Mattie Davis • Building a community of writers in a first grade classroom

The opportunity to engage in talk around writing happens in MD’s classroom in numerous ways. Finding a moment to talk with students privately as well as “on the fly” during writing times is coupled with more formal talk with peers when work is shared publicly. Each opportunity is a time for questions, pushing and support in various verbal and non-verbal ways. In MD’s words, “building confidence and acquiring skills to go along with writing” often takes much work, on her part, on the writer’s part, and with the help of the classroom community. The following video clips provide examples of students and teacher in conversation around writing of various genres.