:

In Our Mother's House

January's Sparrow

Just Plain Fancy

Babushka's Doll

Tikvah Means Hope

Rechenka's Eggs

I Can Hear the Sun