"Part of the apprenticeship of being a successful writer is learning to read like a writer,
discovering how a particular story catches your attention and keeps you involved right straight through the end."
Anne Bernays, What If?
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Kirby, I totally love this piece of "wisdom". My class has been working this week on using a "literary magnifying glass" to examine specific scenes in the novel we're reading (Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson). They describe the scene, rate the intensity of the scene and describe their emotions as they read the scene. Next they examine the scene for specific author's craft elements and describe those: figurative language, dialogue, description of conflict, repetition, etc. Last they explain how the craft elements used by the author relate to their intensity rating for the scene. It's an activity from Whole Novels for the Whole Class by Ariel Sacks and I love it. My students have used it with Blizzard of Glass, a nonfiction book, and they're beginning to see what good writers add to their writing to really draw in the reader.
ReplyDeleteKirby, I totally love this piece of "wisdom". My class has been working this week on using a "literary magnifying glass" to examine specific scenes in the novel we're reading (Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson). They describe the scene, rate the intensity of the scene and describe their emotions as they read the scene. Next they examine the scene for specific author's craft elements and describe those: figurative language, dialogue, description of conflict, repetition, etc. Last they explain how the craft elements used by the author relate to their intensity rating for the scene. It's an activity from Whole Novels for the Whole Class by Ariel Sacks and I love it. My students have used it with Blizzard of Glass, a nonfiction book, and they're beginning to see what good writers add to their writing to really draw in the reader.
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