With a Cherry on Top

I was recently asked by my very first follower (thank you, Kathy) if I want people to comment on the "Try-It" posts.  And my answer:

YES!

PLEASE!!

PRETTY PLEASE!!!

But it wasn't until last Friday, while in a session with Donalyn Miller, that it hit me:  

The Nerdy Book Club

I needed a mentor for how to craft the participation plea!  
Donalyn talked about her experience with her "The Nerdy Book Club" blog.   She explained how the whole thing just exploded.  But not without the help of her 
guest bloggers and avid readers.  
So, I have used her site as my mentor, and now you'll find a description of how you might choose to participate in this online community at the top of the page as well as a "Submit a Try-It Idea" link on the right.  So, come on, give it a try:  

• Go back to a post that struck you in some way and share your Try-It via the comment link.  
• Or, if the summer sun has made you particularly adventurous, click on the link to submit your own idea.  I am hoping to launch a "Slice of Summer" soon and would love your ideas to kick this off (and create a tool we can all use in the fall).

Lucky Us!

As I was crafting the previous post (as so often happens) I was reminded of this excerpt from Michael J. Fox's memoir, Lucky Man, which just a few weeks ago, I used with teachers to explore mentor text:



Teachers labeled this technique:  leaving out critical information to build suspense.  

So how 'bout this try:

    They wheeled the portable ultrasound into the room on the sixth floor.  I was reclined at the foot of the bed.  Everyone was there: my mom, sister, dad, husband.  Everyone was there to catch a glimpse of Camryn months before we'd ever get to hold her.  

    But one of us was watching more closely than the rest.  One of us wouldn't get to hold her.  Indeed, no one knew better than my dad the importance of this invasion of his room on the oncology floor: his final birthday gift.  

I like the way authors establish this sort of comparison.  They start by telling you what something isn't before revealing what it finally is.  

Now, it's your turn...

It's Addicting

This cover story begins:

"It happens so often, we rarely think about it. But which of our everyday rituals better shows how we live than eating?"

I was writing up a shared reading lesson today on this article, trying to identify some stopping places, and I just couldn't help but notice the craft :  

• Yes, it is a rhetorical question. 
• Yes, it is an example of a question that begins with the word "But."  
• Yes, it is an example of a lead that speaks directly to the reader.  

It is all of these, but what struck me was the relationship between two words: It and eating. 


I know what you're probably thinking.  As a comprehension skill, how many times do our students struggle to maintain the relationship between pronouns and antecedents?  And then, look at the one in this opener:  The antecedent--which, by definition, comes before the pronoun--is at the end of the second sentence.  


What a catchy hook.  
So, let's give it a try:

• It was the only way.  She knew she would have to do it.  And the thought of ____ scared her to death.
• He didn't even think twice before asking her.  He knew she would say yes.  "Mommy, would you play with me?"
• She came around the corner faster than lightning.  She looked up and saw me standing there, frozen.  She sped up, if such a thing were possible. And then she stopped.  Right at my feet, and I knew I would be taking this puppy home.
• They fought for hours, each pushing the other's stuff across the center line.  One was obviously in charge, taking up more space, but the other kept pace just the same.  As the wind picked up, they moved faster, and then, just as quickly as they had started, they came to an abrupt halt; these windshield wipers finally got a much-needed break as my grandpa pulled into the parking lot at the mall.

Yes, it is catchy: this writing backwards.  Now you give it a go!

WANTED: Student Samples

Hello friends!

We are so often asked for mentors of student writing. Some of you might think we have a stash hidden away.  You know, under our desks or in a dark locked room.  

But the truth is, we need your help to collect them.  And once we do, we are happy to share!

Besides, have you seen under my desk lately?  And if I were to find a dark, lockable room, I'd be using it for some much needed quiet time!  (Sound familiar?)  

Coach Books

Just like any teacher-mom would, I found myself playing school with my five-year-old on our day off.  And, as usual, I was the teacher.  On the board, I wrote "Mentor Text" (I know what you're thinking, but it is the world I am living right now.)
"What's that?" she asked me.
I explained to her that a mentor was kind of like her softball coach, and "text" was a fancy word for book, so a mentor text was really just a coach book.  And I asked her to pick one from her shelf.
She did, but not one I would have.  It was no award-winning text by any means, and far from the best in children's literature, but I cracked open the Disney anthology to the table of contents and asked her to pick a story.  The one she chose began like this:

Long ago, deep in the jungles of faraway India, there lived a wise black panther named Bagheera.

Recognize the story?
It's one of her favorites, and  now it was her turn:  "How would you finish a sentence that began, 'Long ago...'?" I asked her.
She said and then she wrote:
Once upon a time in faraway California there lived a smart and wise tiger named Tigeress.
Wow!  Even though she didn't recognize "mentor text," she sure knew what to do with one!  At that moment, clearer than any other, she told me what she'd been doing in kindergarten: learning to read like a writer.  What a gift!  

The Truth and a Story

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story," my friend always says.  
As I was reading Dr. Seuss' first book with my daughter today, those words began playing in my head like a scratched CD.
And into the mix: a phone call with my mother.  This is the result:

So my mom called today 

And the first thing she said,

"What have you done today

Since you got out of bed?"

Well, I thought for a minute

Felt like a real winner,

I was still in my bed

And it was quarter to dinner!

That can't be my story

She'd think I was lazy

So I had to think quick

Lest she think I was crazy.

"Well," I told her, "this morning was weird.

I got out of bed so fast, you'd have cheered.

"I jumped up quick from where I was laying

For two children appeared, so we started playing."

Now I know what you're thinking:

I only have one

So where did this other come from?

What had I done?

How would you explain a day, a walk, any moment that feels ordinary?  Would you keep changing it like Marco does in the story?  Would yours even have to rhyme?  

This one is addicting.  I've started one draft in my notebook where I was swept away by red-tailed hawks (who started to squawk, by the way) and as I began to write this one post, it took me in an entirely different direction.  And isn't that the point?  Where will this mentor take you?  Because now it's your turn...

Reading:Writing::Breathing:Living

So what are mentor texts?  Just what they sound like: books, blogs, stories, articles, brochures...any text that acts as coach and adviser.  And you decide which books act as your mentors.  
I was first introduced to mentor texts by one of my mentors, Katie Wood Ray, who asks "What have you read that is like what you are trying to write?"  

But today?  Today I was just assaulted by their power:


I was busy stacking mentors for an upcoming lesson on personal narratives. And out of nowhere, I was struck by a book.  I mean literally.  Struck.  The four-year-old (who apparently is too young to use a library voice, let alone take direction from his mother at any other volume but "stadium") threw this book at my table.  And, oh, what a joy!  Have you seen it?*
A book full of what I had just taught last week.  A whole book of "information equations," which  are powerful tools for showing relationships among ideas and concepts. 
Consider this:  red + blue = ___ 
Easy right?  
How 'bout this one: cozy + smell of pancakes - alarm clock = ____
Just like that, I found a mentor for the kind of writing I wanted to do.  I call them "Information Equations" after Linda Hoyt and Tony Snead.  this plus that  calls them "small delights."  Whatever you call them, they turn this book into a mentor, and I'm so glad it struck me.  


In other words:  

Noisy 4-year old + some sort of physics = just what I didn't know I was looking for 

Now you give it go...

*For more information and a discussion on this particular mentor, please visit "Writing to Learn."