Treasure books - books crafted by students individually or collectively. St. Bernard, my elementary school, mailed student stories complete with illustrations to a company that transformed the stories into hardback books. In first and second grade, my teachers allowed their students the most freedom and creativity in writing stories. I remember my treasure book in second grade titled My Alien Friends. I remember making the front cover incorrectly. The title reads from the wrong angle, and there is an awkward illustration trying to mask my mistake. This writing experience taught me the joys of writing. The words were my own and tell a story written by my eight-year-old self. Treasure books excited and educated students. It demonstrated the publication process of a book. It taught me the importance of proofreaders who check for errors and mistakes writers overlook. Treasure books gave me a reason to enjoy writing. While my final writing experience brought delight, it caused many difficulties and headaches as …show more content…
Mrs. King was covering a section that caused the majority of students to sweat and brought pallor to their cheeks - poetry. Previous brushes with poetry were not pleasant. My poetry limped its way onto the paper much as a crippled, young lad's energetic spirit after being driven over by a car. The assignment King gave seemed simple enough: write a free verse poem about an emotion. I chose to write a poem about anger. This emotion seemed easiest for me to understand, relate to and most likely, write about. Or so I thought. Poetry always seemed to give me a nasty taste of writer's block. For the next few days, I struggled to make anger poetic. The due date arrived, and my poem had yet to be started. Fortunately, Mrs. King's class was my final class of the day. The period before her class, worry set in. Nothing was written. No progress was made. Suddenly, the words came to me. I wrote them down and arranged them in my choosing. That became my favorite part of poetry. Words are arranged on lines as the poet chooses with punctuation inessential. For the first time, I found pride in my work. Poetry taught me the hardships of writing, writer's block exists, and not every style of writing is enjoyable. Writing requires patience, time, and determination. Additionally, it gave me the pleasure of ignoring grammar