Then they can return to their notebooks to write again, if there is time. Students can do a “gallery walk” to read the sentences around the room with their partners. Give students sentence strips and place their sentences under the drawings. You could also hang a copy of each drawing from Van Allsburg’s book around the classroom. I have a huge collection because the pictures are great to spark topics to write about as well as help students work on the art of description. W e were somewhat wet for most of our Niagara Falls vacation!Īsk students to write one sentence in their writer’s notebook for several Van Allsburg pictures, working with a partner to state the obvious. I could barely see Ralph taking pictures as water dripped from my lashes and small rivulets ran down my forehead and cheeks. I was holding onto the rail, water spraying on my face, drenching my hair. The Hornblower edged closer and closer to the Horseshoe Falls. My example for students includes several photos from Niagara Falls. The light reflected in the man’s glasses. You can also ask your students to help you. Choose one to place under a document camera such as “Under the Rug” and then state the obvious. I often use the black-and-white paintings in The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg. Explore when that is appropriate with your writers after you have tried it out in some of your own notebook entries. Other times, it is just okay to tell the reader. Many times, you will show not tell, using lots of words to get your readers to see pictures in their mind. Sometimes, in writing a story you need to describe something. I love this example from Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli: The kids cheered. It was a war inside the United States – the North against the South. Here is another example from Brave Clara Barton by Frank Murphy: The Civil War started. Explain that sometimes authors state the obvious. Read the beginning of Always Inventing: The True Story of Thomas Alva Edison by Frank Murphy. I like to use The Mysteries of Harris Burdick or calendar pictures to give student writers the opportunity to practice this craft move. When you show your readers instead of tell your readers, you are slowing things down. For example, if it is a place where the author wants to move quickly (no exploded moment here), she may “tell rather than show”. There are many reasons an author may choose to do this. Sometimes, when we are writing a narrative, an opinion, or an informational piece, we need to state the obvious. Thanks to the twowritingteachers blog team for sponsoring this marvelous Slice of Life experience (#SOL18).
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