Final Drafts ~ Student Style

Do you students enjoy the writing process!?  Do they like brainstorming, coming up with a great topic sentence, then going back and editing their papers?  Or are they like my students, and they would just rather do it once and turn it in?!

To help eliminate the RUSH to get things done, I decided to let my students have a say in their final draft paper.  By doing this, it showed my students that I was taking time to actually sit down and read their drafts with them.  I was also showing my students that I cared about what they were writing, and that I was invested.

ENTER - Student styled final draft pages!

As my students are working on their rough drafts I come up with what I want the basic outline of the final draft paper to look like.  Then I will call my students one by one to come tell me which accent clip art they would like to add.  I know that this isn't something that everyone can do, but what can I say, I love all things Krista Wallden!

I also enjoyed giving students prompts that they were able to add art to, or add a little extra piece to make them pop on the walls!  This amazing elf set is from the WONDERFUL Kayla Delzer over at Top Dog Teaching!!  It's one of my favorites to do every year!

This time the students all had the same final draft paper, it was on different colored paper, but they were able to make each of their bunnies unique!!  This once again added that personal touch to their writing, to make it stand out.

I hope that you are able to find some fun ways to incorporate fun final draft pages into your writing to get your kids excited about having their final work on the walls!  You can grab a freebie here with some fun writing pages for Fall!!

Student Spotlight - Recognizing Each Student in Your Classroom

It's still July and many of us teachers don't want to think of going back to school (just yet)! But for some of us (including myself) my modified traditional school begins THIS WEEK! I know I'm dying over here too! I go back this week for training, meet my 2nd graders on Thursday and then school begins Monday, July 20th! AHHHHHHHHH! 

One thing that I have been prepping for these last few weeks is my spotlight student activity that I do weekly for the entire year. I love to organize it now, that way I don't have to worry about it throughout the year. I wanted to share what I do to prepare for this easy activity to save teachers time with back to school to-do list!

First thing depending on what grade level you teach you need to decide what you want to do as a spotlight for your students. I choose to do one student a week. On Monday of each week they bring in their All About Me poster and share it with the class. We then hang it on our spotlight bulletin board for the entire week. This student is my teacher helper all week. That way they get to be noticed for being a good helper and who doesn't love that?

On Friday as a fast finisher for the weekly assessments I give, my students write a friendly letter to our spotlight student! I then bind the letters together with the bright cover and give them this with their poster to take home. Parents and children love reading these adorable letters and they love that you take time to do something extra special for each child in your class. 

I believe you can do a student spotlight for all grade levels. I went ahead and found some adorable ideas from Pinterest for other ways to showcase each of your students in your class. Find a way that fits your style and plan it out so its ready to go on day one!