The book is amazing. It follows Ramon as he learns to accept his drawings because he can see the "ishness" in his work. Ramon stops drawing because his older brother laughs at his work. He struggles to try to make everything perfect and finally gives up when he cannot. Then his younger sister surprises him with a museum of his work. He instantly learns from his sister that although his work is not perfect it does have amazing things hidden inside.
I have already read this book to the students on the first day, talked about it again today, and I am sure I will read it again next week. Throughout the year we will revisit Ish. I just love the message that we do not need to fear that our work is not perfect. I think many young writers often worry about making a spelling mistake or misplacing a comma. This fear causes students to shut down. I want students to not be afraid to make mistakes. When students are willing to take risks with their work, the results are often amazing.
One way that I love to try and support this goal of having a classroom where students are not afraid to take risks is to give students feedback using two stars and a wish. When students share their writing I often give them two stars and a wish. The two stars are things that they have in their writing that I love. Things that I hope they repeat and continue to try to use in their work. The wish is a way to nudge the students. A suggestion that may help them improve as writers. If you are looking at writing work at home, two stars and a wish is a great way to support your young writer. It allows you to celebrate those approximations that students are making in their writing (the ishness of their poem or story or article) and also allows you to offer suggestions on how to improve the work even more.
I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I cannot wait to get back to work on Monday.
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