Hooking your Readers with a Strong Lead 1

Strong Beginnings • Active Beginnings: Place your character in the setting and have them

Let’s look at some mentor text leads from: - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,

Does this lead hook you? How? What “caught” your attention? 4

Key Points for Reflection 1. Writers think about their audience. They choose topics that

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Hooking your Readers with a Strong Lead! 1

Strong Beginnings • Active Beginnings: Place your character in the setting and have them do something relevant to the story. Peace out! Toot! • Exciting Dialogue: Add exciting dialogue that makes the reader wonder what’s going to happen next. • Thoughts and Feelings: Show, don’t tell, the character’s thoughts or feelings by the way they look and how they act. • Onomatopoeia – Lively Sounds: Start with an attention-grabbing sound that is connected to the ideas in the story. 2

Let’s look at some mentor text leads from: - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother - The Relatives Came - My Pig Amarillo - Super, Completely, and Totally the Messiest - Owl Moon - Climbing Kansas Mountains 3

Does this lead hook you? How? What “caught” your attention? 4

Key Points for Reflection 1. Writers think about their audience. They choose topics that appeal to them. 2. Writers think about the message they want their readers to understand. 3. Writers pull readers in with a strong beginning. They can start a composition by showing their character in action, adding dialogue that makes the reader wonder, showing the character’s feelings, and using lively sounds. 11