Heart Maps-Part 2. Writing in December.

Link up at www.twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.  We are so grateful for this community. 

Hello Friends!  The last time I sliced, I was writing about Heart Maps!  Well.  December Happened.  This means Lots of work on Christmas Pageant.  Lots of learning and community is built during that time, but when you are back in the classroom, there's a shift.  You have to be so purposeful in what you are asking kids to do.  This includes reading, writing, math, the whole idea of your classroom.  

So, when this blog post from Ruth Ayres showed up, I was so relieved!  It saved Writer's Workshop in December in my classroom.  A pause.  This doesn't mean that we didn't write.  We just paused on the topics of revision, editing, readability, etc.  We only wrote.  I asked for the kids to think about only writing when it was time to do so, and that was pretty much it.  

But, as December went on, some bumps kept popping up.  How was I going to honor my students, and yet maintain some sense of writing as we got closer to Christmas break?

Enter Heart Maps.


Once upon a time, I won this book in a #g2Great chat.  I have perused it.  I have tried some out on my own.
I just jumped in and shared the idea with my First Graders.

It was awesome.

These Heart Maps ask kids to map about what is important to them.  So-they did.  Many kids made more than one over these past few days.  And for some kids, it resulted in journal entries and writing.  For other kids, it gave them the chance to just reflect on what was important to them.  

As we move into January, I'm excited to see how they respond to Reader's Heart Maps.  I'll plan to use them in Nonfiction as well.  And of course with Poetry and Visualization.  There are guidelines for all of these topics in Georgia Heard's book.  

So, stay tuned.  There could be parts 3, 4, and 5.  This is developing into a highly useful strategy in my classroom.  

Have you used Heart Maps in your Writer's Workshop?

Joy!
Kendra