My Favorite Hat

Let me tell you about one of the hats I wore today. It wasn’t a literal hat that I wore on my head. I am talking about the metaphorical hat that educators frequently reference to describe the different roles we have in a day/week/year. Out of all of the hats I wore today, my favorite hat was that of an editor.

Editor. Yep, that is me now. Now that a sixth grade student selected me. I have been going into sixth grade this year for a variety of reasons such as: writer’s workshop, book clubs, math, and design lab to work with the kids and partner up with their teachers. During this time I have built many strong relationships with the students. One being the boy who selected me as his editor. He slowly started telling me about a chapter book he was working on and asked if he could share the google doc with me. I happily said yes, eager to read his book and see the world for which he was creating. I read his writing and began conferring with him digitally. I’d find his strengths and give him a tip on how he can continue to move forward. After doing this for a few weeks he asked me if we could start discussing his book at lunch, specifically in regards to quotations. Excitedly I obliged.

 Quotations are rather fun to explore and we used a few mentor texts to observe what authors did when they used quotations. After observing and revising a chapter of his book with what we had noticed he started pouring out the most amazing thing. What inspired him. What inspired this vivid, captivating, fantastical world for which he was developing. So, what inspired him? Two authors, James Patterson and Rick Riordan. One character, Harry Potter. Oh, and many different shows. 

As I sat there in awe of this sixth grader and his passion for writing I thought about writer’s workshop. In writer’s workshop we should be celebrating the authors that are inspiring our work and craft. This should be at the forefront of our minds since we as writers are learning from other writers all the time.

My favorite hat today was editor. Why? Instead of just exploring quotations and revisions I was able to explore the inner workings of a future author and what inspired him.

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