WRITING THAT FORGIVES

by Mary Quattlebaum

During this season of peace and good will, I am reminded of the power of words, not just to assert but to connect, not just to hurt but to heal.

Do you ever provide a prompt that evolves into a powerful writing experience for your students—you can tell by that hushed, charged feeling in the room—but for which you never see the pieces?  Sometimes the piece that allows students to move to a new level of awareness, risk, and connection with their writing may well be the one that the teacher does not review.

This exercise was inspired by This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by acclaimed poet Joyce Sidman.  This is a lovely book to keep in the classroom—or to give as a gift.  The book is divided into two parts.  In the first section a person apologizes to a specific other for a transgression (breaking a glass keepsake, eating all the brownies, saying something unkind); and in the second section, the person addressed has a chance to respond.

*Talk about some of the poems with students, asking them to mention ways in which others were hurt.  Ask them to imagine how the hurt person might react to the poem-apology and then read and discuss the corresponding poem of forgiveness in part two.

*Ask students to close their eyes and think about a time when they hurt someone or something.

*Have them write a letter to the person in which they tell what they did and apologize.  First assure students that this piece of writing will not be looked at by you (teacher) or shared with others.  They might wish to share it with the person to whom it is addressed—but that is up to them.

*On certain days, allow the page to be a safe place for students to write out their feelings and secrets without worries that this will be reviewed or graded. You might set aside a time, perhaps monthly or biweekly, for such writing explorations.

http://www.maryquattlebaum.com/

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WHAT DID YOU LEARN? CREATING THOUGHTFUL NARRATIVES

by Jacqueline Jules

Personal narratives are a big part of any elementary writing curriculum. Primary school students not only enjoy writing about their personal experiences, classmates enjoy reading each other’s accounts of birthday parties and play dates, especially when they find themselves mentioned.

However, sometimes accounts of vacation trips and holiday gatherings can read like an uninspired and rambling list. Do we really need to know every item ordered by every family member at a restaurant? And a sequential list of every television show watched in a 24 hour period will definitely put a reader to sleep. How can we encourage students to write personal narratives with memorable details and thoughtful reflections?

Ask students if a vacation gave them an opportunity to learn how to do something new. Was it the first time at the beach or on an airplane? Did something amusing happen? For example, one student’s writing discussed a trip to a high rise hotel. After paragraphs of many mundane details about the taxi cab ride, checking in, and unpacking, the student discussed what happened when the family went to explore the hotel. The two children ran ahead of the parents and went up in the hotel elevator alone. Could the story be rewritten to highlight this incident? How did it feel to be in the elevator with your younger brother, going up to the 25^th floor? Did you worry your parents while you had a fun adventure? Did you learn anything from the experience? Expanding one event, often buried in a blow-by-blow description of a family vacation, can turn a rambling narrative into an intriguing read. To begin the transition to more focused personal narratives, ask students to identify the most interesting part of their story and then begin a new narrative, describing just that part in more detail. Remind students to include their own feelings, observations, and lessons learned.

After students have identified the most compelling moment in an existing narrative, ask them to concentrate on a single incident for the next  story. Do you remember a time in your childhood when you did something your family found amusing or particularly annoying? One of my students remembered a time when he climbed onto a dining table to examine a bowl full of apples. He took one bite out of each apple and put it back in the bowl. A description of his actions and then subsequent surprise at his mother’s reaction was great material for an amusing story. Another student decided to write about her mischievous baby brother. Rather than listing one childish misdeed after another in a story that could potentially go on for ten pages, the student decided to zero in on the time her mom left her purse within the baby’s reach. The toddler took out Mom’s lipstick and smeared his entire body with it. In that story, Mom learned a lesson!

Another strategy is to focus on a problem or obstacle and how it was overcome. Were you afraid to go off the diving board? Did you hate a certain food your family wanted you to try? Did you fight with a sibling and resolve the conflict in a creative way?

Encourage your students to begin their narratives with a clear idea of what they want to convey to the reader. Is this a story about your first experience with something? Is it a story about a lesson learned or problem solved? Is it a funny story? Ask students to identify the emotion they want the reader to feel. Do you want your reader to laugh? Empathize? Or simply nod his head in agreement? 

Even the youngest student can be encouraged to add insightful comments to personal narratives. Rather than ending the piece with “then we went home,” ask students to tell the reader how they felt about the experience. Would you want to do it again? Did you learn anything? Would you recommend this experience to others?

Personal narratives are a powerful form of writing. Inspire your students to harness that power with personal reflections. It will help them grow as writers and as individuals. 

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/

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ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

by Pam Smallcomb

I remember when I decided to focus on my writing, and I attended my first SCBWI Writer’s Conference. It seemed to me that at each presentation, I was given this advice:

“Show, don’t tell.”

I looked around at my fellow attendees and saw them nodding sagely. In my head I was thinking, “What in the heck are they talking about?” Since I was obviously the only one who didn’t ‘get it,’ I sat quietly and hoped to break this super-secret code on my own some day.

Eventually, I figured out that what these writers and editors were saying was that the actions of your characters should reveal their character traits and flaws (not to mention the plot itself). But how do you check for ‘telling’ in your own work? One way is to take a close look at your adverbs and adjectives, and consider each one a candidate for the old axe.

For example, the sentence “She looked at the box carefully.” doesn’t really tell you how she went about examining the box, nor does it reveal anything about her character, her emotional state, or the plot.

Instead you could write, “Her hands shook as she turned the box over and over in her lap.”

This sentence could convey nervousness, or excitement, or even fear (depending on what is in that box!).

Another way to check your own work is to keep an eye out for the verbs ‘is’ and ‘are’ (and the past tenses ‘was’ and ‘were’).

For example:

“David is charming.”

How is he charming? Does he remember everyone’s birthday? Have a smile that can melt ice cream? Perform magic tricks spontaneously? How does his particular charm manifest itself?

In other words, if I were to watch David in action, what would he do that would cause me to think of him as charming? ‘Showing’ instead of ‘telling’ is what draws your reader into your story, and makes them bond to the characters. It allows your reader to become the character.  It forces the reader to watch the characters and deduce what their actions mean. It doesn’t spell everything out the way ‘telling’ does. It’s a less passive experience all around.

An exercise that students can do to help them see the difference is to first make a list of adverbs and adjectives, then write two sentences: one ‘telling’ and one ‘showing’.

Ex. Loudly:

I watched Rosi clap loudly when Ralph won first prize.

When they announced Ralph had won, I glanced at Rosi and covered my ears.

Ex. Grumpy:

Sid was pretty grumpy when I woke him up.

Sid slammed me in the side of the head with his pillow when I woke him up.

I recently watched the BBC version of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit. More importantly, I watched the characters. The actions and mannerisms of each character were unique: from the servant Flintwinch’s gruff behavior, to Amy Dorrit’s gentle and kind-hearted manner. You knew Amy Dorrit was kind-hearted not because everyone pointed to her and said, “Now there goes a kind-hearted girl!” but because Dickens shows us. He shows Amy saving part of her lunch to take back to her father in debtor’s prison. He shows her taking care of people. He doesn’t tell us to think of her as kind. We begin to think of her as kind, as we watch her actions.

When trying not to ‘tell’ your story you can remember the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words.”

http://www.pamsmallcomb.com/

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“This cheerful package of images and information delivers intellectual nourishment in the guise of a tasty treat for the eyes.” --School Library Journal