I Can't Believe I Made the Whole Thing!

Friday was a special day for our fifth graders.  After weeks of very hard work, they got to show off their Wolf Ridge books.  Parents and fourth graders visited small groups who shared their books.  Visitors shared thoughts on post-its, many of which were tacked to the inside pages of the books for safe keeping.  The project was designed to really stretch them as they planned and wrote ten short essays about their experience at Wolf Ridge.  We tried to jot down details and ideas while we were at Wolf Ridge, capturing the language and moments that might slip away later.  Then we used formal planners to organize our writing.  We revised and edited our work.  Then we illustrated and, in many cases, hand wrote our final copies.  Many students even had time to add "sparkle" which has become the word the Elms use to describe the extra little things that make a project special.

The habit of mind that kept coming up in conversations I had with students was "persistence."  It took a lot to write ten essays and it took even more to keep at it, make them better and create final, beautiful work.  I got to give a hug to more than one student amazed by his or her own work and say, "See, you could do it!  You did it!"

This was the first run for the Wolf Ridge book and I saw the lights in the eyes of many fourth graders as they thought about their own trip to Wolf Ridge (and what they might write about it).  A tradition might very well have been born.  As Sarah and I reflected on it, we think that fewer essays and a mix of poetry and essays would give the students more of an opportunity to revise meaningfully.  We'd also like to do some specialized art lessons for their illustrations.  That said, the first ever Prairie Creek Wolf Ridge books look beautiful and have given a powerful "I can do it" boost to students as they enter the last weeks of the honors project.