MYSTERY WRITING

by Mary Amato

Writing a mystery can be a challenge for a professional writer, let alone a beginner. Not only do you have to write a story, but you have to keep track of clues. A fourth grade teacher brought me into her classroom to work on mystery writing with her students. In preparation, she shared with me the curriculum guide for this unit, which I felt was too complex.

I simplified the unit, asking students to focus on a theft (which made the action concrete), and using only the characters of villain, sleuth, and one suspect that turns out to be innocent.

Begin by having students create a graphic organizer: Who is the criminal/villain? What does your criminal/villain steal? Who is your sleuth/hero? Who is the suspect who turns out to be innocent?

Next, have your students write a short outline of what happens in each scene:

Scene 1: Describe the villain committing the theft.

Scene 2: Describe the sleuth discovering that X has been stolen.

Scene 3: Describe the sleuth searching for clues. A clue must lead the sleuth to believe that the suspect is guilty.

Scene 4: Describe the sleuth interviewing the suspect. The suspect should have an alibi.

Scene 5: Describe the sleuth setting a trap for another theft.

Scene 6: Describe the villain trying to commit this left, and the sleuth catching the criminal in the act.

Having a simple structure allows students to focus on writing and character development.

After your students have outlined the story, then let them write it!

Here's my video showing my process for writing Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook.

 www.maryamato.com

IN LIVING COLOR: Winter Poetry Ideas

by Laura Krauss Melmed

Midwinter landscapes in my part of the world yield mostly subdued tones of browns and dusty greens sometimes enlivened by a dazzle of cardinal swooping toward the bird feeder.  Skies can be a steely gray and the light still fades early (although less so every day – yay!).  But this year my winter world pulsed with vivid hues when my first grandchild was born on January 27. 

It made me think of color as a good subject for winter poetry writing.  Start by exploring two books of color poetry with your students.  Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill is a classic, first published in 1961, in which she explores the colors of the spectrum in ways still read fresh and original today.  “Like acrobats on a high trapeze/ Colors pose and bend their knees/ Twist and turn and leap and blend/ into shapes and feelings without end…” 

Red Sings From Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman uses color to explore each of the four seasons.  In evocative, playful language, with much use of personification and rich sensory references, Sidman brings color alive.  “Red sings / from treetops . . . / each note dropping / like a cherry / into my ear.”  Green trills from trees” and “purple pours into summer evenings one shadow at a time.”   Eloquent, quirky illustrations by Pamela Zagarenski perfectly capture the mood of wonder. 

You could also show and discuss some famous paintings like Van Gogh’s Starry Nights (blue) or Sunflowers (yellow), or Monet’s Water Lilies  (green) to further explore the feelings color can evoke. 

Now students should select their chosen color.  Have them write the color in the center of a blank page and surround it with 6 radiating circles.  In circle 1, they should put emotions their chosen color evokes.  In circle 2, random parts of the body.  In circle 3, actions those body parts can perform.  In circle 4, plants and flowers, trees, insects, animals, and other parts of nature associated with their chosen color.  In circle 5, foods associated with their chosen color.  In circle 6, a list of as many of the furniture and architectural features (doors, windows) of the classroom as possible.

Now, choosing a word or words from each of the circles, have students write a six-line poem starting with their selected color.  Stress that by combining words from the various circles; they can come up with unique and interesting combinations of words to make a tribute to the color of their choice.  Hang a large paper rainbow across one wall and tack the finished colors poems to it to brighten the grayest winter day!

www.laurakraussmelmed.com

SNOW GLOBES AND GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

by Jacqueline Jules

I remember the first time I was introduced to graphic organizers. It was a professional development day early in my teaching career, probably twenty years ago. The presenter in the workshop was so excited to share them. He gushed on about their usefulness in the classroom as if they were the best thing since sliced bread. I yawned. Freshly baked whole loaves are my preference and I have never personally used a graphic organizer. That doesn’t mean I forgo pre-writing. My writing always flows better after scribbling down some rough ideas before beginning a story or a poem. It’s the graphic organization of those ideas that made me uncomfortable. My brain doesn’t seem respond to connecting circles and boxes.

So I never used it in my own teaching, figuring my students couldn’t possibly be motivated by something that didn’t work for me personally. What an arrogant mistake!

Recently, two second grade teachers at the school where I work showed me the power of pre-writing with graphic organizers. They found a delightful lesson on Deanna Jump’s teaching blog about snowglobes. Each child not only created a snowglobe for the bulletin board, he or she wrote a story about what it would be like to live in a snowglobe.

When I read these second grade stories, I was blown away by the details the children included. They imagined the sensation of having their homes shaken up. They described snowflakes flickering down. Some imagined ways to break out of the snow globe to return to the real world. Others wrote about an idyllic life of sledding and hot cocoa. The stories were detailed and filled with sensory images.

“How did you do this?” I asked my two colleagues. “How did you get your second graders to write such descriptive and imaginative stories?”

The answer was pre-writing with graphic organizers. Before beginning their stories, the class discussed snow globes at length and the children were asked to fill out two sheets.

One sheet asked the students to fill in ideas of what it might be like to live in a snowglobe using an organizer from Valerie Noles' blog.

Another sheet asked the students to complete sentences. If I Lived in a Snow Globe, I would see…., I would hear …. , I would smell…, I would feel… from the First Grade Blue Skies blog  

This humbling experience not only convinced me that graphic organizers are useful teaching tools for pre-writing, it reminded me of all the wonderful resources teachers generously share on the internet. I am a little embarrassed I didn’t embrace organizers before, but sometimes, even the best of us, overlook good teaching practices.  

www.jacquelinejules.com