"I Know I'm Done When..."
- All my pages have words and pictures on them.
- My book has a title and my name on the cover.
- I have shared my book with someone.
Audrey can look back to this chart during writing workshop to check her book making progress. This is, in a way, a first step toward learning to revise.
(Please note: Audrey does not have to finish a book before she starts another. She can start making a new book at any time. This chart just gives her the criteria she needs to meet before she can call her book "done".)
We then looked at her book, How Rainbows Come and Go to see if it is "finished". During the mini-lesson, Audrey determined after going through the chart that her first book was done! However, without any pushing or prompting from me, as she began her writing time she asked if she could add a couple of things to her book. Of course I said "yes" but had no idea what she had in mind. As she sat down to write, she asked if I wanted to know what she was going to add. Of course I said "yes" again. She told me that she was going to add a question at the beginning of her book and an illustration on the back cover. She explained that her book needed this extra part at the beginning. I told her that a question is a great way to start a book. Then she showed the back covers of a few books on our bookshelves and explained that she wanted to put a picture on the back like they had.
Wow, I cannot believe that she thought of this all by herself. I am so proud and excited that she sees herself as a writer just like the writers of the books on our bookshelves. She is taking things she sees in published books and applying them to her own books.
Plus, she took my mini-lesson, which was meant to be a very basic introduction to the idea of revising, and kicked it up a notch. She truly was revising her book without even knowing the word for that part of the process. She was adding to her book after looking at it again. The definition of revising is to look again, to visit again. It is to add something, take something away, or move something around in a piece of writing.
She did that all on her own! What an exciting journey I am on with this little writer of mine!