Writing that Excites and Educates: A Class Novel.

Q ^^^^ napshot: May of my students' senior A M vearThey are compiling heir final ^^^^ portfolios, the last of the seven they have done since sixth grade. Each year, there are slight variations to keep this final reflection process new and engaging, but the senior project is different. Rather than creating a portfolio to hand to the teacher to read, seniors compile their favorite writings from any class in any year of high school and write reflectio s about them. What do I see going into many of these portfolios each spring? What do seniors choose as one of their best writi g memories from all of high school? Small brightly colored books they wrote in ninth grade. They laugh as they reread their and their friends' chapters, talking all the w ile about ow fun it was to write these novels. I smile as I listen because I am hearing students talk about how much they enjoyed writing, and I know how much they also learned about the craft of composition.