Bend II Writing to Deepen Literary Analysis Session
Bend II Writing to Deepen Literary Analysis
Session 9 Reflection and Goal Setting Using the Informational Writing Targets
Celebrate and Move Forward Writer’s often pause, using the resources available to them to set goals before the forge ahead with a project. Teaching Point: Today we will use our Information Writing Targets to reflect on where our writing is now and what areas we need to improve as we begin to revise our drafts.
Mini Lesson Reading and Reflecting with a lens Whole Class Modeling: Target -Effective introduction catches reader, previews what is to follow and defines the purpose Let’s spend the next few minutes: • • Look at each chapter draft and reflect on the introduction (first paragraph or few sentences) Evaluate yourself on the target above - look at the exemplar text beginnings to see what is possible for 7 th graders to do Make some notes in the margin or on the rubric to guide you when you begin to revise Remember you will write an overall introduction to the companion book before publishing
Reflecting through the lens of text structure Target: Attempts to demonstrate formal writing by identifying and using text structure(s) (description, cause and effect, sequence, compare and contrast, problem solution) Now read the draft of your first chapter with the lens of craft and structure – Ask yourself: • Which text structure did I use • How do I know • Did I use enough signal words
Writer’s Workshop • Continue to read each of your draft chapters • You may ask to work with a writing partner to help you in this process • Assess each using the target rubric • Create 3 writing goals for yourself – Using the Rubric and your reflections from today pick targets you need to improve on. – The goals should come from the Purpose/Organization or Development/Elaboration categories We will all be working on grammar and sentence type goals.
Gallery Walk Congratulations! We will spend the last part of today getting a look at the drafts of our friends companion books. On your desk • Lay out your companion book • Jot on a note card 2 things you have learned in this unit so far and one of your goals moving forward. You have all worked so hard – while you are moving around make note of some things you see and tell the author how much you appreciate their work as you head out of class today!
Session 10 Reading like Writer’s and Writing about it!
Teaching Point Readers who write stories themselves read the texts others have written, aware that the authors made purposeful writing choices. Before they write about the texts, readers ask, • Why might the author have written it this way? • What insight about the story can I gain from studying this part? Then they write about it.
Crafting Decisions in “The Stolen Party” Using the Writer’s techniques chart With a partner Look at the first page of the class story When you see a place where you think the author used a technique or made a decision on purpose, to achieve a writerly goal, put a check mark by it. If you have an idea about the goal write that in the margin;
Looking at Heker’s Writing Decisions Heker made a lot of writing decisions. It is on purpose she chose the title. The way time moves in the first few lines from arriving at the party to the flashback conversation with her mother Letting readers see Rosaura’s inner thinking Let’s begin by analyzing Hekers use of inner thinking
Look at the last two lines of the last paragraph on the first page – Heker writes: She felt very sad. She wanted to go to that party more than anything else in the world. When I am wondering about this choice, I ask, “Why so much inner thinking here? ” I might talk or write about my ideas: I try to say something, anything, about what the words mean or what reason the author might have for writing them this way in the story. Turn and Talk – What did you think the first time you read it? What do you think now that you know the whole story?
Common Goals a Writer Might Have Thanks for the great discussion! I have some ideas on why Heker made this choice but before I settle on some answers lets look at some Common Goals Writers might have.
Class Discussion I heard that you did think Heker used inner thinking for some of the reasons on the Goal chart. • The inner thinking shows character motivation As readers we now know how badly Rosaura wants to go to the party – which might explain why she’s so willing to believe she is having a good time there. *If I write about that in one of my chapters, I’ll have to explain that more. Small Group Share – In your table groups discuss some other choices Heker made and what the goal might have been.
Active Engagement Questioning your authors choices Just as Heker used specific techniques in her story to achieve certain goals the authors of the books you read did too! You need to realize choices are made and techniques are used on purpose to Think more and See more when reading so you can be a stronger writer about that reading. Using the graphic organizer (blank chart of authors techniques) Jot down examples where your author used these techniques
From Techniques to Goals Make Connections: Using the chart you just created on techniques the authors of your books are using Look at the blank goals sheet • Try to connect technique to a goal you think the author might have been trying to achieve
Adding to the Anchor Chart Add/highlight the following on your anchor chart: Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading Analyze craft: How/Why author used techniques and story elements (symbolism, time, multiple points of view) “The author used______ in order to _____. ”
Work Time Using today lessons and the charts you created on technique and goal Think More about the craft choices your authors made and what you can learn about the story and characters from them. Stop and Jot Create a list in response to this question: What emotions did I feel for the characters while reading this book:
Work Time Continued Complete the following sentence: The author used ______(technique) to________(achieve what goal) Now free write your thoughts thinking about the emotions you listed and your completion of the statement above Write about: Why you felt those things? How did the author make you feel those things? Why are your emotions important to the story? Or any other thoughts you have
Student Example of Analysis
Homework Use the Lens of Authors Purpose and Goals (Craft) to write new chapters for your companion book or to Revise ideas or chapters you have started. Create at least 1 new or 1 revised chapter to share during tomorrows Literary Salon
Literary Salon
Literary Salon Readers and Writers often gather to talk about books – literary craft, technique, and style These conversations often result in book reviews found online on Goodreads and Amazon. com They can also help a writer with new ideas and advice on how they can make their writing more meaningful to their readers
Let the Conversation Begin Today’s Literary Salon: You will need • The new chapter or revised chapter you worked on yesterday • The charts you made on the choices your authors made in technique and your connections to goals • Pen/Pencil to and paper to jot notes Celebrate your hard work of Thinking, feeling, seeing and hearing MORE Circulate • give mini book talks on the books you have read • discuss your thoughts on technique, goal and craft • listen and offer comments, ask questions, give advice
Session 11 Writing about Symbolism in Texts Focusing on one type of author technique (craft)
Teaching Point Today I want to teach you that to write well about reading, writers don’t just note symbols and come up with a quick meaning (like birds mean hope). Instead they track the symbol across the story, thinking and writing about what it means in different parts.
Symbolism in Music Today we will practice looking at symbolism in the song “Wings” by Macklemore Research: Watch and Listen to the video Hand out lyrics When the video is over be ready to tell your partner what seems symbolic in this text. http: //ochalek. weebly. com/informationalwriting. html
Turn and Talk • Discuss what symbols you saw in the lyrics and video • Class share of ideas Symbols often have more then one meaning in a text So lets go back to the text Read the text and mark your thinking in the margins
What I was thinking: Read the first stanza aloud Here the boy gets his first pair of shoes, and he is so excited, he thinks the shoes will make him fly. But it’s more than just the shoes. He thinks the shoes will change him and make him a superhero basketball player. Big idea: Maybe the shoes are about his hopes BIG hopes for the future! Now you go through and mark your thinking
Group Discussion Share some of your thoughts on symbolism Try to build on what classmates say as your express your interpretation of they symbols in this song. (Repeat this exercise with One Republics “Feel Again” if you want – video on weebly)
Work Time Author Technique – Symbolism You now have another lens to view the craft of the author that wrote your book Look back at your notes or written chapters is there any use of symbolism Try to write or revise a chapter • Identify the symbol • Explain the purpose it serves • Track its use across the text
Mid Workshop Teaching Rethinking the Meaning of Titles When working with symbols I have noticed that some of you have gone back and made some connections to the title of your book. Book titles and Chapter titles don’t often appear to have meaning until we are almost done reading. Does your book title hold any symbolism? What about the title for our class story “The Stolen Party”?
Homework Analyzing the author’s craft A student writing about the Maze Runner notices that Dashner makes you feel empathy for the character Thomas by certain word choices: “Someone…help. . me! He screamed. Each work ripped his throat raw. ” is a quote from the text
“Someone…help. . me! He screamed. Each work ripped his throat raw. ” The student is using an example of dialogue to support his thinking BUT He goes beyond that when explains further saying: Dashner achieves this by using the raw as a word that make you feel pain and empathy for Thomas. This student didn’t stop at the sentence level the example wasn’t enough he had to get more specific
Homework Today as you re-read your chapters and notes Find a quote you selected Analyze the quote – now that you have picked a line that is meaningful, powerful or supports one of your ideas THINK MORE – how can you be specific – Look at the words used Which words make you connect to the character or understand the mood of setting and why…
Revisiting Text Structure Structuring your Chapters
Using Text Structures Find the packet you of informational paragraph examples you completed from the beginning of this unit. Text Structure – like chapters – are a way to organize the information for your readers
What to Do Look at each chapter title Ask yourself: What am I trying to show my readers (or teach them) in this chapter What details will I be using to support my idea? Look at those answers and select a text structure to use formulating the chapter.
Using the Text Structures Since your chapters are several paragraphs you can’t just fill in the text structure paragraph frame and move on. You will need to look at the frame and the signal words and imagine spreading them out throughout your chapter to organize what you are trying to say. Practice: Select a chapter and try it –then share with your partner see if they can correctly identify the structure you used.
Revise and Review If your partner couldn’t identify the structure you used what was missing – work together to brainstorm ideas to make it better Note: You will probably only use 2 or 3 structures throughout this book and that is okay. Revise chapters to plan for a text structure – use at least 2 different structures – each chapter should have a structure.
Session 12 Analyzing Structure in a Book: How Time Moves
Teaching Point Today, as people who write about reading, we will pay attention to the structure of a story, to the way time moves. If the structure is unconventional, a reader can write about it to help figure out how the parts of the story are connected and to think about why the author made these choices.
Anchor Chart When doing this work consider the following: When Time Shifts, If Might Be… • A flashback to earlier moments in the character’s or plot’s history, a back story • A flash-forward to moments father in the future • Parallel narratives that present tow timelines of events, either in different setting or from different perspectives. • Converging narrative where separate stories (from different perspectives) lead to the same moment.
Exploring the craft of playing with time Brainstorm books or movies you know that have a different time structure: Shift… Let’s look at our classroom story “The Stolen Party” Read the first paragraph and the two lines that follow – something just happened with the time Stop and Jot – What is happening with time here?
Good Work Most of you have identified that this story begins with a flash-forward Now you have to ask yourself WHY? Tip: To answer this question, it helps to think about how this unusual treatment of time connects with the rest of the story.
Think aloud: Here is my thinking on why the author of “The Stolen Party” began with flashforward Heker begins the monkey, even though that’s further forward in the story. Maybe the author wants the reader to know the monkey is important for the start. On the other hand, perhaps the author wants the reader to know Rosaura is right about the monkey-and I wonder if this is to trick the reader a little into thinking Rosaura is right about the whole party, when by the end it’s clear that her mother was right all along. Turn and Talk: What do you think?
Active Engagement Practice: Let’s look at the movement of time in a scene most of you know. A scene from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” While watching ask yourself – How does the writer use time here and why? What about the way time is treated here makes it more interesting then a regular treatment of time? Clip on Weebly http: //ochalek. weebly. com/informationalwriting. html
Though Prompts: Write your thinking: Use these thought prompts to help you begin writing… • Maybe the author included this because… • On the other hand, perhaps… • Or it could be that… • I wonder if… Whole class share out
Work Time Challenge yourself to look at the use of time in the books you read. Did the author treat time differently? Could you write a chapter or edit a chapter to include your new ideas on time
Work Time Get out your writing targets. Look at the section on Elaboration and Craft Look at your first draft chapters and chapter ideas I have given you two exemplar chapters With a partner read the exemplars and using highlighter mark areas you see the writer meeting the targets in the Elaboration and Craft section
Homework Revise for Elaboration and Craft Using the check list and the work you have done over the past few days Using the targets select a goal for yourself – use the student examples today as mentor texts Revise at least 2 of your chapters or turn 2 of your ideas into chapters and focus on your goal in elaboration and craft.
Session 13 and 14 Writing inside the Scene And Organizing the Table of Contents
Teaching Point Today you will mainly be working on developing your topics and writing your chapters. Remember – use the ladder to big ideas (ladder of abstraction) to help you plan out details to help your reader understand your big idea.
Adding Precise Description Check back across our book Across all the chapters and your notes Find at least 3 places where you are writing inside a scene – retelling part of a scene to support an idea Describe the scene by adding color, making a comparison, describing shades of light and dark – paint a picture with your words Non- Fiction doesn’t have to be Boring!
Finalize your Table of Contents You should have decided on all of the big ideas you will include in your companion book. Each of these ideas will become a chapter and need a title Using the Table of Contents Organizer Select and an order for your chapters – Remember good writers leave nothing to chance so take time to create the right layout.
Researching the Introduction Search for a meaningful Song or Poem that connects to a theme or the main character in your book (It might be just a verse or a few lines) What your choose should express an important idea or point of view in the book you’re analyzing. You will share these in class tomorrow and use them to help write your introductions
Session 15 Writing Introductions and Conclusions
Connection Turn and Talk You will have 60 seconds to advertise your companion book to your partner Use your revised table of contents “Sell your Book” talk about: • How your chapters go • Explain why you selected those to include • Explain how those chapters help the reader think, feel, see, hear more about the book Switch
Teaching Point Today you will learn that to craft compelling and effective introductions, writers often look across the whole of a chapter or the whole of a book and ask: How do these things go together? Then they write to preview the important sections of what’s to come, and to interest the reader in what each section has to offer.
Organizing before Writing Well – Organized informational writing groups like topics together in a book or chapter Look over all of your chapters and information and ask yourself – What goes together and why? The answer to this question will help you write your introduction Stop and Jot an answer to that question
Example – Table of Contents “The Stolen Party” Companion Book: Table of Contents Chapter 1: Rosaura and Her Mother Chapter 2: Rosaura and the Ines Family Chapter 3: Rosaura and the Magician Chapter 4: The Significance of the Kitchen Chapter 5: The Magic Show Matters Chapter 6: Two Dollars Change Everything Chapter 7: Rosaura Passes out the Cake – A New Scene Chapter 8: The Day Before the Party…What Might Have Happened
Grouping Like Information I have already grouped some information into chapters: Rosaura and her mother fight Rosaura and her mother at the end of the story What Rosaura’s Mother knows All of these subjects can be found in the chapter “Rosaura and Her Mother”
Crafting an Introduction Don’t preview by stating or describing every chapter – look for big ideas Look at the example table of contents – How can these Chapter titles be grouped together? Turn and Talk
Introduction Make connections between chapters Describe and preview them in the introduction- give a small advertisement! The first sentence is the connection and description First you’re going to learn about critical relations in “The Stolen Party”. This section includes an analysis of… The next part in the advertising – a little peek at what is inside that section
Work Time Craft your Introduction – Revise and start over as many times as you need to get the best beginning. Writing the introduction might make you realize you need to reorganize the chapters – then do that! Introduction should: Preview the important parts and interest the reader in what is to come
Mid Workshop Teaching Hook your Reader When crafting your introduction try one of these ideas informational writers use to hook their readers Something on the list you might not be familiar with is the epigraph – this is where the song or poem you connected to the story come in
Ways to Engage your Readers in What is Most Important • Explain the importance of what’s to come • Provide a compelling or surprising fact or statistic • Include an “imagine this” scenario • Story-tell an anecdote or scene • Include an epigraph – a brief quotation that connects to a key theme or issue within your topic
Session 15 Part 2 Conclusions
Teaching Point It is just as important to keep your readers hooked at the end with a great conclusion as it is to get them reading with a great introduction!
Conclusions Writing Conclusions that Keep Readers Hooked • Provide a compelling fact, statistic, or anecdote • Include an “imagine this? Scenario • Pose questions for the reader • Connect back to the beginning of the chapter or book • Explain (or reiterate) the significance of the information • Leave readers with something new to think about
Work Time Write the conclusion to your companion book. Use the same ideas of writing a conclusion to the book to revise some of the conclusions to your chapters.
Session 16 Final Revisions and Celebration
Editing Your revisions should be complete and it is now time to edit for Language conventions To edit read your draft with these lenses (remember good editing requires multi readings!)
Lenses for Rereading Drafts to Edit Language Conventions • Read out loud to check the flow of the text. Ask, “Does the punctuation help the reader read each sentence fully? ” • Read to notice and edit transitional phrases between sections. • Edit for appropriate punctuation with sentences, with appositives and dependent clauses separated by commas. • “Kill your darlings” cut what’s not needed at the sentence level • Check for misplaced modifiers • Read to find your own personal spelling demons, whether those are homonyms (their/there/they’re) or words ending in – ence vs ance
Congratulations! Your books are due tomorrow You should celebrate the great reading and writing work you did to get these companions book published! WAY TO GO
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