Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 1, “Tremendous Transformations in Writing” (3rd-4th)
We had a great first day together in Tremendous Transformations in Writing! After discussing classroom expectations, we began our course by talking about the concept of transformation. We learned that the word “transformation” can be traced to the Latin verb transformare, meaning “to change in shape,” and that the English word “transform” was first used almost one thousand years ago during the Middle English period.
Our first challenge this morning was to transform art materials (fabric, buttons, pipe cleaners, feathers, etc.) into a unique art piece that displays our names and something unique about each one of us. The students did an excellent job with this, and I loved seeing their creativity and various approaches to the task. Each student introduced her/himself with confidence and poise.
We were able to escape to the patio for a snack break before the storms began this morning, and then we came back inside to play the community-building game “Four Corners” in which we got to know one another by picking a corner based on our favorite seasons, academic subjects, Hogwarts houses, and sports.
In our next lesson, we started talking about what it means to be a writer, the habits of writers, and why people write. I read this excerpt aloud from Sylvia Cassedy’s book In Your Own Words, and we talked about the importance of “taking notice”:
“Everybody has something to write about. At every moment in your life, there is an event taking place that is important enough to be put down in words. An event can be a big and noisy thing, like a football game or a parade. Or it can be small and quiet, like the tickle on your finger when you stroke a beetle’s back or the flutter in your nostrils when you pass a hot-dog stand. An event can take place inside you, where no one else can see. A daydream is an event, and so is a secret wish. A burst of joy or anger is an event, and so is a rush of whispered words that bounce around your head. A newfound fact is an event. So is stopping still to wonder at a bulldozer or the moon. Anything that you are aware of is an event in your life. It is yours alone. Private as a daydream or public as a parade, it happens only to you. No one else senses it just as you do. That is why when you write about it, you reveal something new to the whole world. Taking notice of the events in your life and turning them into words of your very own is what creative writing is all about.”
Students received their writer’s notebooks so that they can capture their noticings this week. Many students wanted to take them home this evening, but we are going to leave them in the classroom so that no notebook gets accidentally left behind! (Students may bring any writing they do this evening to paste into their notebooks tomorrow morning.) We practiced taking notice by writing for two minutes about a bottle of glue and then for five additional minutes about some unusual objects (an old bell, a Monopoly board, an old photograph, a headless action figure). Some interesting descriptions and potential narratives emerged from this exercise!
After lunch, we returned to our theme of transformations and expanded our definitions to include some generalizations that we then applied to examples from the real world and a few Disney film clips. After a game of “Keepy Uppy,” we talked about how a story can be like a Rubik’s Cube. The students enjoyed a read-aloud of After the Fall by Dan Santat, which we used as a foundational text for our first literary analysis. Although this was a challenging task, I am proud of the focus and perseverance that each student demonstrated! We discussed setting, character motivations, narrative conflict, point of view, literary techniques, narrative structure, and thematic message.
Below are some dinner table conversation starters on topics we explored today:
- How is writing a story like releasing a fully formed statue from a block of stone?
- How does a writer transform an ordinary object into something extraordinary?
- What is a generalization about the theme of transformations?
- How is a story like a Rubik’s Cube?
- What message does Dan Santat want us to take away from After the Fall?
Tomorrow morning, we will return to the literary analysis wheel to begin discussing how the various components of a story interact to create depth and meaning. I’m looking forward to another fun day of learning and creating with your delightful children!
~ Abby Ashford-Grooms