A. LaFaye's Blog: Word Wanderings Rest Stop - Posts Tagged "imagery"

Developing your writing style requires experimenting, so I'm writing my blog Twitter style. Revision advice 1 Tweet at a time.#RevBlog

1. Re-envision. See your manuscript in new ways. Write from another character’s POV. Write a poem in response to the 1st draft.

2. Go Draftless. Set the first draft aside and rewrite it to see what new discoveries you can make. Meld them later. Or not.

3. Go Poetic. Do a poetic weed. All active verbs. Cut conjunctions, articles, adverbs, abstract words. Focus on concrete imagery.

4. Pass On(e):Address one element each pass through—character, then plot, then imagery, then active voice, style, tension...

5. Expand: Look for expansion joints, places where your story or poem can grow-backstory? Steps in the story that are told vs. shown...

6. Contract: Where is your literary weight off? The space dedicated to an image, character, scene should be equal to its importance.

7. Voice: Have you employed as sense or orality & originality in your narrative voice. What does your work see say, others don’t?

8. Slant: Is your dialogue character specific? Does it slant to suggest things that aren’t on the page, but happened between the characters?

9. Once More With Conviction: Does your work unfold to reveal its theme vs. state it directly? Go for the reveal.

10. It’s Mine. All Mine. Make the work your own. Unique characters. Plot in unexpected directions. Use images that brings irony to new levels.

Want to know more about any of the topics in this #RevBlog? Stop by the blog on Goodreads and ask a question.

Tweeting Poetry Pen Pals

1. Establish a connection with another classroom. You can find a teacher/classroom willing to tweet poetry via Twitter. You can search for classrooms by grade.

2. Exchange contact information and plan out your shared unit via e-mail or in a phone conference. What are your goals? What schedule do you want to follow? Plan objectives, dates, assessments. Here is a website with lesson plan suggestions:
Poetry Lesson Plan


3. Prepare students for the first assignment: Suggested: Me Poems. Read examples of autobiographical poems. For example:
"Good Luck Gold" by Janet Wong


4. As them to write their own autobiographical poem using an exercise like this one:

Poetry Exercise:

1. Write an I-statement using a simile or a metaphor

I am like a tiger, my voice roars. simile

My voice is a tiger roar. metaphor

2. Write an I-have-statement (You can vary the verb)

I live in a jungle of books, dangling clothes, and animal filled drawings.

3. Write an I-want-statement

I’m hunting for a friend to join me on safari.

4. Put the statements together into a poem.

My voice roars like a tiger. I live in a jungle of books, dangling clothes, and animal filled drawings. I’m hunting for a friend to join me on safari.

5. Do character count, then revise for length.

Original 151
Revision:
My voice is a tiger roar. Welcome to my jungle of dangling clothes, and animal-filled drawings. Join me on safari, my friend. (126)

6. Workshop the poems in small groups of 4-5 kids. Have them offer feedback, revise, then resubmit. Kids will vote on their favorite poems in each group once they’re revised. Tweet the nominated poems to your Poetry Pen Pal classroom.

Here’s a helpful guide to using the Writer’s Workshop Model:
Writing Workshop Guide


7. Read the poems you receive from the other class. Assign one poem to each group. You can have them tweet questions, suggestions, comparisons to themselves.

8. Assess their learning. Here is a website on assessing the pen pal experience:
Pen Pal Assessment


You can also share videos of book reports, exchange poems about the place that you live, books that you love to read, the subjects are limitless.

If you use this unit in your classroom, please share your experience in the comments here or on my FB page
A. LaFaye Author Page
Or on my Twitter feed @artlafaye

Thank you!

I'm always open to improvements and suggestions and questions!


Fifth Grade Examples of Core Standards Addressed in This Unit
Text Types and Purposes:
CSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D
Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 5 here.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.6
With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

This simple poem can reveal many truths depending how you look at it, but for our purposes, let's look at it for its power to paint imagery--visual in this case using clear, concise descriptions, emjambment, stanzas, and an active verb-"glazed."

Imagery is the most important element of writing that allows readers to experience the world the words invoke , so let's take a quick tour of the tools of imagery

1. Be unique

Don't just pull on the fluffy clouds above, imagine how they might be tufts of cotton pulled from Santa's coat as the flew through the air on Christmas Eve

or

Drops of rain that have crowded together to watch the children play in the dew.

2. Be specific

It wasn't just a loud noise, The thunder sounded like the angels made a timpani drum out our neighbor's pool.

or

The music wafted into the room like the flutter of a mouth's wings

3. Be partial
Don't try to turn everything into an image or readers will have sensory overload and find it difficult to determine what is important and what isn't.

We don't need to know that
Trevor's backpack hung from his back like a bulging red water balloon, and his feed squeaked across the floor like warped wiper blades, and his hair stuck up like the tail feathers of chicken when we're really just following him into school.

4. Do Double Duty
If the image only shows us one thing--what something looks like--then it's not doing enough work. Every image should develop multiple elements of writing --character development, plot development, and so on.

In The Year of the Sawdust Man, the main character described her mothers room saying, "I knew every ring of dust, every pierced earring, and every piece of handmade clothing" in that "airy room overlooking Minkie's Mercantile" and in these few short words, we can guess that we're in the past or there wouldn't be a Mercantile,

Mama probably paid more attention to her appearance (earrings and clothes) than her housekeeping (dust), and the room has several windows (airy). And most importantly, we know that the narrator pays a lot of attention to detail.

So know setting (physical/temporal) and character development for two characters from must a few images.

5. Be sensory

We all know that images appeal to the senses and to do that you can use figurative comparisons, active verbs, and concrete terms, but it's also important to remember to include all of the senses--sight is the most commonly invoke sense, but don't forget sound, smell, taste, and touch.

To hone your imagery skills, explore the imagery of poets and authors your admire, take time to touch, taste, smell, see, and hear a wide variety of things. Try you hand at describing everyday, extraordinary, and surprising things in your head, in a notepad, on a paper towel. Bring your world to new life in words.

Go ahead, give it a try, share some imagery in a comment to this blog. Or share a link to a poem or a song that rocks the imagery!