How and Why I Celebrate Student Writing

Hint: the "Why" matters more than the "How"

Six years ago, I remember quite distinctly sitting at a parent-teacher conference in my classroom back in Arkansas, talking with two parents about their student—an exemplary writer who often had found themselves coasting through school, not being challenged enough.

I had my notes ready, having done my best up to that point to create the type of learning experiences that would push them even beyond their already-impressive capacity, but their mother jumped in before I could say a word.

“So, Mr. Luther, “ she said, a serious look on her face. “What’s this words-on-the-wall thing that _______ keeps talking about?”

Then I smile, looking over their shoulders and pointing across the room to the space that has been one of my favorites since that first year it arrived in our classroom community: “The Beautiful Language Wall”:

the very first “Beautiful Language Wall” I had in my classroom!

“Of course!” I said, “Let me tell you about it!”

So, to continue that same pattern that has now repeated itself many times over in the six years since, let me tell you about it:

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First, shout out to Kelly Gallagher

This system is adapted directly from a presentation of Kelly’s I went to the summer before that parent-teacher conference, as he discussed how he had created a habit of looking for student exemplars within their writing to share and celebrate within his classroom—and for me, that moment was when a lightbulb sparked that hasn’t dimmed since.

It’s rather straightforward, too, as far as a process for me at this point: when I’m grading student writing (almost always digitally now) I open a separate Google Document, label it “BL + Date,” list out each class period separately on it, and then just copy-and-paste those sentences that jump off the page from student writing as I’m reading and giving feedback.

Here’s my most recent Google Doc from this exercise:

copied/pasted student sentences from their writing on a separate Google Doc

Pretty simple, right? But what I love about this habit I’ve now fully embraced as a teacher is that it creates a system that re-frames my own reading of student writing to constantly be on the look out for successes and opportunities to celebrate—rather than only being rubric-minded in how I read.

Could you have that mindset without a system to reinforce it? Yes, I guess. But I know that having that “BL” document open on my screen holds me accountable to a lens of affirmation—and that matters.

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So…lots of student sentences. What then?

The next step is the one that takes a bit of time on the front-end, but ultimately ends up not taking much time later on once you’ve created Google Slide templates to re-use as the year progresses.

After looking through the list, I pick out as many as possible that I want to bring into our classroom via our Google Slide lessons, and I showcase them at the beginning of the next class period sentence-by-sentence, adding my explanation of what I found beautiful and/or brilliant about the sentence itself and, in the process, framing it as an exemplar for others.

(note: in our classroom community, the norm is anonymity with these, as I never reveal which student wrote which sentence—but they have permission to claim ownership if they want when I present!)

Here’s what one of these Slides looked like in past years, with each sentence given an “animation” so that they pop up one-at-a-time rather than all at once:

The key thing about this step: building classroom time to celebrate students. Quite honestly, you can’t really honor student affirmation and celebration without creating time for it within the class period, which is what I love about this—and it is also critical that you aren’t just offering generic praise, but rather providing precise, individualized reasoning why each sentence was selected.

My favorite part about this part of sharing sentences though? Watching the eyes of the entire classroom, as their are lots of raised eyebrows throughout these moments—lots of “oh, you can do that?” realizations along with quiet, sincere respect for what their peers did with their writing. It’s seriously cool.

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What about the wall, though?

I’ll admit, this is the more time-intensive part (though having multiple student aides this year has helped a bit with the process).

I simply take that “BL” document, increase the font size and add columns, and then print it out, cut it up, and toss it on the wall to accumulate in our physical classroom space over the year. I also tend to make it timelier by adding the colored-paper backdrops, though you can do this without that step and save a lot of time!

Yes, at the beginning of the year, this is a rather bleak space…

But in the same way that a blank piece of paper can be seen as a tabula rasa for potential, over a half-decade of “Beautiful Language Walls” makes me look at the empty spaces with sheer enthusiasm of what will come to fill them.

(I also show students a picture of the previous year’s wall to begin the year, so they can get an idea and also be challenged to have a wall that is even more full than the students who were in the room before them!)

And by November, even, it can look like this:

Just imagine what it will look like in June! #cantwait

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Back to that parent-teacher conference, though

I distinctly remember that conversation for how it reaffirmed the purpose of celebrating student writing for me as a teacher, as this student’s mother immediately got out of the conference chair and went back to the wall in the corner of our classroom.

“So, where are all of _______ sentences?” she asked, starting to hunt through them. “They’ve been keeping count!”

In this moment, I realized that this quiet student who had never said a word about the wall had been using it as a space to challenge themself as a writer for months, keeping track of each time their writing made the wall and taking enough pride in it to share that with their parents—and even further, years later, when this student in their valedictorian speech would point to being celebrated as a writer in their sophomore year as the moment that, in their words, “taught them they could love English, too.”

And then of course, there are the more-visible ways I’ve seen it change student writers: the quiet, under-the-desk fist pumps when students see their writing show up on the screen, the drifting to the back of the room at the end of the period to “count” their sentences, and the way this space on the classroom wall continually is a magnet for eyes of students and classroom observers alike.

Words are powerful, and student words are especially powerful—and I believe unflinchingly that it is our job as teachers to showcase them as much as possible within our spaces, affirming the voices and values of our students in the process.

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On a very separate note, too, even if this whole Twitter thing crashes-and-burns (seems likelier by the day) Jim and I will be keeping The Broken Copier as a space to talk and write about education—so feel free to subscribe to keep this resource connected, and we’ll continue trying to find as many spaces as possible to continue the incredible potential that professional learning offers on digital spaces.

And thanks to all those who have reached out and subscribed already in recent weeks, as we could not be more grateful for the community that is building here!

Take care!
Marcus