What Are You Reading Good? (04/20/2012)

I feel like I have spent a long time reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore. It was a really long book! It took me about two weeks to finish but it's one of my favorite fantasy books. Some students are reading longer books, too. Taylor is almost finished with Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Nathan finished The Rock and The River by Kekla Magoon, and Jodie finished Deep, Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn. Other kids are gobbling up books from the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett Krosoczka. The awesome thing is - we are all reading!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Descriptive Writing With Literary Devices

Now that you have chosen a specific topic and written a draft, it's time to look at how we can revise what you have to make it better. As a writer, you always have to have your reader or your audience in mind. The writer uses literary devices to show the reader his or her story. With good writing, a reader can use his or her good reading strategies to understand what the writer has written. 


Your goal is to write as descriptively as you can so the reader gets a clear picture and understanding in his or her head.

There are many literary devices or literary elements you can use:

simile

metaphor

using the 5 sense

alliteration

personification

onomatopoeia

anaphora

rhyme

strong adjectives

vivid verbs

One of my favorite mentor texts sentences right now is from Curveball by Jordan Sonnenblick. If you are in middle school or high school and haven't read one of his books, I highly reccomend them. They are great realistic fiction. 

Here's the GoodReads summary of his latest book Curveball:

"Sometimes, the greatest comebacks take place far away from the ball field.Meet Peter Friedman, high school freshman. Talented photographer. Former baseball star. When a freakish injury ends his pitching career, Peter has some major things to figure out. Is there life after sports? Why has his grandfather suddenly given him thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment? And is it his imagination, or is the super-hot star of the girls' swim team flirting with him, right in front of the amazing new girl in his photography class? In his new novel, teen author Jordan Sonnenblick performs his usual miraculous feat: exploring deep themes of friendship, romance, family, and tragedy, while still managing to be hilariously funny."

Here's the snatch of text that I loved from Curveball: 

“Freshman year rolled along, kind of. Well, parts of it rolled along, parts of it lurched along, and parts of it scraped and screeched along in the manner of scrap metal being dragged across a chalkboard.”                                 

p. 100

What do you notice about this snatch of text? What did Sonnenblick do to help you visualize as a reader? I found at least four different literary devices at work here. Can you name them? Visit Mrs. Whelan's blog to share you answers! Then try writing with some of these literary devices on your own.

If this book sounds good to you, you might also enjoy: 

Other books by Jordan Sonnenblick 

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie

Notes From a Midnight Driver

After Ever After 

Zen and the Art of Faking It

Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by Dave Lubar

Schooled by Gordon Korman

What Are You Reading Good? (04/13/2012)

I has been reading and listening to two of my favorite fantasy reads this week. I love fantasy. Do you have a favorite genre? Or a favorite book? Please share!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Territories and Choosing a Topic

Mrs. Whelan shared some examples of Writing Territories and some more examples of Writing Territories on her blog! The next stop is to choose one of your territories and then narrow down that territory to one single moment or experience. You are going from a really big idea to a very specific idea that you will write about.

One of my Writing Territories is that I work with students who are deaf and hard of hearing. This year I have focused on trying to help students own their hearing loss and to really advocate for themselves. I believe it is important for students who are deaf and hard of hearing to meet other students who also have a hearing loss. In the fall I organized a author chat with Tom Angleberger through Skype and the kids got to learn about him and his books and also to meet each other. I'm hoping to do this again in May. I decided I would like to write about what it might be like to be a student who is hard of hearing and how that student might feel insecure about wearing hearing aids.

My Writing Territory is "Kids deaf/hh". Under that, I made the idea more specific and wrote that I want to talk about an "event to socialize". The point of this would be "meeting other kids". Finally, I awnt to talk about how a student was uncomfortable wearing her hearing aids and how it was important for her to see how it's okay to wear hearing aids.

I have already done some free writing about this topic. I wrote about how I think I would feel if I was in this students' shoes. Your task is to choose a Writing Territory, and then draw in inverted pyramid and narrow down your topic so you have just one specific topic to write about. Then go ahead and take 10-15 minutes to write and get your ideas down on paper. Really try to be descriptive about your topic. Try to freeze one moment in time and explain everything you can about what is happening. This is a technique that authors use. I call it Exploding A Moment. For an example of this you can read pages 27-28 in Gary Schmidt's book Okay For Now to see how he describes the first the main character, Doug, sees one of Audubon's drawings of a bird. He uses various literary devices to really show the reader what the character is experiencing.

Sometimes it helps me to think about exactly why I am writing so you might want to do that. I am going to share my writing with other hearing itinerant teachers in the district as part of an invitation for them to help support me as I plan my May activity where kids can get together and meet each other. Head over to Mrs. Whelan's Hearing News Blog to see what other students chose to write about!

What Are You Reading Good? (04/05/2012)

There are lots of pictures here because I'm catching up. I love seeing these smiling faces with their books. Has anyone else read the Hunger Games series? I was excited to see the movie at midnight and then again over spring break. I can't wait for the next movie to come out.

My new favorite book right now is Wonder by RJ Palacio! I know one of my students is listening to it as a read aloud in her class and they love it. It is such a great story. What are you reading good?

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com