Juli
Kendall's
2004-05
READING/WRITING
WORKSHOP JOURNAL
Entry #04
Cooking Up Strong Narrative Leads
We're "Kicking it up a notch!" as Emeril would say.
In our study of narrative writing in Writing Workshop, the class I'm working with is ready to develop leads — strong beginnings for their narratives. So here goes... I ask the kids what they know about leads and they respond, "Nothing." Obviously, I didn't realize that by "kicking it up a notch," we were "kicking it up to notches unknown!"Since I know that they worked on this last year, I am prepared. I already went to their previous teacher and collected samples of literature that he used to teach them about writing a good narrative lead.
"OK," I say as I stand in front of the class. "Let's think about what you learned about leads last year." I hold up each of the literary examples last year's teacher has given me and read the beginning — the lead. There's nothing special about these examples. The teacher pulled them from the grade-level literature anthology as well as class read aloud selections and student work. Several of them are especially brief, almost kindergarten level. But they make the point about the importance of writing a strong lead and they are familiar to the students.
As I read them to the class, I hear a chorus of, "I read that..." and "I wrote a lead like that..." and finally, "Now I remember." Good. Kids are making connections between what they learned last year and what they are working on this year. This is a big step for all of us. Now I have evidence that it works to build on their background experience and tie instruction back to their prior knowledge. It's time for the teaching. I crack open my copy of 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide Grades 3 and Up by Ruth Culham. Introductions and leads are discussed on pages 88 to 90 in the section on "Teaching the Organization Trait." The book includes concrete literary examples, so that's where I start. I make an overhead for each of the four examples and also make copies for the kids so that they have a copy to keep in their notebooks as a scaffold. Here's just a little taste of the lead from each of the literature selections.After I read aloud the leads using Shared Reading (everyone has a copy of the text that I'm reading from the overhead and follows along as I read), it's time for writing. They pull out their Writing Notebooks and Writing Folders and get to work. Pencils are flying. Two girls lean their heads together as they pour over their copies of the leads. Next week, when I start conferring with the kids, I'm hoping to read some "Kicked Up Narrative Leads." The proof will be in the reading!Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses on its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot."
Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros
"What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you are eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five and four, and three, and two and one."
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
"Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true. I have lived most of my thirteen years in Bybanks, Kentucky, which is not much more than a caboodle of houses rooting in a green spot alongside the Ohio River."
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
"It was not that Omri didn't appreciate Patrick's birthday present to him. Far from it. He was very grateful — sort of."
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