Inspired by the young writers she has mentored, author Janiel Wagstaff created Stella, a peer mentor for teaching writing in her series of educational picture books, Stella Writes. By incorporating Stella Writes into your curriculum, you can use the experiences of Stella’s second grade class to encourage reluctant writers, help students transform their ideas into structured writing pieces, and guide your students in crafting poetry, narratives, opinions, and informative texts, through modeled, shared, interactive, and independent writing exercises.

“Writing is a messy process!” (Stella and Class: Information Experts)

Writing Is Work

Writing is work, but it can be a joyous, all-consuming experience. Just watch as engaged writers in your classroom shut out everything going on around them for inconceivably long stretches as their words tumble out onto the page.

Still, you can’t be “in the zone” every day. All writers struggle or feel frustrated at times. When you see students struggling, revisit sections of the Stella books to let them know the effort is natural.

“See, Stella couldn’t think of a conclusion that she liked for her opinion. She tried a couple of different ideas, but they didn’t work. That must have been frustrating! So, she left the writing for a bit, thought about it overnight, and came up with something she liked the next day! This is a good strategy to use when you are feeling really stuck. Leave that piece and work on something else for a while, just like Stella did.” (Stella Writes an Opinion)

Writers Persevere

Stella is a model of stamina and grit. Study those moments in the Stella books with your students. Read the text closely, and ask:

• What is Stella doing?

• How/why does she do it?

• How does this help her as a writer and ultimately as a learner?

• What does this mean for you as a writer?

“This second ending is way, way better. It makes me feel proud. I love it!” (Stella Tells Her Story)

Writers Have Readers

Writers are readers. They read to find inspiration, ideas, and information. Writers also have readers—not the audience for the finished product, but readers of the work-in-progress.

Many professional writers have editors to help them revise and polish their work, and we teachers know how important it is for our budding writers to get feedback along the way. Model responding to drafts and list example phrases students can use to respond thoughtfully and respectfully to peers. Put in place structures, like pair-shares, peer conferencing checklists, and informal response groups, so students can get and give feedback.

Of course, it’s not easy to share a partially finished piece, and students need to learn to be open to feedback. If students have trouble listening to and utilizing feedback, remind them how important being open-minded can be. In Stella Tells Her Story, Stella carefully reflects on feedback from her classmates, and takes her teacher’s suggestion that she “might want to consider doing more with the ending” to heart.

When students give one another feedback, ask for examples of revisions made and share these aloud or on the board. Evaluate: “Is the writing better? What did the writer do to make it stronger?”

One important point here: Always remind writers they are in charge of their own writing. Just because a peer gives them a suggestion doesn’t mean they must make a change. In the end, writers must learn to evaluate feedback and decide whether or not changes are warranted. Not only is this the higher-level thinking we strive for, it shows students we honor their writing and their choices.

“Well, I helped myself. I made a list, like good writers sometimes do.” (Stella Writes an Opinion)

Generate a Running Topics List

How might you and your students come up with topics for narratives, opinions, poems, and informative texts? One of my favorite strategies is to keep a Running Topics List (RTL), as demonstrated in Stella Tells Her Story.

Establish a place on your front whiteboard to write your Running Topics List. Label it at the top, then begin by modeling. Any time something comes up during class that might lead to writing, jot a note about it on the list. By doing this consistently, you’re modeling a habit of mind. Students learn to always be on the lookout for how their experiences might lead to writing. Soon, they’ll be generating their own ideas to record on the class RTL.

After you’ve read aloud a Stella title for the first time, model adding your own topic in the same genre as the book to the Running Topics List. Ask: “What did Stella’s story remind you of?” Your students may generate a host of ideas for narratives, opinions, poetry, and informative texts.

Once you’ve filled your list with ideas, have students jot ideas they like in their writing notebooks or on a piece of paper they keep in a writing folder. Erase and begin your list again. This way, students will always have many topics to write about. More importantly, they emulate how real writers generate topics in the real world.

Keep in mind: Choice is critical in writing. The more choice students have, the more motivated they are to write and the more ownership they feel. Yes, we can and must assign writing, but we should provide our writers with balance. Real writers in the real world generate their own topics all the time. Let’s treat students like real writers; that’s when they behave like real writers!

“And what could be more fun than to write what you think about an important topic? Now that’s power!” (Stella Writes an Opinion)

Use Different Writing Modes in the Classroom

As with reading, different writing modes provide different benefits for students.

• During modeled writing, you, the teacher, are the writer. Model the steps you take when writing your own opinions, poems, narratives, and informational pieces. Think aloud, talking about what you are doing as you compose in front of the class. Over time, as students listen and watch, they see the ins and outs of the writing process and learn the strategies writers use while composing.

• During shared writing (as demonstrated in Stella and Class: Information Experts), you and your students negotiate together what to write—talking out the content, giving it a try on paper, and making changes as you go. You, the teacher, do the physical writing. This way, students can focus on content without worrying about spelling or mechanics (unless you prompt such discussions).

• In contrast, during interactive writing, both you and your students do the physical writing. You still negotiate the content jointly, but as students “share the pen,” they grapple with spelling and mechanics, thus working on their phonological awareness and phonics skills. In both shared and interactive writing, students have more responsibility for the writing than they do with modeled writing, but since you, the teacher, are actively involved, scaffolding and support are always available.

• Having time in the day for independent writing is critical. Students will approximate the use of the strategies they’ve seen modeled and have tried during guided experiences. Though you may be available to provide some support, it’s important that students tackle the act of composing on their own or with some assistance from peers. Look closely at what your students are producing to help you determine next steps in your instruction.

Even our youngest, most emergent writers must have daily independent writing time for their skills to develop. They might begin by drawing and labeling or scribbling down letters, but the more you model and involve them in shared and interactive writing, the more they will grow. Naturally, the instruction they receive in phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, and vocabulary will also push their development as writers, but only if they are given daily opportunities to apply it!

“Usually when somebody shares a little bit, someone else gets an idea! Ideas ping-pong all over the place!” (Stella: Poet Extraordinaire)

Use Stella’s Texts as Models

Use the clean, final copies of Stella’s writing as mentor texts (see downloadable PDFs for Stella's narrative, opinion, and informative pieces). Read them slowly with students—over several days, if necessary—to discuss and label the elements of each genre using sticky notes. Refer to these texts as you engage in modeled, shared, and interactive writing. Keep a lookout for these same elements in your students’ writing and label and use their examples as mentor texts, too!

You can also reproduce and distribute Stella’s clean, final copies for students to highlight and annotate. Ask students:

• What do you notice in Stella’s writing as you study it closely? Discuss your findings.

• What do these findings mean for your own future writing?

Use Stella’s drafts as models for what good writers do while in the midst of composing. You might even enlarge them to poster size to use as references all year long. Study them closely with students, using different colored markers to label the strategies Stella uses, such as adding carets to insert missing words.

“I ran up and told her I had the greatest, most special thing to share. I sat down next to her and read my story.” (Stella Tells Her Story)

Engage in Informal Writing

All of the Stella books end with the “publication” and sharing of Stella’s writing. It gives children a huge boost when they see a real-world purpose for their hard work. As I plan writing experiences, I often think, “How can this writing be useful or shared in the real world?”

But most of the writing we do in classrooms should be informal. We shouldn’t expect students to go through all the steps of the writing process with everything they write. Coupled with thoughtful instruction, sheer volume of production goes a long way toward writing development.

Students should have tons of opportunities to share stories, poems, opinions, and information aloud and to experiment with writing these pieces in informal ways. They should also write informally across the curriculum for a variety of reasons, including simply writing to get ideas down, process them, and remember them.

Make writing part of what you’re doing constantly in class, just like reading is woven throughout your day. Don’t think you must read, review, respond to, or grade everything students write. Take only a few things to formal “publication.” Keep in mind that publishing, or celebrating, a piece can be achieved by simply reading it aloud to an audience (even a very small one). Encourage your writers to write outside of class and to bring those informal pieces in to share.

“Feeling mad or sad? Write about it! You’ll feel better!” (Stella: Poet Extraordinaire)

Celebrate Students’ Writing

Celebrate your students’ accomplishments in writing. Celebrate every single day. What are they doing well as a group? As individuals? Don’t wait for that “perfect piece.” Celebrate even small achievements. Celebrate examples by sharing them with the class regularly. Simply point out sections of the writing that demonstrate what you’ve been teaching, or highlight a student’s efforts by having her read that special part of her piece to the class one more time.

It’s fun to include a snippet of student writing in your class newsletter, in your emails home to parents, or on your class website. Other easy but meaningful ideas include placing writing inside plastic frames or propping it up on mini easels to display around the classroom. Remember, the writing doesn’t have to be finished to be celebrated.

“We all have stories to tell!” (Stella Tells Her Story)

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