October 25, 2012
Here are some pieces from my current writing group. I edited for audience.
My writers are approaching that stage. The key here is to notice how strong their voices are and, most especially, their articulation skills. Enjoy!-Linda
Student Editorials: Westwind
Alternate School Writing Class
East End Teacher – Linda
Johnson
How do students see the
world? Children have opinions that matter. Read and learn.
Patience
By Natalie Nelson
Age 11
If you have patience you do
not freak out at your brothers and sisters when they do something bad to you.
Say you do not want to do something that your mom and dad tells you to do.
You most likely argue with
them, but sometimes they do not raise their voices. That is patience.
You have to have patience on
long, long, long trips. I often have to have patience with my three brothers
and I have to have patience with my friends. My parents are in their forties
and they are still working on their patience and I am always working on my
patience. If there was no patience fights and wars would be happening all the
time.
I wish we could all have perfect
patience. No one wants bad things. Patience will not make things perfect, but
it will make things better. If you do not have patience all kids could turn out
to be very, very, very mean.
Honesty
By Sean Gold
Being honest is being
completely true to your self and to friends. You must be completely honest in
secret and in public to everyone no matter their size, age, color or gender.
If no one was honest the
world would be a terrible place full of lying , stealing, killing, adultery,
swearing and nobody would keep the Sabbath Day holy. There is already a lot of
this. If the world doesn’t quit, your kids and their kids could end up even
worse.
How to have a Happy Family
By Brinley Wilde age 9
A happy family helps, loves
and works things out.
A happy family forgives,
shares
and has faith in each other.
A happy family trusts, helps
out around the house
and plays together.
If you don’t have a happy
family
You need to try these things,
And have a happy family.
Faith
By Jianna Hubbard Age 12
Faith is not seeing but
simply believing.
I, as a 12 year old, think
that we as people
in this world
don’t have enough faith,
For example you assure
yourself that you have enough faith that will get A’s in all your school
assignments.
You slack off, don’t try your
best
And you get an F. There’s a
second step in faith.
And that’s action. To have
faith you have to act.
FAITH REQUIRES ACTION, that’s
a saying that I really like.
Whenever you have faith ACT,
Have faith that this world
and all the people in it
Will turn out Okay.
Get off your chair and ACT!
Example
By Isaac Wood age 11
Being an example is not just showing people what to do, its YOUR
actions, moves, words, etc. That’s
right, I’m talking to YOU! Being an example is people watching YOU and stuff
you’re doing even when you don’t mean to, that means that you always have to
behave.
We have many examples before
us in many different ways like Elvis Presley, Michael Jordan, Martin Luther
King, etc. Martin Luther King Jr. is a big example for writers like me. And
when I say big I mean BIG. He was a talker. Martin went against racism and I’m
glad he did because I’m brown skinned! When he spoke it was like the BIG Bang
theory coming out of his words!
Mahatma Ghandi said, “Be the
change you want to see in the world”. Being a good example is a good start to
being one of the greatest people n the world.
Good luck!
