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

WHAT'S THE STORY?

by Jane Harrington

I just listened to a pretty right-on lecture about fiction writing by Jenna Blum (The Author at Work: The Art of Writing Fiction), so I’ll share an activity based on something she recommends. I think this can help all creative writers, any age. It’s about writing “log lines.”

For those who dabble in screenwriting, this is probably a known term, but it was new to me. A log line is a one-sentence distillation of a story, and can be a very useful means of getting to the bones of a body of creative writing. Whereas “theme” can usually be expressed in one word or phrase (“making new friends” or “recovery” or “loss”) a good log line includes the protagonist and his/her goal or central conflict. Note that endings (spoilers!) are not included in log lines.

Here’s how this activity might work:

1.     Find a bestsellers list, such as the New York Times “Children’s Best Sellers,” and read all the descriptions for the books there. Some in last week’s NYT—

•   “A filthy bird is persuaded to bathe.” (Mo Willems’ The Pigeon Needs a Bath!)

•   “A teenager uncovers the mysteries of a village surrounded by a beast-filled forest.” (David Baldacci’s The Finisher.)

•   “A girl saves books from Nazi burning.” (Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.)

2. Think about a book or short story you like and know well, and then create a log line for it.

•   For Alice in Wonderland that might be: A girl tumbles into an alternate universe and meets many strange characters in her quest to get home.

•   For Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak: After a traumatic experience at a summer party, a teenage girl tries to endure her next year of high school while keeping a secret.

3. Now, think about something you’ve written or want to write, and create a log line for it. I’ve done this for two of my books here.

•   In letters to her best friend back home, a thirteen-year-old girl describes her progress at accomplishing a list of things she has been dared to do while on a Mediterranean cruise (Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe).

•   A ten-year-old girl describes her angsts and adventures in a journal she starts to keep after her memory-impaired grandmother moves in with her family (Lucy’s Completely Cool and Totally True E-Journal).

Some writers might find that brainstorming log lines is a good way to get a handle on a story idea before starting to write. Other writers might find it a useful exercise to guide the revision process, particularly after some free writing. (See Jacqueline Jules’ “Transforming a Free Write” for more ideas along thoselines.)

If used in the classroom, this exercise should help meet the requirements of the following Common Core standards:

CCSS.ELA—LITERACY.RL.1.2 thru 11-12.2

www.janeharrington.com

WRITING IN PLACE

by Jane Harrington

Green is washing over winter’s wan fields in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where I live, teach and write. I have some goats, and like them I am using the changing landscape as fodder—literally, in their case, as they tug at each new shoot for nourishment; figuratively, in my case, as I look to the awakening pastures to inspire my prose. I’ve recently taken to setting my fiction on these hills I call home, and I’m finding this to be a fruitful strategy. One such short story will be published in June in Chautauqua, a literary journal that showcases work each year by both adult and youth writers.

It seems that what I hear students frustratingly refer to as “writer’s block” is just a manifestation of being overwhelmed, of not knowing where to start. So, consider having the young writers in your life begin with what is in view, what they call home. Don’t think story. Just think setting and use simple words that first come to mind. The tree out there is bare and gray. Later, with the help of a thesaurus, it can become exposed, ashen. Then, some sounds might arrive when a March gust blows through the branches. (See MaryQuattlebaum’s “Vivid Words and Actions” for ideas on writing the aural.) And someone will surely plod through the mud to get to the tree. (See Jacqueline Jules’ “Follow the Snowprints” for ways to invite characters in.) Let the story grow in this way—slowly, steadily, like spring’s greening outside your window.

Common Core Connections: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3; 4.3; 5.3; 6.3; 7.3; 8.3.

www.janeharrington.com 

Sprinkling on the Grammar

by Jane Harrington

November is here—leaves are blowing in circles around us, the first logs of the season are being tossed in fireplaces, and we’re thinking about comfort foods: hearty soups, turkey dinners, plates of spaghetti. So, let’s go with this today and liken a good story to swirling leaves (dynamic, moving), a cozy fire (touching, heartwarming), and a fine meal (nourishing to the body and soul).

Lingering on the food metaphor, I like to think about how the smallest ingredients make all the difference in those things we love to eat: the rosemary leaves on the roasted vegetables, the garam masala stirred into the Ethiopian dish, the pinch of cinnamon in the tomato sauce. (Note to self: Must cook as soon as I finish this post!) This, to me, is what good grammar is to writing. The perfect punctuation mark, the right word—these can turn an ordinary story into something special, something memorable. And raising this sort of awareness can be fun for writers of all ages. REALLY.

Here’s an adjective/adverb activity that can work with a story that is already written. (If you need ideas for creative prompts, I recommend a blog by a high school teacher at writingprompts.tumblr.com. This writing instructor ties his prompts to Common Core Anchor Standards, and most are suitable for writers across the age spectrum.) After instruction on adjectives and adverbs, have the student writers identify these parts of speech in the stories they’ve written. Is their creation under spiced? Have them sprinkle more in! Have they over spiced? Have them reduce the ingredient!

You can also approach this as a challenge in the original piece of writing, by limiting the part of the speech (No adverbs at all in your story!) or over saturating (Every sentence must contain an adjective!). Mix it up for your young writers’ personal palates. The extra attention to craft is sure to result in some tasteful tales.

Some Common Core K-5 connections:

CCSS L.2.1.e: Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

CCSS L.3.1.a: Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.

Anchor Standards for Writing #5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

www.janeharrington.com

WRITING AND COMMON CORE CONNECTIONS WITH SUSAN STOCKDALE

by Mary Quattlebaum

Schools are abuzz with talk of Common Core.  What are the challenges for students, teachers of writing, and those who write for children?  How might the new standards be best implemented to enhance writing as well as reading and information-processing skills?  In exploring these questions, I’m delighted to welcome acclaimed author/illustrator Susan Stockdale to Pencil Tips. When it comes to nonfiction, Susan embraces beauty and accuracy.  Her books on the natural world, including her newest, Stripes (Peachtree 2013), are scrupulously researched and stunningly presented, both in terms of language and image.   Check www.susanstockdale.com  for more information on Susan’s books and activities.

1. Your new book, Stripes, is in the style of your award-winning titles Bring on the Birds and Fabulous Fishes, with back matter that helps the book to grow with the reader. Can you share your greatest joy in writing and illustrating it?

My greatest joy in creating the book was when I determined my approach for writing it. I decided to write rhyming verses for the animals’ habitats and to show each animal in action in its particular home: "Propped on a log,/poised on a leaf./ Scaling a ridge, /and scouting a reef." From a writing standpoint, this gave me the opportunity to highlight where the animals live and use some verbs that might be new to children. From a visual standpoint, I was able to paint some wonderful and diverse environments.

2.  What about your biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge was deciding which animal to illustrate for each line of text. I had many choices. For example, for my line “poised on a leaf,” I illustrated a zebra swallowtail butterfly, but I considered a Colorado potato beetle, a leafhopper, a red shield bug, a bumblebee, a caterpillar and other creatures. I chose the butterfly because I thought it was the most visually appealing of all my candidates and would be fun to paint  - an important consideration!

Here is the progression of my badger illustration:

Sketch 1: the badger that is "prowling the prairie"  

looks pretty meek here!

 

Sketch 2: now the badger looks more like it's prowling

  

Image 3: final acrylic painting

 

3.  Thank you for sharing the evolution of that particular image!  It’s fascinating to see how you add ever-greater detail to the depiction of the badger and its habitat.  Do you have a writing or drawing prompt that might connect with the book?

As a fun and easy warm-up exercise, I give children a sticky note and ask them to write an adjective describing a photo or painting we are observing. (There’s something about writing just one word on a little piece of paper that takes the intimidation out of writing.) Then I gather up the notes and ask the children to direct me as I arrange and rearrange their words on the wall. The results can be surprising and sometimes beautifully poetic. This prompt demonstrates how changing the order of words changes their meaning, and how a small change can make a big difference.

Thank you, Susan.  I know you’re already hard at work on your next nonfiction book, Spots, and look forward to sharing that one with my students, too.

www.maryquattlebaum.com

IT’S vs ITS: HELP!

by Jane Harrington

For those of us writers of English who were lucky enough to grow up with this language  (nothing to be taken for granted, because English is one of the very hardest languages to write properly if you are coming to it as your second language), most of the rules of grammar are entirely intuitive. Some rules, though, make sense only to etymologists and philologists, and dog the rest of us for life.

Case in point: I have never been able to keep the “restrictive” vs. “non-restrictive” clause terminology straight. One is the “which” clause (not essential to the meaning of the sentence, thus needing commas to set it off), and one is the “that” clause (essential to sentence meaning, thus needing no commas); but as much I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to make any logical connection between these clauses and restriction. What is restricting what? In practice I can write the clauses correctly, but as a teacher I am often called upon to explain underlying grammar rules, and it’s embarrassing not to know. So, I danced the halls of my university (in my mind, at least) when I cracked open the new grammar style book our department adopted this year and found that the words “restrictive” and “non-restrictive” were not even in the index. The terms had been replaced with the descriptors I’d always been using for those clauses: essential and non-essential.

I tell this story to my students now whenever I see that old shame begin to rise up into their cheeks—that grammar guilt we all carry around like original sin. I tell them that our language is still changing, that the terms applied are arbitrary, and that nobody gets grammar right all the time. PhDs make errors in pronoun case and agreement regularly at faculty meetings, I assure them. This is because the evolution of our language has left us with a lot of rules that just aren’t logical. Which brings me to it’s vs its, a common error in all my College Composition classes.

Why do students have such a hard time with these teeny words? Well, it might be because the grammar rules that students know intuitively conflict with what we tell them to do with these words. Take this sentence, for instance:

Look at the peacock—it’s preening its shiny feathers.

Writers of English know to use an apostrophe for contractions and possession, so…hm, we have both in this sentence, but we only use an apostrophe for the contraction. While those philologists and etymologists have lively debates over the reason for this anomaly, we teachers are stuck with explaining the problem away as an exception for “possessive pronouns,” a term that young students are probably not ready for and older students have long forgotten. So, what do you do?

Literally, what do you do? How do you teach it’s vs its to young writers in your lives? Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments!

Personally, I’m thinking of getting a cheery-looking rubber stamp made that says something like: It’s only ever means it is. It may not solve the problem, but it might be satisfying to slap that into the margin instead of scribbling the same edit over and over.

Common Core English Language Standards connections:

L.1.1d. Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns….

L.2.2c. Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.

L.3.1a. Explain function of nouns, pronouns…and their functions in particular sentences.

L.4.1g. Correctly use frequently confused words….

www.janeharrington.com

POETRY FRIDAY FOR POETRY MONTH

by Jacqueline Jules

          The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School is here! And just in time for April and Poetry Month. This lively compendium of poetry expertly selected by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell has poems by 71 poets including Jane Yolen, Lee Wardlaw, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, J. Patrick Lewis, Jack Prelutsky, and Nikki Grimes. I am honored to be included among such esteemed poets, along with fellow Pencil Tips blogger, Mary Quattlebaum.

          Like the K-5 edition of The Poetry Friday Anthology, the middle school edition has a poem and quick lesson for every week of the school year. Also included are tips for sharing poetry in the classroom, quotes about poetry, and the Common Core Standards for grades, 6, 7, and 8.  Having all this information in one book is a great timesaver for busy teachers. And there are so many poems inside which could serve as models to inspire student writing.

          In “Advice to Rapunzel,” Eileen Spinelli warns this fairy tale princess to “Be cautious and wise/when you let down your hair.” After reading this poem aloud, you could challenge your students to write their own poem to a fairy tale character. Julie Larios’ poem “The Perfect Day” or Irene Latham’s “Biking Along White Rim Road” could jumpstart student poems about a special day outdoors with a friend. And there is a menagerie of wonderful pet poems to serve as inspiration for students to write about their own beloved animals.

Many of the poems in this book are breath-taking —excellent demonstrations of the quote on the back cover by Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Poetry teaches us the power of a few words.” Teachers might find themselves putting this anthology by their bedside for pleasure reading.

Equally impressive are the “Take 5 Activities” accompanying each poem. They include tips for introducing the poem’s subject matter, reading it aloud, and pairing it with other related poems. Particularly helpful is Tip #4 which highlights a specific poetic device used in the poem. These tips also point out the structure of individual poems and how the poet used line breaks to convey meaning. Teachers looking for quick examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor, or personification only need flip through a few pages before finding exactly what they need.

As the introduction to Poetry Friday for Middle School eloquently states, poetry is a wonderful vehicle for introducing vocabulary, figurative language, sensory details, and imagery. It stimulates the imagination and expresses strong emotion. What’s more, poems can be revisited, providing the reader with new insights and emotional connections. All of these add up to compelling reasons why every teacher should consider adding a weekly Poetry Break to his or her curriculum. Check out The Poetry Friday Anthologies to find out exactly how.

www.jacquelinejules.com

Getting to the Core of the Writing

by Jane Harrington

Too many words! You already said that!

I often want to scribble those complaints across essays I get from my College Composition students, so I was heartened to see that “Common Core” (the new standards program that’s “preparing America’s students for college and career”) includes some objectives to pare down habits of overwriting. In addition to the Core’s upper elementary standards for revising (Writing 4.5, 5.5 and 6.5), here’s one that really allows for quality time to break bad on verbosity:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.7.3a—Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.

When I saw that, an exercise I once did as a fiction student came to mind. I’ve never thought to use it with my Composition students because we write non-fiction, but I began to see how it could be a fun way to practice a skill that can and should be applied to all writing. It could work as follows, but you may think of some creative variations. (If so, please share in comments at the end of the post!)

First day: For homework, students write a short story of a prescribed length (ours was probably 1200 words, but it wouldn’t have to be that long) with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Perhaps this could follow a literary discussion after reading a novel and be focused on a character making a choice and changing. Or, it could be written to a specific prompt. The idea is that there is a complete story there and that it conforms to a word length requirement.

Second day: For homework, students are asked to cut down the story’s word count by half, without changing what happens in the story. (The groans and stares should be quite entertaining.)

Third day: This is probably a good day to read some of these aloud, because there will likely be students who are really excited by the accomplishment of this seemingly impossible task. Have them share some of the sentences that disappeared, and point out why those words weren’t necessary to make the points in the story. Congratulate them on a job well done and then give the final assignment, which is to cut the word count in half again. The caterwauling should be epic.

Fourth day: Have everyone read these, because they will surely be so cool! You may want to introduce the concept of “flash” or “micro” fiction and direct them to youth writing contests. (For some contest listings, click the “yo, publish!” tab on my website, www.janeharrington.com.)

Whether you’re using specific state standards or the Common Core, or old-fashioned common sense, there should be an ongoing effort to help students reduce the chaff in their writing. They’ll be better, more confident wordsmiths, and their college professors will be so much happier!

www.janeharrington.com