Luzum shares passion for writing with her students
Almost every hand shot up when Sara Luzum asked her first graders who wanted to share what they had written in that day’s Free Write Friday session. The lucky honorees took their turns in the “author’s chair” at the front of the room and beamed with pride, reading the results of their hard work.
Seeing her students get excited about writing was precisely the goal Luzum had in mind when she first decided to dedicate time each week to writing. All four first grade teachers in Aurora do something similar, based on years of combined experience.
“Over the years of teaching first grade, as a first grade team, we have found that we get the best writing from kids when they’re writing about things that are meaningful to them; things that are coming from their heart,” Luzum explained. “So as a team, we recognized that we need to implement more free writing into our curriculum.”
Luzum said she dabbled with the idea for several years before deciding last year that every Friday was going to be Free Write Friday in her classroom. Now nearing the end of the program’s second year, she said the results have been noticeable, and rewarding for all.
“Really, for first graders, half the battle is getting kids motivated to write and convincing them that they are writers,” she shared. “That’s where my Free Write Friday comes in. Free Write Friday is actually just our regularly scheduled Friday writing time, but it’s unique in that the kids can choose to write about anything they want.”
Young Presley Perry, for example, wrote candidly about an eventful night at her house.
“Guess what,” she wrote. “Sunday night my toilet broke. It was spitting out water and half of my brother’s room and hallway had water on the floor. Me and my brother had to go upstairs. I slept in my Mom and Dad’s room and my brother slept in our living room. Downstairs smelled weird. I slept in their room for three days. I did not like it.”
Such detail, and honesty, Luzum noted, reflects the students’ comfort level in writing about their lives.
“I like it because we get to write about anything we want,” noted Jace Rivera when asked about Free Write Friday. “My family says my writing is awesome.”
“We spend a lot of time at the beginning of Free Write Friday talking about how everyone has a story, and that your best writing comes from your heart,” Luzum said. “We talk about the people, the places and the things that are most important to you and I found that to be extremely powerful to motivate kids because they really buy in and are more willing to write when it’s coming from their heart. I have them convinced that it’s my favorite part of the entire week and we celebrate it,” she added. “They have bought into it and it is a highlight for everyone in my class.”
There are rules when the time comes for Free Write Friday, Luzum explained. The kids know them well, with the first being that you have to write the entire class period. Students can write about anything they want, but if they are stuck they can turn to their writer’s notebook for possible ideas of things that are meaningful to them, or they can look on the board where Luzum has offered an idea for anyone who might be stuck.
“Writing is hard in first grade,” noted the veteran teacher, who has taught for 13 years in Aurora and 18 overall, all at the first grade level. “It’s hard because some kids come to me as fluent readers or fluent writers at the beginning of the year and then some kids don’t even know all their letter sounds. It’s extremely difficult to write words, yet alone sentences, when you don’t know your letter sounds. The beauty of writer’s workshop and the traits is that even if a child can’t apply all those traits to their actual writing, yet, they can at least still learn the concepts.”
The six traits, she explained, include ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency and conventions.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is, for example, that all of my kids, regardless of their ability, can tell you that within the trait of organization their stories should have a bold beginning, some kind of lead, whether it’s a sound or a question or something to grab’s their reader’s attention,” Luzum said. “They understand that word choice is using exciting words so that you’re painting a picture in the reader’s mind. They know that the trait of voice means that their story should sound like them. So the goal as the year goes on, more and more kids are starting to implement these traits and apply them to their stories and it just gets better and better.”
Luzum admits that she is passionate about writing, mainly because she sees so much growth in her students throughout the course of the year.
“I’m passionate about teaching traits because I feel like every kid can be successful using those and even if they’re not applying them to their writing yet in first grade, hopefully I’ve given them the tools that then in second grade and third grade or fourth grade when they are able to do more writing they can still do great stories.”
The progress at the first grade level, she said, is noticeable, especially now in the fourth quarter of the year. That’s when students start taking turns reading their stories from the “author’s chair,” another highlight of the week.
“They are so motivated by the author’s chair because it is their time to shine,” she said. “We just really celebrate everybody’s stories at the end of every Free Write Friday and then at the end of each quarter I do send home a folder of all Free Write Friday stories for parents. I’ve had lots of families tell me that they keep those and just comparing what Free Write Friday looked like in August compared to what it looks like in May is unbelievable.”