Writing Technique: Great Beginnings

It's been a while since I've posted a writing activity that teachers can use in the classroom, so here goes.  This is a favotite of mine.  I start out by telling students that years ago I had the opportunity to be a reader/scorer of the state writing assessment which is part of our standardized testing here in RI. I thought it would be great to have an insider's view of the assessment so I could better prepare my own students to do well on it.  I also thought it would be informative to see where other children's writing skills were at - checking out the competition, so to speak. 

The biggest take-away in all this for me was that everybody's writing sounded the same after a while.  The pieces all had a particular structure to them which had been taught.  Other things clearly had not been taught.  Maybe this was because some writing techniques had a significant impact on students' scores and others did not.  Be that as it may, the result was that by mid afternoon the reading became so boring that I could barely keep my eyes open.  Then, when I least expected it, there was that rare piece of wrting that perked me up because it was lively and different from the rest.  So remember, I told my students: When someone is reading your work you want to perk them up right from the start.

In my class, we practiced writing great beginnings using fairy tales because if ever a genre cried out for a great beginning, this was the one.  Think about it.  They all begin with Once upon a time...

Days before the actual writing lesson, I asked my students to bring me their favorite fairy tales so I could read them aloud to the class.  I let them know ahead of time that in a few days I was going to ask them to retell their favorite one on paper, so they should be reading some for themselves as well.  When that day came, they were ready. 

I first did this lesson many years ago and in my inexperience, I had not chosen my instructional fairy tale first and told the kids not to use it.  But that wasn't entirely bad.  As a teacher, it is very eye-opening to require yourself to write on demand just as you require your students to.  No one had chosen to retell Jack and the Beanstalk, so that became mine and I began with the traditional Once upon a time there lived an old woman and her son Jack.  They were very poor.  I wrote this on chart paper, then I crossed it out and told the students to do the same to their traditional beginning.  From there, I demonstrated how to begin this story with an action, a sound, dialogue, and a question.

Action:       Jack kicked over the empty milk bucket and breathed a heavy sigh.

Sound:       Gr-r-r-r   Jack put his hand on his growling stomach as he walked to the barn.

Dialogue:  "Jack, there's no more milk and this cow is too old to give us more." 

                 Jack put his hand over his growling stomach and said, "It's okay Mother.  I'm not very hungry anyway."

Question:  Mother, what's wrong with the cow?"  Jack asked as he peered down into the empty milk bucket.  He got up from the milking
                 stool and followed his mother up the front walk and into the house.  "Did you hear me, Mother?  Is the cow sick?  She's not
                 giving any milk.  What will we have for breakfast?"

                 Mother opened her mouth to answer but a sob caught in her throat.  Jack looked into his mother's sad eyes and watched a
                 single tear spill down her weathered cheek.


The younger the students, the more discussion you'll need in order to tease out their ideas.  For instance, when working on action, ask Who is your character?  How is he/she feeling?  What action would show those feelings?  For more proficient writers, I would ask them to write 2 or 3 different beginnings and see which one felt the best to them.  As their teacher, you'll know how basic or how extensive to go with this part. 

Enjoy!

Ralph and Frankie's 15 Minutes of Fame

Tuesday is the big day!  Ralph and Frankie will have their 15 minutes of fame. Well, okay...Maybe not a whole 15 minutes.  And I guess it's not really Ralph and Frankie's moment, it's my friend Judy's.  For those of you who don't know, Judy L. Adourian is the owner of Writeyes, and the Rhode Island Regional Representative for the International Women's Writing Guild. She provided advice, constructive criticism, and coaching to keep me focused on my goal as I wrote Ralph Simian, I've Had It! 

Although we only live 3 miles apart, our work together went back and forth over the computer.  The assignments she gave me were right on target and specific to the story I was working on.  Knowing that I was scheduled to send her something every week kept me focused, and had I not engaged her services I'm not sure I would have completed Ralph Simian, I've Had It! over the course of one summer. 

On Tuesday, October 4, Judy will be interviewed on Manchester, Connecticut's public access television show Page One where she'll talk about the correspondence courses and editing services she offers through her Writeyes website.  Page One is hosted by award winning cable access host Zita Christian.  During the segment, Judy will mention my book as an example of a project that came to fruition. 

Note to Judy:  Thanks in  advance for plugging my book.  Have fun on Tuesday.  I only wish I could access Page One here in RI.