I had the pleasure today of attending a publishing party in 1M. Many classrooms have publishing parties at the end of a unit to acknowledge the hard work that the children have put into their development as writers, and it give the authors a chance to share their work with peers and the LS faculty.
After each child read their masterpiece to me, I asked them how they felt about themselves as a writer, and what they learned from this writing experience. I did a get a few expected answers, such as “good” and “I learned how to write better”; but I did also hear a few gems that made my writing heart sing. One author told me that, “I learned that I have to put a lot of detail in my writing because the person who is reading it wasn’t there and I have to make them understand what I saw and how I felt.” Another writer told me that she felt “really proud of myself that I wrote so much because before I had a hard time stretching my stories out. Now I know how to do it because we practiced a lot and I could read it to my friends and they would ask me questions. If they asked questions then I knew I had something missing in my story.” How GREAT is that???? 
