Experience:
I just recently wrote a speech for my dad's retirement dinner. While prewriting, I wrote down everything that could be a possibility for me to say, as it came to me. Some ideas came to me right before falling asleep. Some came to me in the shower, and I had to grab a post-it and pen quickly after. Some ideas were sought after during my lunch break. As my ideas developed, I started positioning my thoughts either towards the opening, body or ending of the speech, drawing boxes around certain paragraphs or circling thoughts and drawing lines showing a new place for that particular statement. As new ideas entered my mind, I would just write it down and not worry about the order or spelling or how I would actually say it that night, I just wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget what was in my head.

Observations:
I have observed the students in my first grade class using the writing process during their persuasive letter writing assignment. They were to write a letter to their parents persuading them to get a certain kind of pet. Their prewriting existed on paper templates with blank boxes. There was a space for the title at the top of the page, and the rest of the boxes included spaces for brainstorming ideas; they all had titles to help the student organize his or her thoughts. The first box was the opening sentence, followed by the three reasons their parents should allow them to have a specific kind of pet. The last box was used for the closing sentence.

Experience:
I came back to my speech several times, repositioning phrases, reordering certain topics, or reorganizing themes. I spoke it out loud or read it in my head in the order I had written it to see if I liked the flow and if it would make sense. I thought about how I'd want to begin my speech. I wrote a short introduction about who I was, which ended up just being "hello, I'm Rachael, and that's my dad!" The night was about him, not me. I thought about how I wanted to honor my dad that night. I decided I would open my speech about my learning of Dad's retirement. I continued to develop the speech with who my dad is as a person and what he means to me. I touched on my dad's 45 year career with his company from my perspective, but decided the center of the speech should be about who he is, and that his identity did not lie within his career, his identity is who he is in Christ Jesus.

Observations:
After filling in their ideas on the template used for prewriting, the students needed Mrs. Z. and I to read their prewriting and make sure the students were moving in the correct direction based on the assignment. We helped guide them if they were having trouble forming ideas and set them up for their revision step. 

Experience:
I made several revisions and even toggled between more drafting and allowing myself to be re-grounded with prewriting.

Observations:
During the revision process, each student paired up with one other student and scattered themselves around the room. They took turns reading what they wrote and gave and accepted friendly/constructive criticism. During the suggestions, the student receiving criticism could erase, make notes etc. right then to take advantage of this helpful exchange. 

Experience:
Even after making a final draft, which was just pen and notebook paper, I still revised some parts of the speech based on what I knew about time restraints and a goal to keep things lighthearted and genuine. I wrote neater during this editing stage so that I would be able to read my handwriting should I need to refer to my notes while I spoke. I didn't necessarily worry too much about punctuation or grammar because I was the only one reading this, I wasn't turning it in for a grade, and I understood what I meant when I wrote it and as I read it during my practice 'speeches'.

Observations:
The students had a break from this writing assignment and took part in their specials, which was either P.E., art, engineering, etc. They might not have returned to the assignment until the next day. Upon returning to this assignment, they would have time to read and work on their own, making changes if necessary, or, if they thought they were ready, come to either me or Mrs. Z. for a final review before moving on to the final draft. If needed, Mrs. Z. and I would kindly remind the student to look again for capitalization and/or punctuation errors. We would also take the time to refer the student to their personal dictionary where they have correct spellings of common words for their first grade level.

Experience:
My final draft was shared orally with about two hundred people as I spoke at my dad's retirement dinner. It was still handwritten, and still slightly messy with arrows and sections x'd out.

Observations:
After the student received the okay to move forward to the final draft, they were given a lined, letter-format template. They were reminded to write lightly in case they needed to erase something, and of course, to write neatly, use 'finger spaces' between words and take their time (these would be hung in the hall below their lovely corresponding pictures).