Defending Decisions in a Disaster

Guest Post by Yvonne Ventresca

In my young adult novel, Pandemic (Sky Pony Press, 2014), only a few people know what caused Lilianna Snyder's sudden change. She goes from a model student to a withdrawn pessimist who worries about all kinds of disasters. After her parents are called away on business, Lil’s town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread fatal illness. With her worst fears realized, Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.

Writing Exercise One:

During the Spanish Influenza of 1918, people worried about the flu being spread in remote areas by the mail carrier. With no easy way to notify the community of deaths, people used colored ribbons on their doors. A silver ribbon, for example, meant the death of an elderly person. In Pandemic, Jay Martinez creates a blog for local high school students to keep in touch about illnesses, deaths, and requests for needed supplies.

How do the technological advances of the last hundred years change society’s reaction to deadly contagious diseases? What are the pros and cons of social media and news coverage in today’s world compared to historical outbreaks?

Writing Exercise Two:

During any widespread contagious disease, decisions need to be made about how a vaccine or a medicine would be distributed among the public. In Pandemic, Lil sees one expert on TV discuss the antivirals that are available in limited amounts to help victims of the bird flu.  The expert says about the fictional disease (Chapter 26):

“All citizens between fifteen and fifty are at risk…So, who gets it first?  Pregnant women?  People with preexisting conditions, like asthma?  But we can’t expect the emergency system to work if those on the front lines aren’t protected.  Not only doctors and nurses but EMT volunteers, police, and firefighters are expected to help the ill.  With the flu so easily transmitted, is it fair to ask them to do so without some kind of protective measures?” 

If you had to make the decision, how would you go about distributing a medicine or vaccine during a widespread deadly illness? What factors would you consider?

BIO: Yvonne Ventresca is the author of Pandemic, a contemporary, realistic young adult novel about an emotionally traumatized teenager struggling to survive a deadly flu pandemic. Yvonne’s other writing credits include two nonfiction books for kids, Avril Lavigne (a biography of the singer) and Publishing (about careers in the field). Yvonne lives in NJ with her family and two dogs. You can learn more about Yvonne and her writing at YvonneVentresca.com.

WRITING WITH EMPATHY

guest post by Kerri Majors

Pencil Tips welcomes Kerri Majors who will give us a bonus-style sneak peak at the kinds of lesson plans contained in the Teacher's Edition (TE) of  This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World (TINAWM). This lesson on empathy is not in the TE—it’s an extra one just for you.

Empathy

It’s so important for writers to understand the inner lives of the people they are writing about. And beyond that, it’s essential for all young people (future writers, scientists, and politicians alike!) to be able to practice thinking against themselves, and even to try to think as other think. Trying to walk in another person’s shoes, and really empathize with them teaches us about diversity and compassion like nothing else.  This lesson helps students do just that.

Suggested reading from TINAWM: “Eavesdropping,” “Drafting,” “My First Big Mistake”

In this lesson, students will:

·       Practice empathetic thinking

·       Write in the voice of another person

·       Create an interesting character

·       Reflect on the power of empathy for writers, and others

·       Engage in active listening and productive critique

You Will Need:

·       TINAWM

·       The prompt, photocopied or emailed to students

·       Workshop Ground Rules (in the Teacher’s Edition)

To Prepare:

·       Give students the prompt and ask them to write the piece as homework.  You could also set aside the first 20 minutes of class for them to write a short dialogue, but that will truncate some of the discussion time. 

·       Assign students to read the “Workshop Ground Rules.”

·       You might ask your students to read the suggested chapters of TINAWM before this lesson.

The Prompt:

A writer must learn empathy—that ability to fully understand the emotional life of others. Yes, even those we find depressing, boring, or plain old annoying.  It’s that understanding of others that helps us shape compelling, three-dimensional characters.

Take a peek at the News Feed of someone* you once hid on Facebook, or unfollowed on Twitter, and select a particularly grating recent post (Maybe: “Off to Zimbabwe then Paris! Pictures to follow!  Send me a postcard from wherever you are!”), then write at least 500 words in the voice of that person about that post, in a way that helps you better understand him/her without anger, annoyance, or judgment. *NOTE: Please do not select anyone from this class!

In Class: (All times are approximate suggestions)

5 minutes:    Review the “Workshop Ground Rules” with your students, and ask if there are any questions about those.

15 minutes:  Ask for an intrepid volunteer to read his/her piece aloud to the class. 

·       Ask the other students to listen carefully and write down favorite words and phrases.

·       Per the Group Rules, lead with the positive.  After the piece has been read, ask students to talk about what it revealed about the person.  What kind of voice did the person have?  What personality traits were revealed?  Did the writer seem to be trying to really understand the character?  What other strengths did they hear?  Always ask student to be specific and mention lines and places in the text.

·       How could the piece have been improved?  Did the class hear any notes of dismissal, judgment, or willful mis-understanding?  How could those moments be transformed and made more empathetic?

·       You might want to discuss the difference between a “likable” character and an “interesting” or “understandable” character, since some of these pieces are likely to bring this difference to light.

20 – 35 minutes:    Repeat the above for as much time as you have (subsequent discussions will go faster than the first), or break the class into groups and let them discuss the pieces in threes or fours; when I do small-group workshops, I always rotate around the room to keep everyone on task and also answer questions. 

·       Save time at the end, or try to discuss throughout, what students learned from writing these pieces.  How do they think they can use this skill in other classes and situations?

·       Collect the writing so that you can deliver written comments, especially on the students whose writing might not have been discussed.

Reflection:

Ask students to write a brief reflection on what they learned through this writing (if you use journals in class, this is a great exercise for those).  In what other life situations might empathy be useful?

BIO: Kerri Majors is the founder and editor of YARN,the Young Adult Review Network (http://www.yareview.net), a literary magazine of YA writing and winner of the National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize. This Is Not a Writing Manual has received wide acclaim and was called a “must-read” by School Library Journal. Kerri has taught writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Columbia, where she also received her MFA in Fiction. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.

Please feel free to use this lesson in your classes, but if you photocopy any piece of it, I ask that in the interest of fair use, you add something like “This prompt is courtesy of Kerri Majors, author of This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World (www.kerrimajors.com).”

A LONG WINTER’S READ

by Jane Harrington

I don’t know about you, but the approach of the holiday season puts me less in the mood for penning and more in the mood for reading. As I madly grade student essays and meet deadlines in my own writing life, I find I just want to nestle all snug in my sofa cushions while visions of fictional characters dance in my head.

I’ve made a point to share this particular longing with my students lately, because I think this poor “Social Media Generation” is losing the ability to focus on text for more than a couple of minutes at a time. That is, in fact, what they wrote about in their semester-ending essays: the effect of technology on their lives. Guess what I’m finding as I read these? The very students who seem most tied to their electronic devices are upset about such things as not being taught to write (or read!) cursive. They recognize that their time is being sucked away from them by their smartphones, and that being the generation with the most dexterous thumbs is probably not going to prove to be much of an advantage in the long run. Many of these eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds still value books, I’m seeing, even as they are convinced they have no time to read them.

So, I’ve been looking at book lists lately, trying to come up with good suggestions to help these multi-taskers unplug and read for pleasure. Here are some links that I’m finding to be good places to start:

Goodreads is trusted by young folk because the lists are created by young folk. This is a page with their college-agerecommendations.

American Library Association is a tried and true source for lists for all ages. Here is their 2013 BestBooks for Young Adults.

And because even teenagers cherish memories of children’s classics—especially around the holidays—here is New York Public Library’s all-time “Top 100.”

Happy winter solstice to all, and to all a good book!

www.janeharrington.com

LIBRARIES OF LOVE

by Joan Waites

I must admit, I have a love-hate relationship with social media.  While Facebook and Twitter can be entertaining and a great way to connect with friends and colleagues, it can also be a huge source of distraction.  A five minute “check-in” can easily slip away into a half hour of wasted surfing. But once in a while, something wonderful pops up on your screen which makes that surfing time worthwhile.

Last week, a photo appeared on my Facebook “wall”, posted by a publisher I have worked for.  A group of boys from Uganda, proudly displayed books they were reading. One of the boys held a title I illustrated a few years ago.  The photo was taken by an organization I had not heard about before-Libraries of Love.  From the Libraries of Lovewebsite:

“Libraries of Love collects books, prepares them for

checkout with pockets and cards, and ships them to

Uganda. A team of volunteers then travels to Uganda,

where it takes an empty room in a school and builds

bookshelves, arranges thousands of books in library

order and teaches teachers and students how to use the

library. The partnership continues for a lifetime.”

There are several ways to help out this worthy organization. Along with donating funds, information about organizing book drives can be found on their website: http://www.librariesoflove.org/

If you are searching for a new service project to do with your students, Scouts, clubs  or homeschoolers next  year, this would be a terrific opportunity to give the gift of reading to children in need.

www.joanwaites.com