Session Title: Writing Craft: Just How Do Authors Do That?

Session Title: Writing Craft: Just How do Authors Do That?

Facilitator: Terri McAvoy, [email protected] What Do the Experts Say About Craft?

“…craft is the cauldron in which the writing gets forged.”

- Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi

Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8

“… we begin to notice the details of the craft that made each book so memorable. A great lead, delicious words, logical organization, powerful voice, fluid sentences, and fully developed ideas – all were within the short span of a picture book.

- Ruth Culham

Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits

“We believe, with lots of teaching, they can develop important understandings about what it means to write, useful strategies to guide them in the process of writing, a sense of form and genre and craft in their written texts, …”

- Katie Wood Ray and Lisa B. Cleaveland

About the Authors: Writing Workshop With Our Youngest Writers

What Resources Can Teachers Use to Teach Craft?

Touchstone or “Mentor” texts

Teacher Writing Samples

Student Writing Samples Mentor Texts

What is a mentor text?

A mentor text is a published book (or song lyric or magazine article or…?) whose big idea or whose written craft can easily inspire a student to write about a similar idea or to write with the same craft technique used by the author. The best mentor texts can be brought out over and over again throughout a school year. When students know they are going to be writing like an actual author, their buy-in increases.

Idea mentor texts: If you like a book’s idea and think students could create an original idea based on the one from the text, then you are probably selecting an idea mentor text.

Example: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett

Structure mentor texts: If a published book presents a structure that can be easily impersonated with students’ original ideas, you are choosing a structure mentor text.

Example: The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

Craft mentor texts: If the author’s writing style or his/her techniques with words, phrases, or sentences can inspire your students to write similarly, you are selecting a craft mentor text.

Example: All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan

Note: A craft mentor text usually needs to be shared (or re-shared) after a rough draft has been written to prepare students for a revision task. Craft lessons have the most impact when taught between first and second draft.

- Corbett Harrison, 2009 Note: This information was paraphrased from information on the Nevada Writing Project’s Writing Fix link. To print the original source in poster format, please request permission from the author at this website. http://corbettharrison.com

Sample Craft Lessons

Craft: Repeated Line

How it’s used: to create a thread of continuity throughout the piece and to draw attention to the central idea.

Related Traits: Organization and Ideas

Mentor Text: When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

Overview: Students identify the important people, places, and things in their lives. Then they will have the opportunity to determine and explain why these “nouns” are an important part of their lives as they compose an original poem.

Source: http://writingfix.com/Classroom_Tools/Art_Writing/IComeFrom1.htm

Craft: Stretching a Metaphor

How it’s used: to create realistic and colorful images that show rather than just tell readers what we are describing.

Related Traits: Word Choice and Ideas

Mentor Text: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Overview: Inspired by Mem Fox’s four metaphors for memory in her story about Wilfrid Gordon, this writing prompt asks students to think of an original noun. Students will brainstorm details as they come up with ideas for four metaphors for their abstraction. Finally, students will assemble their four metaphors into an original poem. To see the entire lesson plan go to:

Source: http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Wilfrid3.htm Sample Craft Lessons (continued)

Craft: varying sentence beginnings and varying sentence length

How it’s used: to create a sense of balance in length of sentences and to make sure sentences start with different words in order to help writing flow smoothly.

Related Trait(s): Sentence Fluency

Mentor Text: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

Overview: This is a lesson focused on revision through the use of Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon, a beautifully crafted story about a young girl’s hike through the woods at night to find owls with her father. This is a great mentor text to use when helping students see and hear what high quality sentence fluency looks and sounds like. The lesson uses Yolen’s writing as a model, then encourages them to look into their own writing to see where they can practice her technique of varying sentence beginnings and lengths. To see the complete lesson plan, go to: http://writingfix.com/process/Revision/Owl_Moon.htm

Craft: Starting and stopping with strong imagery

How it’s used: to give writing an organized structure

Related Trait: Organization

Mentor Text: The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson

Overview: Use Johnson’s wonderful book to inspire revision. She focuses on a powerful image which she uses to begin and end her story. This gives the story an organized structure. The fact that the image is used again right in the middle of the story makes the structure even more solid. To see the complete lesson plan to to: http://writingfix.com/Process/Revision/Leaving_Morning.htm

Sample Craft Lessons (continued)

Craft: tricolon or “Magic of Three”

How it is used: to make writing more engaging, fluent, and rhythmical

Related Trait(s): ideas, word choice, sentence fluency

Mentor Text(s): Barack Obama’s Victory Speech (online) or Song of the Seasons

or any other literature selections which use tricolon well

Overview: There’s something about our English language that lends itself to threes. Putting words and ideas in a group of three can add rhythm and cadence to the sound of the language and add inspiration and passion to the message. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Not only was this a worthy sentiment, it was also a powerful rhetorical technique. A series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses is known as a tricolon in literary parlance. In intermediate classrooms, we call it the Magic of Three. Tricolons are easy to read, easy to say, and easy to remember. See what I mean? In this lesson, students will learn how to apply this useful writing technique to make their writing more engaging, fluent, and rhythmical. To find the complete lesson go to: http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=30689

Note: Found in the complete lesson on the website is a link to Barack Obama’s Victory Speech. Sample Craft Lessons (continued)

Craft: Circular Plot Structure

How it is used: to organize our writing

Related Trait: organization

Mentor Texts:

 Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant

 A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman

 The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg

 The Napping House by Audrey Wood

 Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant

 (any books structured around months of the year)

Overview: After exploring a variety of circle plot story books, students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories. “Reading like writers,” students will explore the ways that stories are structured; then, “writing like writers,” students explore organizational structures in their own writing. Students first examine the attributes of circular shapes and brainstorm things with a circular pattern, such as seasons. After exploring how Cynthia Rylant’s Long Night Moon might be a circular story, students listen to a circle story read aloud. Students discuss why the story is called a circular story and make connections to Rylant’s book. They then read several more examples and, using circle plot diagrams as their tools, students write their own circular plot stories. Finally, students share their work with peers, revise their work using a checklist for self-evaluation, and compare their self-evaluation to teacher assessment. To find the complete (Five 50 minute session) lesson plan , go to: http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=827

Note: Links to all resources for this lesson are found at the above web address.

Sample Craft Lessons (continued)

Craft: Starting with a good lead

How it is used: to set the tone and lure readers into the writing

Related traits: Organization, voice, word choice

Mentor Texts: A variety of leads from different books or literature

Overview: A story’s lead begins the reader’s adventure; yet it can just as likely end that odyssey if those opening words do not immediately entrance the reader. This lesson examines examples of leads in children’s literature, focusing on strategies such as setting, action, character, reflection, event, and dialogue in a shared reading experience. Students rank several leads from books as they are read aloud and discuss their rankings. They then generate different leads for a read aloud book in the classroom, using different strategies for each. Finally, they write or revise a lead in one of their pieces of writing.

To find the complete (Two 50 minute sessions) lesson plan, go to: http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=12 A Sample Lesson From Ralph Fletcher

Craft: Using Comparisons

How it is Used: helping readers use what they know to understand the unfamiliar

Mentor Texts: The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons and Sea Turtles by Gail Gibbons

Overview: “Nonfiction writing requires many skills, not the least of which is connecting, comparing, and contrasting factual information. It’s hard to fathom the vastness of the universe or the size of a molecule. But when you compare such things to other, familiar objects, readers can use what they know to understand the unfamiliar.” - Ralph Fletcher

In this lesson teachers tell students that writers often use comparisons to show exactly what they mean. It’s not enough to say, “A queen bee lays very small eggs.” Likewise, it’s not clear to our readers how large sea turtles really are if we say, “A sea turtle is really, really big.” Instead, here are two examples of wonderful authors using comparisons to explain clearly about honeybees and sea turtles.

In The Honey Makers Gail Gibbons writes, “Most eggs the queen lays are no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence.”

In Sea Turtles Gail Gibbons writes about a prehistoric sea turtle, the Archelon, like this: “Archelon was so big that if it were still alive today a car could park between its flippers.” As students reread their work, they look for places in which they might use comparison to explain more clearly.

Standing on the Shoulders of Our Teaching Friends

In 2009, a very smart group of teachers at Neely Elementary in St. Joseph, Missouri studied the work of Katie Wood Ray and Lester Laminack. In Ray’s book, Wondrous Words and Laminack’s book Cracking Open the Author’s Craft, teachers found effective uses for mentor texts in teaching children the craft of writing. Below are some of their findings:

Craft: Proper Nouns

How it’s Used: Writers know the power of names. Name dropping in texts does so much work for writers: brand names, people names, place names.

Mentor Text: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

Example: “Before she died, I know my mother must have loved to comb my shiny hair and rub that Johnson’s baby lotion up and down my arms and wrap me up and hold and hold me all night long.”

Craft: Seesaw Sentences

How it’s Used: Seesaw sentences are crafted with predictable pairs of information or detail, just like seesaw text structures, but on a smaller, one- or-two sentence scale.

Mentor Text: An Angel for Solomon Singer by Cynthia Rylant and Cookie’s Week by Cindy Ward. Example: “…at night he journeyed the streets, wishing they were fields, gazed at lighted windows, wishing they were stars, and listened to the voices of all who passed, wishing for the conversations of crickets” (An Angel for Solomon Singer)

“Cookie upset the trash can. There was garbage everywhere! Cookie got stuck in a kitchen drawer. There were pots and pans and dishes everywhere.” (Cookie’s Week)

Craft: Ellipses

How it is Used: Three little periods in a row tells the reader that there is more to come and builds excitement or suspense.

Mentor Text: Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Examples: “They turn around and around in the cloud… until it feels just right, and then they curl up and sleep.” (Dog Heaven)

“Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and…he was a beautiful butterfly!” (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Craft: Whispering Text

How it is Used: Where the author whispers something in the reader’s ear. This is most commonly done in parenthesis. Extra information that is not part of the story.

Mentor Text: A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen and Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack.

Examples: “They drove to the mountains, far from the sea, for two nights of camping (or possibly three).” (A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee)

“You go on ahead to the car house. (That’s what Mammaw called the garage.)… Look in the Frigidaire (that’s what she called her refrigerator)…” Craft: Stretching Words

How it is Used: to make us read the words differently with different emotion

Mentor Texts: Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London and Pssst! It’s Me…the Bogeyman by Barbara Park

Example: “FRRROOGGYY! Called his mother.” (Froggy Learns to Swim)

“Pssssssssssst! Yo! Down here…under the bed.” (Pssst! It’s Me…)

Craft: Repeated Word

How it is Used: Used to show the passage of time

Mentor Texts: Pooh’s Leaf Pile by Isabel Gaines and Saturday’s and Teacakes by Lester Laminack

Examples: “Pooh, Piglet, and Rabbit raked and raked and raked.” (Pooh’s Leaf Pile)

“… pedal, pedal, pedal…”

Craft: Repeated Line

How it is Used: Draws attention to a specific point

Mentor Texts: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Click, Clack, Moo – Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin

Examples: “It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)

“Click, clack, moo.” (Click, Clack, Moo – Cows that Type)

Craft: Big and Bold

How it is Used: Used to show emphasis

Mentor Texts: Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak Examples: “BOOOOOOM BABOOOOM, crashed the thunder…” (Thunder Cake)

“… till Max said BE STILL!” (Where the Wild Things Are)

Craft: Taffy Sentences

How it’s Used: These sentences begin with a central idea and then pull that idea out a little bit, and then a little bit more, and maybe even a little bit more.

Mentor Texts: Nocturne by Jane Yolen

Example: “In the night, in the velvet night, in the brushstroked bluecoat velvet night…”

Craft: Items in a Series

How it is Used: Items listed without commas to give a rhythmic effect to the description.

Mentor Texts: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant

Example: “We were so busy hugging and eating and breathing together.” (The Relatives Came)

“The earth has rained and snowed and blossomed and wilted and yellowed and greened and vined itself all around him.” (Scarecrow)

Craft: Close-Echo Effect

How it is Used: A writer will often repeat words or phrases very close together when it is not necessary to do so, creating an echo effect in the text. Mentor Texts: Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant and Miz Berlin Walks by Jane Yolen

Examples: “There is no night so dark, so black as night in the country.” (Night in the Country)

“Without missing a step, without missing a word…” (Miz Berlin Walks)

Looking at What We Have

Craft:

How it is Used:

Mentor Text:

Examples:

Craft:

How it is Used:

Mentor Text:

Examples: Craft:

How it is Used:

Mentor Text:

Examples:

Works Cited

Culham, Ruth. Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits. Scholastic, Inc. 2004.

Fletcher, Ralph and JoAnn Portalupi. Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Informational Writing K-8. Stenhouse Publishers. York, Maine, 2001.

Laminack, Lester. Cracking Open the Author’s Craft: Teaching the Art of Writing (Theory and Practice in Action), Scholastic, Inc. 2007.

Online Resources

Harrison, Corbett. http://corbettharrison.com Northern Nevada Writing Project. http://writingfix.com/ Read Write Think. http://www.readwritethink.org/