Other portions of the book (up to 15 pages) may be copied for in-service programs or other educational programs in a single school or library. Activity 4: Polishing for Style 173 Activity 5: Polishing for Pride 177 Activity 6: Presentation Checklist 184 Activity 7: The Publishing Game 187.
HOW TO TEACH WITH THIS BOOK
COPING WITH THE TIME PROBLEM
FICTION OR NONFICTION?
GETTING STARTED
- Deciding What to Write About
- Planning
- Getting the Words to Flow on Paper
- Nonfiction Workshop
- Fiction Workshop
- Editing with Enthusiasm
Use the activity in this chapter to help students "weave scenes" using action and dialogue. We salute every teacher who undertakes the task, and we hope that every one of you finds something in this book that helps.
INTRODUCTION
Any point of the triangle can serve as a starting point, but two points, and usually all three, are needed to make a writing idea. We explain to students that they need to develop a writing idea before they write anything (except for a personal journal entry) because a story or a nonfiction piece is more than a collection of paragraphs—it is a collection of paragraphs unified by one idea.
FINDING YOUR OWN STARTING POINT
The activities in part 1 are designed to help students find starting points for writing—principally subjects—in the world around them. They can return to collecting starting points and writing ideas after the desire to write cools.
This Is Your Life
Some books are especially interesting: Try using a dictio- nary, encyclopedia, book of lists, or book of quotations. Good examples are Dictionary of Quotations by Bergen Evans, The International Thesaurus of Quotations by Rhoda Thomas Tripp, and Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time by Laurence J.
DEVELOPING STARTING POINTS INTO WRITING IDEAS
Choosing one of the three categories is an easy way to develop a starting point into a writing idea. Sometimes she waits in the shower or stands on my shoes in the morning when she wants me to hurry.
The Genre Game
A paragraph about a blind dog named Alice, from a "This Is Your Life" activity.) Alice is blind. Fiction: "My Dog Wears Purple Tennis Shoes," a story about Alice getting ready for work Nonfiction: How to care for a blind dog.
Instructions to Students
Starter List of Genres
History: A history of the discovery of a rare species of frog in the Amazon How-To: How to study frog anatomy. In your "Starting Points and Writing Ideas Notebook," write down your starting point at the top of the page.
Additional Notes to Teachers
34;From all levels of government, federal, state, and local, Americans get 150,000 new laws and two million new regulations every year." (from Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts). Jake Blunt, owner of the Flat Earth Deli and Gas station, was hauled into Superior Court today and charged with two counts of Not Loving Thy Neighbor.
TEACHER'S NOTEBOOK
NOTES
FROM THE PROS
Let them choose what to write about and how to write it again and again. Every student asks the same questions: How can I research before I know what I am going to write.
BACKGROUND
FOCUS
ORDER
FINDING A FOCUS
You make little decisions, such as what word to use in a sentence, and big decisions, such as choosing a writing idea. As you make decisions for your piece, record them on the worksheet and discuss them with your writing group.
Nonfiction Prewriting Choices Worksheet
Nonfiction Prewriting Choices
Are you going to write about the big, wide-angle picture and trace the history of an entire forest. It's really impossible to plan stories too far ahead, so the principle purpose for the fiction prewriting choices is to help students sort out just one story to write.
Fiction Prewriting Choices Worksheet
Fiction Prewriting Choices
I walked the dog and then went to the store, (first-person narrator—a character in the story named Mary). Pretend that your narrator is telling the story after the story has ended (past tense).
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
KNOW DON'T KNOW NEED TO FIND OUT
What you need is a strategy to help you decide what to read and who to consult.
How to Create a Research Strategy
Make a notebook and choose priorities
Once you have completed an interview, you will fill in the blanks at the top of your interview questionnaire with a list of the person's areas of expertise. Use the space at the bottom of your questionnaires to answer any of the questions on the chalkboard.
Class Experts Questionnaire
Outside Experts Questionnaire
Work with another student in the class: One of you asks the questions while the other pretends to be a character from his or her story and answers the questions. When you have finished the interview, whoever was the interviewer pretends to be a character while the other asks the questions.
Interview with a Character
It's easy to do: Draw a picture of the subject, setting, characters, or anything else related to the piece and label all the components of the picture with words. Making a verbiary helps students list verbs they can use, but more important, it imitates what they must do to think of verbs when they are writing.
Making a Verbiary
Find some verbs
This makes it a wonderful language for writing; there's always a perfect word sitting out there—you just have to find it. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing, but they have different shades of meaning.
Making a Word-Finder
Choose at least three antonyms that you like. at the top, and write the antonyms you have chosen. If you are using a synonym-finder: A synonym-finder only lists synonyms, so you must think of an antonym, then look up that word in the synonym-finder.
FINDING AN ORDER
Its other virtue is that it produces a visible picture of the entire piece, so that students can begin to see where they are going. Begin at the center of the paper with a picture or a word representing your writing idea or some part of your writing idea.
Designs
The number of outlining methods is limited only by the imagination.1 We use this activity to encourage students to try some other methods of outlining besides branching and design. Murray has tucked a comprehensive treasury of outlining methods in the middle of his wonderful book, A Writer Teaches Writing (a book all writin teachers should read).
Outlining Methods
Female craftsmen tell us that they still prefer the word craftsman to craftswoman or craftspers because the substitutes sound so clumsy—the very thing good craftsmen are not. Allow time between doing the tasks of the artist and doing those of the crafts- man.
FREEING THE ARTIST
When you braindance, you can record your thoughts in the order they come to you. If you can't keep your materials at your writing place, find a place where you can keep them together.
DIRECTING THE ARTIST
Brown, the writer also reveals a lot about the story: The reader learns that it takes place in a small town, and also learns that the narrator—the character who is telling the story—is a kid who likes to look at fishing tackle. Use the zoom lens to find at least three details of the scene (use the five senses, if you need more details).
Hooks and Leaders
Question: The question hook asks a question that you will answer in the piece
Some days, writing is very easy—you are writing hot and nothing can stop you. Other days are just the opposite—you are writing cold and it is hard to get started.
Warm-Ups
Playing "Follow the Leader" is simple: Choose a scene, section, paragraph, or sentence of a published work. 34;He looks like something you'd find in the toilet." He stared at me and then at my friend, then he said he was expecting us.
TEACHERS NOTEBOOK
This can be especially helpful for young students or those who are struggling to write. Give them five points of comparison and ask them to write a comparison in their own words using two of those points.
WRITING PARAGRAPHS
Today we are going to make a "Topics and Sluglines" chart, which will help you organize your main idea and your supporting details. Later, you will write one sentence for your main idea and one for each of your supporting ideas.
A CATALOG OF NONFICTION TECHNIQUES
Repeat a key term before and after the move
A transition between two paragraphs using the key term polar bear. The transition is bold italic.).
Set up a transition before making it. The setup can come much earlier in the piece or just before the transition
They can be used any- where in the transitional sentence, but they are usually used toward the beginning. We have included discussion of foreshadowing partly because it is so much fun, partly because students begin to develop an interest in the craft of writing when they try foreshadowing.
THE SCENE
34;Then you get mad and make people uncomfortable when they don't do exactly as you wish.". 34;Then you get mad and make people uncomfortable when they don't do exactly as you wish.".
A CATALOG OF FICTION TECHNIQUES
Your reader must be able to picture who is coming into and going out of the scene, and what the characters are doing. For example: "He walked quickly and quietly from the room." Be aware, though, that adverbs slow down the action.
Tricks of the Trade
Snoop circled back, commandeered the wallet, and loped off down the hallway, giving Mrs. The lieutenant would be tapping his pencil impatiently right about now. You might need to recast the first sentence of the second scene to allow for the stated transition.
INTRODUCING EDITING
The publisher is responsible for providing technical assistance to the writing groups and for helping students find ways to publish. The publisher helps authors and editors solve any problems they can't solve, gives the final approval for publishing, and helps the author find ways to publish.
The Golden Rules of Editing
When the author knows that something doesn't work, the editor suggests what needs to be changed. When the author has made an error, such as a spelling mistake, the editor finds it.
Good Editors
The word revise means "to see again." When you draft, you get your story on paper, where you can see it, but no writer finishes in the first draft. One of the things that will help you and your editors revise is "The Revision Loop.".
The Revision Loop
The last step of the loop is for the author to make changes to the piece. The group can wait for the author to make the changes before beginning a new loop, with another editorial question, or the group can do several loops before the author revises.
Basic Editorial Questions
- What is the best part? Why?
- Does the piece suit the ideal reader? Is the information appropriate to that ideal reader?
- How does the mood add to the piece? Does the author maintain the same mood throughout the piece? Are there any sections where the mood is inconsistent?
- Does the author say what he or she wants to say? What is the key idea? Does that key idea come across clearly?
- What is the most interesting information in the piece? How is it presented? Is it presented in the right place?
- Does the writer use examples or anecdotes? Do they make the piece more fun to read?
- Where is the piece easiest to understand? Are there any places the piece is hard to understand? Why? What could the author do to make it clearer?
- Are there any unnecessary parts in the piece? Why aren't they necessary? Could the author cut them? How would cutting them improve the piece?
- Choose two of the following words to describe the piece and explain why you chose them
Does the author tie up all the loose ends, or do you wonder, for example, what happened to some characters or how a mystery was solved. What could the author do to tie up loose ends or make the ending more satisfying.
POLISHING TO PUBLISH
They are perhaps less complete than The Chicago Manual of Style, but they are less expensive and less daunting. By the time students leave high school, they should treat The Chicago Manual of Style as they would a comfortable old shoe.
Style Tips
If you try it without knowing the rules, you might want to sprinkle commas everywhere, making your writing sound like you have a bad cold. It does not matter that you know how to spell everything or all the rules of punctuation.
How to Check Spelling
The Personality of Punctuation
Before you use the question mark, decide how loud you want the question to be. Use the ellipses only when you don't mind your reader feeling just a little irritated at the interruption.
