Holiday Writing Ideas

by Alison Ashley Formento

Have you put up any holiday decorations? There are people like Martha Stewart who knows how to trim a Christmas tree. Of course she does. When writers are writing, we work to trim our stories to make them shine. After our first “sloppy copy” we must revise. We revise and revise...and revise. Revising a story into shape can be as prickly as decorating a cactus. Warning: Don’t try this unless you’re a cartoon character!

Story Trimming

1)     Write one page about a gift you hope to receive this year.

2)     Include six to ten reasons you want this item and add details why this gift is so special.

Example: I want a new bicycle because I’ve grown taller and my old bike is too small for me.

I want a bright yellow bicycle so it shines when I ride on a sunny day.

3)   Trim your page down to half a page (about two paragraphs). Choose which reasons and details you most want to share about this special gift.

4)   Finally, trim your shiny story to only one sentence. This sentence is the “star” of your story and should show the main idea or theme of what you most want to share about this gift. It may be the very first detail you thought of, or it may be something newly discovered as you’ve trimmed and revised your page about this special gift.

Whatever gifts you receive this year, Pencil Tips Writing Workshop wishes you all the happiest of holidays!

http://www.alisonashleyformento.com

                  

Fables Teach Writing Lessons in Purpose, Clarity

by Mary Quattlebaum

Aesop’s Fables is a classic that should be part of every home and school library, not only for its centuries-long influence upon literature but for its ever-timely, pithy points about life.  When used as writing models, these stories can inspire new versions of old favorites, help writers learn to revise for purpose and clarity, and connect with Common Core standards.

* Have available in classroom or share one or more collections of Aesop’s fables.  What do students notice about the writing and illustrating style of each?  Depending on publication date, some collections will be more overtly didactic than others.  For an especially fine version that eschews the tacked-on “message,” you might share the picture book Aesop’s Fables (minedition, 2013), which includes 13 favorites and quirky, intriguing illustrations by Ayano Imai.

* Share several tales with students and talk about their history, as being credited to an ancient Greek storyteller named Aesop.  Discuss the nature of fables as being stories, often with animal characters, designed to teach a life lesson.  Have students figure out the purpose or point of each tale.  What is the “life lesson” being taught?  How does the author convey that without tacking on the moral or telling the reader what it is? What do the animals do?

* Ask students to find examples of these tales, either as book re-tellings or as used in popular culture (advertisements, decorations on clothing, etc.).  Ask students why they think these tales continue to be re-told or referenced.  Why do they still speak to us?

* Have students write their own short fables, following this process:  (1) write down the life lesson you are trying to teach; (2) choose one or two animals that might help you to show this and jot down their personalities; (3) write a fable in which animals “act out” this life lesson, with action and dialogue; (4) revise, asking yourself if you showed how the animal learned the lesson; (5) share with a peer writer for feedback on word choice, clarity, etc.; (6) revise again; and (7) draw a picture, which can be as funny, surreal, or straightforward as you like.

* Compile the individual fables/pictures into a class booklet or display on bulletin board.

* Teens and adults might enjoy take-offs on the animal-fable form, especially David Sedaris’s hilarious Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary (2010).

 www.maryquattlebaum.com

Separating “Science Snippets”: An Exercise in Revision

Guest Post by Janet Wong

One of the hardest things for any writer is revision. You write something and fall in love with it: how could it you possibly make it any better?

I tell students: don’t try to make it better, just try to make it different.

If a poem rhymes, write a second draft that has zero rhyme. If a poem is long, cut it in half. If it’s short, double it. Use revision to give yourself some choices.

Here’s an easy exercise that will help you teach revision:

1.  Read a science poem from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science.

2.  Underline the science concepts.

3.  Extract a “Science Snippet” poem, using as few words as possible to communicate the main science ideas.

4.  If students want to keep some non-science words in the Science Snippet version, that’s OK.

5.  Read both poems aloud. Take a vote. Which poem do your students like better? (Ideally the vote will be split, to show how subjective the creative writing process is.)

Here is my poem “The Brink,” one of 218 science poems from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science (K-5 Teacher’s Edition), with a Take 5! mini-lesson for each poem by Sylvia Vardell:

 And here is one possible Science Snippet version:

The Brink (Science Snippet version)

by Janet Wong

I fill a cup to the top

with ice,

pour to the brim.

When the ice melts,

will my drink spill?

The ice seems to shrink.

PHEW!

It’s not clear to me that one version is better than the other—just different. I like the longer version (used in the book), but I’m sure that some people will prefer the Science Snippet. This revision exercise is effective because separating “the science parts” is easier than identifying “the best parts.” Students will be able to produce a significantly different version in just five minutes without anguishing over subjective choices.

Science + Poetry = A Powerful Revision Exercise!

Janet Wong is the co-creator (with Sylvia Vardell) of The Poetry Friday Anthology series. For more info, please visit PomeloBooks.com!

  

VIVID WORDS AND ACTION VERBS

by Mary Quattlebaum

How might you encourage students (of any age) to attend to language?  To begin to delight in and revise for sound, rhythm and strong, active verbs, whether for poetry or prose?

Reading aloud and pointing out these qualities certainly helps.  One of my favorite books to explore is In the Spin of Things by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (Wordsong 2003).  Twenty-three poems about ordinary things like lawn mowers, ice cubes, and wind chimes revolve around sound and motion.  These poems encourage writers to focus closely on the world around them, whether it’s the “squish, squish, squeegee-squish” of windshield wipers, the “whittle and whirrs” of a pencil sharpener, or the twang, rap, and snap of a rubber band.

* Read aloud “Ode to a Washing Machine,” “Scissors” and “Soda Can.”

* Have students  jot down words or phrases that seem especially vivid and interesting.  Jot down sounds (onomatopoeia), alliteration, verbs, patterns of sounds (several words with long “o,” short “i,” etc.).  Share and discuss.  With verbs, substitute bland words for more active ones and ask students to describe the difference.

* As a group, choose something (fire truck, cake mixer) not in Dotlich’s book.  Have each child name a sound or action associated with that thing to create a group poem.

* Ask students to listen at home to their washing machine, a pair of scissors cutting, or a kicked soda can.  What sounds did they hear? Ask them to listen to two or three other things (toaster, shower, vacuum cleaner, etc.) and make a list of sounds they hear, descriptive words (color, shape, texture), and verbs and movements.

* Write a poem or short prose passage about this thing using some of the words on their list.  Do not try to rhyme. Have the poem or passage begin and end with a sound or movement.

* Read aloud.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

STORY LEAVES: Writing Conclusions

by Alison Ashley Formento

Leaves swoop around us this time of year and a swirling rainbow of autumn colors fill the air. Leaves leave the trees, fluttering to the ground to end their seasonal journey. Much thought is given to hooking the reader with story beginnings, but endings are a key component in story and essay structure. How best do you leave a story or end an article you’re writing?

Writing the ending of any story or essay is often the most difficult task for a writer. You may want to leave your readers with a solid, firm opinion, or an open-ending, that can be interpreted in many ways, and perhaps, lead to another book in a series or inspire a new article or essay.

Leave the page

1.Read the last line of a favorite picture book or chapter book aloud in class.

Ask students to write two new endings for this story.

First, they should write a firm ending such as:

“and it was still hot.” Where the Wild Things Are

And one ending that might lead to something new:

“Uh-oh,” I thought. “it’s not just the lunch box.” Third Grade Angels, Jerry Spinelli

2. Ask students to read Kids Discovery, National Geographic Magazine, or use the daily paper from your town. Choose an article or Op-Ed piece to rewrite the final paragraph still using the facts made clear in the article.

Try to “leave” the reader with a whole new question, which to inspire a new discussion.

Example: “Scientists understand key reasons why dinosaurs became extinct, but if there hadn’t been an ice age, do you think we’d still have these massive creatures on Earth? Perhaps as house pets?”

Now write a new article ending leaving the reader with clear knowledge of the represented facts. Example: “Scientific testing on discovered dinosaurs bones are solid proof they could not survive due to severe weather conditions.”

The best authors and journalists play with story and article endings to make sure readers feel like they’ve had a memorable reading experience. Writing a great ending is as satisfying as jumping into a giant pile of autumn leaves. Enjoy!

www.alisonashleyformento.com

THE POWER OF SONGWRITING

by Mary Amato

When I was in the eighth grade, my teacher Mr. McCauley brought in a record: Paul Simon's “I am a Rock.” He played it and we analyzed the lyrics as poetry. The excitement of getting to listen to popular music (at the time, Simon & Garfunkel were huge) during class electrified the whole room. The power of metaphor hit me that day and stayed with me forever. My newest book, Guitar Notes, is a novel about the power of songwriting and I wrote and recorded songs that accompany the book, a project that had its inspiration way back in Mr. McCauley's class.

Here's what you can do. Bring in a current song, print out the lyrics or have them up on your smartboard. Listen to the song and then talk about what literary elements the songwriter used and why. I have two ready-to-use resources to share from my new book's website. One is a lesson plan in song revision; and the other, in case you want to follow up by encouraging your students to write their own songs, is a songwriting lesson. Rock on!

www.maryamato.com

THE POWER OF PUBLISHING

by Jacqueline Jules

At the end of the year, many schools publish literary magazines. It’s a wonderful way to help young writers see that they write for a purpose and an audience. Publication is also a powerful motivator for revision.

Before you send your literary magazine to the printer or post it online, give your students the opportunity to see “proof pages” of their entry. This simulates the real world model many magazines and publishing houses follow of giving authors one last final approval before publication. Explain to the students that this is their chance to look over their work and make any necessary changes before it is presented to the public. You might be surprised how seriously even elementary school students take this responsibility.

Presented with a typed and formatted version of their own writing, students will suddenly see repetitious or weak word choices. They will add snappier endings or beginnings and they will find typos you missed. Some will even come up with stronger titles.

I recently visited five third grade classes with proof pages of work most of them had completed at least two months prior. All of these students had previously seen their stories typed on an individual page. They had chosen the font type and formatting. However, when told that their work would be part of a grade level book, they re-read their work with a critical eye. Working in pairs, they read their own work and their partners', checking for mistakes and making suggestions. They were told to write on the papers directly and put a 0,+1, +2, +3, etc, indicating how many changes they wanted.

One boy who had been lackadaisical about his writing in earlier conferences suddenly had all sorts of details he urgently wanted added to his story. His proof page came back with +8! Another girl changed the sentence, “It was sooo beautiful,” to “She was enchanted by its beauty.” Student after student crossed out bland words for more descriptive ones.

And while I am not a proponent of changing ,“said,” simply for variety since  there is no point in calling unnecessary attention to a speech tag, I was delighted when a child looked over his story and changed a “said” to “murmured.” The story was about a misunderstanding in a conversation. Indicating that one speaker mumbled, strengthened the whole story. Other third graders found inconsistencies in their stories such as “My mom drove the car. I don’t drive!”  Or, “The story shouldn’t take place in 55 A.D.” I even saw students catch pronouns with no antecedents. Wow!

Publishing student work in a literary magazine is time-consuming and can be expensive, but it is a powerful tool for motivating students to do their best work. There is something about knowing your work will be in an anthology beside other pieces that makes young writers realize that a little extra effort might just be worth it.

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/ 

THE KEY TO GOOD WRITING

by Jacqueline Jules

Inspired by Mary Amato’s post on Sharing Mistakes, http://penciltipswritingworkshop.blogspot.com/2012/02/sharing-mistakes.html, I told students the story of a recent poem acceptance. In addition to a few stylistic changes, the editor asked if I would consider chopping off the last two lines. I was hesitant. The poem felt unfinished without the ending. Then, as I usually do, when an editor makes a suggestion, I examined those lines again. Did I really need them? Were they redundant? Could I rework the beginning so the new ending felt more resonant? I gave it a whirl and revised the poem, creating a version I liked better. In the end, I was grateful to the editor for pushing me to write a stronger poem. 

Art by Maggie D.

This is not the first time an editor has asked me to remove an ending, change a title, or even switch the point of view. Revisions at the request of an editor are part of any published author’s life.  Books rarely spring perfectly formed from the writer’s brain. They benefit from the suggestions of others. When someone gives me a good idea for fixing one of my stories or poems, they give me a present—an opportunity to write something better. In the long run, I am happier.  Of course, it can be hard to hear that writing you think is finished needs further work, but good writing requires hard work. At author visits, I often tell students how I expanded my original idea for Zapato Power from a 1,0000 word easy reader to a 5,000 word chapter book. Likewise, my Constitution book, Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation began as a four page skit of 800 some words that I expanded to over 3000 words. Students are accustomed to hearing their teachers tell them they should add details or change things in their writing. It can be comforting (and empowering) for students to hear that all writers are asked to expand their stories. A frequent question at author visits is: “How many times do you revise?” The truth is I revise so many times, I lose track. Thirty times may be an average number but I sold a book last year that I’ve been re-writing in different formats for over twenty years. That book must have gone through at least one hundred revisions.

Teachers are often frustrated by a student’s unwillingness to go back and revise. Kids often feel they are finished the second they put the period on the last sentence. So it bears repeating as often as possible that revision is the key to good writing.  While not all students will be motivated to rework their pieces, some will be inspired with amazing results. A student recently came to me with a brief third person story about a father/son ski trip that ended in the boy’s death. I suggested that she fill out the story to make the reader feel more connected to the characters. I also commented on how the death of a child is very sad. The student said she wanted to write a sad story. I said, “That’s fine. Just make the reader feel the experience.” To be honest, I didn’t expect the student to pursue the project. About a week later, the student came back to me with a story written from the viewpoint of a daughter who lost her father during a skiing accident. I was blown away by the immediacy of the voice. A couple of ho-hum paragraphs about a nameless boy who died in a hole had been transformed into a riveting first person story. I felt the panic and pain of this new character as she realized her father was fatally injured. The young writer had added strong dialogue and vivid details one would never have imagined from her first draft. She proved to herself and her readers how much a new approach can enhance a story.  

Another example comes from a student who wanted to write a story about the day she overcame her fear of riding roller coasters. However, she got bogged down in the beginning and somehow ended up spending more time describing the breakfast she ate and the drive to the amusement park than the roller coaster ride. I suggested that she trim the beginning and add more details about her fear of riding coasters and how she overcame it. At first, she balked (as I did when the editor asked me to rewrite my poem). Then, she sat down to try again. The end result was a piece so focused the reader felt the queasiness in the girl’s stomach as she considered overcoming her fears.

As teachers, sometimes we are afraid to push our students to do better work. We don’t want to discourage them. But the delighted face of a student who realizes he/she has transformed a weak work into a strong one is an empowering gift for all involved.

www.jacquelinejules.com

Twenty Percent Off

by Pamela Ehrenberg

In ninth grade, I had big puffy hair, braces, and stirrup pants.  I read Stephen King and Sweet Valley High, dissected a frog, and really dissected the nuances of youth group dances.  And I tried the 20 percent challenge.

Or was it the 30 percent challenge?  The actual number doesn't matter: the point is to shorten a piece of writing by some arbitrary percentage with the goal of making it tighter, making every word work 20 percent (or 30 percent or 15 percent) harder. 

The first time my teacher, Michael Bruner, assigned this challenge, he handed us a piece of writing from a former student and instructed us to shorten it by 20 percent.  That was much less intimidating; it's easy to be ruthless with somebody else's beloved adverbs and meandering descriptions.  Once we had the idea, it was easier to apply the strategy to our own writing, and soon we discovered the particular words and phrases that tended to creep in and weigh down our prose.

Writers coming of age in today's Twitterverse might grasp more instinctively than my generation the value of brevity.  But they'll still be surprised at how even a draft they thought was "finished" can still be trimmed by 20 percent--and how much stronger the resulting prose will appear.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have made progress toward taming the puffy hair, and I have expanded my reading repertoire.  But when I'm stuck on a revision and not sure how to improve a piece of writing, I still fall back on the 20 percent challenge.  Some things, thankfully, are more enduring than stirrup pants.

***Can you shorten this blog post by 20 percent?  Let us know in the comments below!

http://www.pamelaehrenberg.com/Site/Home.html

PENCIL TIPS WRITING WORKSHOP: SALT IN THE SOUP OR HOW I LEARNED TO WRITE

by Jacqueline Jules

The more I work with student writers, the more I think about how I developed my own writing skills. When did I become careful about punctuation and spelling? When did I start making a conscious effort to add sensory details or to build a story arc with a satisfying conclusion? Looking back, I see that I learned to write the same way I learned to cook—by testing recipes and listening to advice.

As a young bride, I remember my mother-in-law tasting my soup and pronouncing it too salty to eat. You can bet that I followed the recipe more carefully the next time. I also remember a professor, my first year of college, who wrote in red ink, “Don’t bother passing in a paper with this many typos again.” My embarrassment over both incidents has changed to gratitude. Now I measure how much salt I put into my soup and I proofread my manuscripts carefully. Editors at publishing houses frequently admit that stories submitted with grammatical errors are tossed without reading. If I had never listened to that professor, I wouldn’t be the author of twenty-two children’s books today.

The first book in my Zapato Power series, Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Takes Off, is dedicated to my writing group. Dedications like this are not uncommon. Authors frequently pay homage to the critique groups who made the suggestions that transformed a mediocre story into a publishable one. Editors are often thanked as well. Every time I read my Thanksgiving picture book, Duck for Turkey Day, I am grateful to my creative Albert Whitman editor, who gently but firmly guided me into writing an important new scene for the book.

      

Contemporary writing curriculums all urge educators to teach the writer, not the writing. While I understand that this advice is to discourage teachers from overwhelming young writers with too many suggestions at once, I still find the distinction puzzling. In my own experience as a writer, I know I have learned a great deal from the revision process of a particular piece, often guided by others who pointed out places in my story that didn’t make sense or fell flat. And I have seen my students come up with absolutely brilliant ideas for revision when I have questioned a sentence that confused me. I trust that my students will find that the lessons learned from fixing one story will carry over to the next. It is the recipe that guided me and most of the authors I know to publication.

Jacqueline Jules

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/

PENCIL TIPS: WRITING WITH THE FIVE SENSES

by Mary Quattlebaum

I don’t know what to write!  Have you heard this wail from your students?  The five-senses exercise gives them a fun and focused way to start.  I’ve done this exercise with all ages, from third graders to college students to adults.  It helps hone descriptive and revising skills.

Exercise:  Use the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (at least 3 of 5) to write a description of a place.

*  Before writing, have students first close their eyes and quietly picture this spot in their minds.  Go through each of the senses one by one, asking them “What do you see in this place … hear … smell … taste … touch?”  And finish by asking, “How does being in this place make you feel?”

*  Have them write, using at least 3 of their 5 senses in their description of this place. Descriptions should be relatively short (about 1 to 3 paragraphs long).

*  After writing a first draft, have students revise, encouraging them to use more descriptive words (“lush, green” grass rather than “pretty” grass, for example); more specific nouns and adjectives (what kind of bird or what color, for example), and stronger verbs (“run” or “skip” rather than “go,” for example).

Variations

For young people:  I often challenge them to describe a place outdoors that is special to them.  This helps them to focus on and perhaps better experience the natural world.  Otherwise you tend to get descriptions of bedrooms and malls.

For creative writers:  In addition to sharpening descriptive skills, the exercise can be a boon for creative writers trying to flesh out scenes and create a well-rounded world for their characters.  (I often do this exercise, trying to imagine the scene before writing/revising it.)  It’s endlessly interesting because you can apply it to places/scenes real and imagined, scary, tranquil, or chaotic.

For everyone:  Ours is a culture that gives and receives a lot of information through our sense of sight.  And our vocabularies tend to be sight-rich—with many fewer words dealing with taste and smell.  By being aware of and drawing upon all your five senses in your writing, you’ll often find yourself more alive to your senses in the real world.

 http://www.maryquattlebaum.com/