Bend II
Writing to Deepen
Literary Analysis
Session 9
Reflection and
Goal Setting
Using the Informational
Writing Targets
Celebrate and Move Forward
Writer’s often pause, using the resources
available to them to set goals before the
forge ahead with a project.
Teaching Point:
Today we will use our Information Writing
Targets to reflect on where our writing is
now and what areas we need to improve as
we begin to revise our drafts.
Mini Lesson
Reading and Reflecting with a lens
Whole Class Modeling: Target -Effective
introduction catches reader, previews what is to
follow and defines the purpose
Let’s spend the next few minutes:
•
•
•
•
Look at each chapter draft and reflect on the introduction (first paragraph
or few sentences)
Evaluate yourself on the target above - look at the exemplar text
beginnings to see what is possible for 7th graders to do
Make some notes in the margin or on the rubric to guide you when you
begin to revise
Remember you will write an overall introduction to the companion book
before publishing
Reflecting through the lens of text
structure
Target: Attempts to demonstrate formal
writing by identifying and using text
structure(s) (description, cause and
effect, sequence, compare and contrast,
problem solution)
Now read the draft of your first chapter with
the lens of craft and structure –
Ask yourself:
• Which text structure did I use
• How do I know
• Did I use enough signal words
Writer’s Workshop
• Continue to read each of your draft chapters
• You may ask to work with a writing partner to help
you in this process
• Assess each using the target rubric
• Create 3 writing goals for yourself
– Using the Rubric and your reflections from
today pick targets you need to improve on.
– The goals should come from the
Purpose/Organization or
Development/Elaboration categories
We will all be working on grammar and
sentence type goals.
Gallery Walk
Congratulations!
We will spend the last part of today getting a look at the drafts of
our friends companion books.
On your desk
•Lay out your companion book
•Jot on a note card 2 things you have learned in this unit so far and
one of your goals moving forward.
You have all worked so hard – while you are moving around make
note of some things you see and tell the author how much you
appreciate their work as you head out of class today!
Session 10
Reading like
Writer’s and
Writing about it!
Teaching Point
Readers who write stories themselves read
the texts others have written, aware that
the authors made purposeful writing
choices.
Before they write about the texts, readers
ask,
• Why might the author have written it this
way?
• What insight about the story can I gain
from studying this part?
Then they write about it.
Crafting Decisions in “The Stolen Party”
Using the Writer’s techniques chart
With a partner Look at the first page of the
class story
When you see a place where you think the
author used a technique or made a decision
on purpose, to achieve a writerly goal, put
a check mark by it.
If you have an idea about the goal write that
in the margin;
Looking at Heker’s Writing Decisions
Heker made a lot of writing decisions.
It is on purpose she chose the title.
The way time moves in the first few lines
from arriving at the party to the flashback
conversation with her mother
Letting readers see Rosaura’s inner thinking
Let’s begin by analyzing Hekers use of inner
thinking
Look at the last two lines of the last paragraph on the first
page – Heker writes:
She felt very sad. She wanted to go to that party more than
anything else in the world.
When I am wondering about this choice, I ask, “Why so
much inner thinking here?”
I might talk or write about my ideas:
I try to say something, anything, about what the words
mean or what reason the author might have for writing them
this way in the story.
Turn and Talk – What did you think the first time you read
it? What do you think now that you know the whole story?
Common Goals a Writer Might Have
Thanks for the great discussion!
I have some ideas on why Heker made this choice
but before I settle on some answers lets look at
some Common Goals Writers might have.
Class Discussion
I heard that you did think Heker used inner thinking for some of
the reasons on the Goal chart.
•The inner thinking shows character motivation
As readers we now know how badly Rosaura wants to go to the
party – which might explain why she’s so willing to believe she
is having a good time there.
*If I write about that in one of my chapters, I’ll have to explain
that more.
Small Group Share – In your table groups
discuss some other choices Heker made and
what the goal might have been.
Active Engagement
Questioning your authors choices
Just as Heker used specific techniques in her
story to achieve certain goals the authors
of the books you read did too!
You need to realize choices are made and
techniques are used on purpose to
Think more and See more when reading so
you can be a stronger writer about that
reading.
Using the graphic organizer (blank chart of
authors techniques) Jot down examples
where your author used these techniques
From Techniques to Goals
Make Connections:
Using the chart you just created on
techniques the authors of your books
are using
Look at the blank goals sheet
• Try to connect technique to a goal
you think the author might have
been trying to achieve
Adding to the Anchor Chart
Add/highlight the following on your anchor
chart:
Ways to Write Powerfully about Reading
Analyze craft: How/Why author used
techniques and story elements (symbolism,
time, multiple points of view)
“The author used___________ in order to
_________.”
Work Time
Using today lessons and the charts you
created on technique and goal
Think More about the craft choices your
authors made and what you can learn
about the story and characters from them.
Stop and Jot
Create a list in response to this question:
What emotions did I feel for the characters
while reading this book:
Work Time Continued
Complete the following sentence:
The author used ___________(technique)
to________________(achieve what goal)
Now free write your thoughts thinking
about the emotions you listed and your
completion of the statement above
Write about:
Why you felt those things?
How did the author make you feel those things?
Why are your emotions important to the story?
Or any other thoughts you have
Student Example of Analysis
Homework
Use the Lens of Authors Purpose and
Goals (Craft) to write new chapters
for your companion book or to
Revise ideas or chapters you have
started.
Create at least 1 new or 1 revised
chapter to share during tomorrows
Literary Salon
Literary Salon
Literary Salon
Readers and Writers often gather to talk about
books – literary craft, technique, and style
These conversations often result in book reviews
found online on Goodreads and Amazon.com
They can also help a writer with new ideas and
advice on how they can make their writing more
meaningful to their readers
Let the Conversation Begin
Today’s Literary Salon:
You will need
•The new chapter or revised chapter you worked on yesterday
•The charts you made on the choices your authors made in
technique and your connections to goals
•Pen/Pencil to and paper to jot notes
Celebrate your hard work of
Thinking, feeling, seeing and hearing MORE
Circulate
•give mini book talks on the books you have read
•discuss your thoughts on technique, goal and craft
•listen and offer comments, ask questions, give advice
Session 11
Writing about
Symbolism in Texts
Focusing on one type of
author technique (craft)
Teaching Point
Today I want to teach you that to write
well about reading, writers don’t just
note symbols and come up with a
quick meaning (like birds mean
hope). Instead they track the symbol
across the story, thinking and
writing about what it means in
different parts.
Symbolism in Music
Today we will practice looking at symbolism
in the song “Wings” by Macklemore
Research:
Watch and Listen to the video
Hand out lyrics
When the video is over be ready to tell your
partner what seems symbolic in this text.
http://ochalek.weebly.com/informationalwriting.html
Turn and Talk
• Discuss what symbols you saw in the
lyrics and video
• Class share of ideas
Symbols often have more then one
meaning in a text
So lets go back to the text
Read the text and mark your thinking
in the margins
What I was thinking:
Read the first stanza aloud
Here the boy gets his first pair of shoes, and he
is so excited, he thinks the shoes will make him
fly. But it’s more than just the shoes. He thinks
the shoes will change him and make him a
superhero basketball player.
Big idea:
Maybe the shoes are about his hopes
BIG hopes for the future!
Now you go through and mark your thinking
Group Discussion
Share some of your thoughts on symbolism
Try to build on what classmates say as your
express your interpretation of they
symbols in this song.
(Repeat this exercise with One Republics
“Feel Again” if you want – video on
weebly)
Work Time
Author Technique – Symbolism
You now have another lens to view the craft
of the author that wrote your book
Look back at your notes or written chapters
is there any use of symbolism
Try to write or revise a chapter
• Identify the symbol
• Explain the purpose it serves
• Track its use across the text
Mid Workshop Teaching
Rethinking the Meaning of Titles
When working with symbols I have noticed
that some of you have gone back and made
some connections to the title of your book.
Book titles and Chapter titles don’t often
appear to have meaning until we are
almost done reading.
Does your book title hold any symbolism?
What about the title for our class story
“The Stolen Party”?
Homework
Analyzing the author’s craft
A student writing about the Maze Runner
notices that Dashner makes you feel
empathy for the character Thomas by
certain word choices:
“Someone…help..me! He screamed. Each
work ripped his throat raw.” is a quote
from the text
“Someone…help..me! He screamed. Each work
ripped his throat raw.”
The student is using an example of dialogue to
support his thinking
BUT
He goes beyond that when explains further saying:
Dashner achieves this by using the raw as a word
that make you feel pain and empathy for Thomas.
This student didn’t stop at the sentence level the
example wasn’t enough he had to get more specific
Homework
Today as you re-read your chapters and
notes
Find a quote you selected
Analyze the quote – now that you have picked
a line that is meaningful, powerful or
supports one of your ideas
THINK MORE – how can you be specific –
Look at the words used
Which words make you connect to the
character or understand the mood of
setting and why…
Revisiting Text Structure
Structuring your
Chapters
Using Text Structures
Find the packet you of informational
paragraph examples you completed from
the beginning of this unit.
Text Structure – like chapters – are a way to
organize the information for your readers
What to Do
Look at each chapter title
Ask yourself:
What am I trying to show my readers (or
teach them) in this chapter
What details will I be using to support my
idea?
Look at those answers and select a text
structure to use for formulating the
chapter.
Using the Text Structures
Since your chapters are several paragraphs
you can’t just fill in the text structure
paragraph frame and move on.
You will need to look at the frame and the
signal words and imagine spreading them
out throughout your chapter to organize
what you are trying to say.
Practice: Select a chapter and try it –then
share with your partner see if they can
correctly identify the structure you used.
Revise and Review
If your partner couldn’t identify the structure
you used what was missing – work
together to brainstorm ideas to make it
better
Note: You will probably only use 2 or 3
structures throughout this book and that is
okay.
Revise chapters to plan for a text structure –
use at least 2 different structures – each
chapter should have a structure.
Session 12
Analyzing
Structure in a
Book: How Time
Moves
Teaching Point
Today, as people who write about
reading, we will pay attention to the
structure of a story, to the way time
moves. If the structure is
unconventional, a reader can write
about it to help figure out how the
parts of the story are connected and
to think about why the author made
these choices.
Anchor Chart
When doing this work consider the following:
When Time Shifts, If Might Be…
•A flashback to earlier moments in the character’s
or plot’s history, a back story
•A flash-forward to moments father in the future
•Parallel narratives that present tow timelines of
events, either in different setting or from different
perspectives.
•Converging narrative where separate stories (from
different perspectives) lead to the same moment.
Exploring the craft of playing with
time
Brainstorm books or movies you know that have a
different time structure:
Shift…
Let’s look at our classroom story “The Stolen
Party”
Read the first paragraph and the two lines that
follow – something just happened with the time
Stop and Jot – What is happening with time here?
Good Work
Most of you have identified that this story
begins with a flash-forward
Now you have to ask yourself WHY?
Tip: To answer this question, it helps to think
about how this unusual treatment of time
connects with the rest of the story.
Think aloud:
Here is my thinking on why the author of
“The Stolen Party” began with flashforward
Heker begins the monkey, even though that’s further forward
in the story. Maybe the author wants the reader to know
the monkey is important for the start. On the other hand,
perhaps the author wants the reader to know Rosaura is
right about the monkey-and I wonder if this is to trick the
reader a little into thinking Rosaura is right about the
whole party, when by the end it’s clear that her mother
was right all along.
Turn and Talk: What do you think?
Active Engagement
Practice: Let’s look at the movement of time
in a scene most of you know. A scene from
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”
While watching ask yourself – How does the
writer use time here and why? What about
the way time is treated here makes it more
interesting then a regular treatment of
time?
\Clip on Weebly
http://ochalek.weebly.com/informationalwriting.html
Though Prompts:
Write your thinking:
Use these thought prompts to help you begin
writing…
•Maybe the author included this because…
•On the other hand, perhaps…
•Or it could be that…
•I wonder if…
Whole class share out
Work Time
Challenge yourself to look at the use of time
in the books you read.
Did the author treat time differently?
Could you write a chapter or edit a chapter
to include your new ideas on time
Work Time
Get out your writing targets.
Look at the section on Elaboration and Craft
Look at your first draft chapters and chapter
ideas
I have given you two exemplar chapters
With a partner read the exemplars and using
highlighter mark areas you see the writer
meeting the targets in the Elaboration and
Craft section
Homework
Revise for Elaboration and Craft
Using the check list and the work you have
done over the past few days
Using the targets select a goal for yourself –
use the student examples today as mentor
texts
Revise at least 2 of your chapters or turn 2 of
your ideas into chapters and focus on your
goal in elaboration and craft.
Session 13 and 14
Writing inside the
Scene
And
Organizing the Table of
Contents
Teaching Point
Today you will mainly be working on
developing your topics and writing your
chapters.
Remember – use the ladder to big ideas
(ladder of abstraction) to help you plan
out details to help your reader understand
your big idea.
Adding Precise Description
Check back across our book
Across all the chapters and your notes
Find at least 3 places where you are writing
inside a scene – retelling part of a scene to
support an idea
Describe the scene by adding color, making a
comparison, describing shades of light and
dark – paint a picture with your words
Non- Fiction doesn’t have to be Boring!
Finalize your Table of Contents
You should have decided on all of the big
ideas you will include in your companion
book.
Each of these ideas will become a chapter
and need a title
Using the Table of Contents Organizer
Select and an order for your chapters –
Remember good writers leave nothing to
chance so take time to create the right
layout.
Researching the Introduction
Search for a meaningful
Song or Poem that connects to a theme or the
main character in your book
(It might be just a verse or a few lines)
What your choose should express an
important idea or point of view in the book
you’re analyzing.
You will share these in class tomorrow and
use them to help write your introductions
Session 15
Writing
Introductions and
Conclusions
Connection
Turn and Talk
You will have 60 seconds to advertise your
companion book to your partner
Use your revised table of contents
“Sell your Book” talk about:
• How your chapters go
• Explain why you selected those to include
• Explain how those chapters help the reader
think, feel, see, hear more about the book
Switch
Teaching Point
Today you will learn that to craft compelling
and effective introductions, writers often
look across the whole of a chapter or the
whole of a book and ask:
How do these things go together?
Then they write to preview the important
sections of what’s to come, and to interest
the reader in what each section has to
offer.
Organizing before Writing
Well – Organized informational writing
groups like topics together in a book or
chapter
Look over all of your chapters and
information and ask yourself –
What goes together and why?
The answer to this question will help you
write your introduction
Stop and Jot an answer to that question
Example – Table of Contents
“The Stolen Party” Companion Book: Table of
Contents
Chapter 1: Rosaura and Her Mother
Chapter 2: Rosaura and the Ines Family
Chapter 3: Rosaura and the Magician
Chapter 4: The Significance of the Kitchen
Chapter 5: The Magic Show Matters
Chapter 6: Two Dollars Change Everything
Chapter 7: Rosaura Passes out the Cake – A New
Scene
Chapter 8: The Day Before the Party…What
Might Have Happened
Grouping Like Information
I have already grouped some information
into chapters:
Rosaura and her mother fight
Rosaura and her mother at the end of the
story
What Rosaura’s Mother knows
All of these subjects can be found in the
chapter “Rosaura and Her Mother”
Crafting an Introduction
Don’t preview by stating or describing
every chapter – look for big ideas
Look at the example table of contents
–
How can these Chapter titles be
grouped together?
Turn and Talk
Introduction
Make connections between chapters
Describe and preview them in the
introduction- give a small advertisement!
The first
sentence is the
connection and
description
First you’re going to learn about critical
relations in “The Stolen Party”. This
section includes an analysis of…
The next part in
the advertising –
a little peek at
what is inside
that section
Work Time
Craft your Introduction – Revise and start
over as many times as you need to get the
best beginning.
Writing the introduction might make you
realize you need to reorganize the
chapters – then do that!
Introduction should:
Preview the important parts and interest the
reader in what is to come
Mid Workshop Teaching
Hook your Reader
When crafting your introduction try one of
these ideas informational writers use to
hook their readers
Something on the list you might not be
familiar with is the epigraph – this is
where the song or poem you connected to
the story come in
Ways to Engage your Readers
in What is Most Important
•Explain the importance of what’s to come
•Provide a compelling or surprising fact or
statistic
•Include an “imagine this” scenario
•Story-tell an anecdote or scene
•Include an epigraph – a brief quotation that
connects to a key theme or issue within your
topic
Session 15 Part 2
Conclusions
Teaching Point
It is just as important to keep your
readers hooked at the end with a
great conclusion as it is to get
them reading with a great
introduction!
Conclusions
Writing Conclusions that Keep Readers
Hooked
•Provide a compelling fact, statistic, or
anecdote
•Include an “imagine this? Scenario
•Pose questions for the reader
•Connect back to the beginning of the chapter
or book
•Explain (or reiterate) the significance of the
information
•Leave readers with something new to think
about
Work Time
Write the conclusion to your companion
book.
Use the same ideas of writing a conclusion to
the book to revise some of the conclusions
to your chapters.
Session 16
Final Revisions
and Celebration
Editing
Your revisions should be complete and it is
now time to edit for Language conventions
To edit read your draft with these lenses
(remember good editing requires multi
readings!)
Lenses for Rereading Drafts to
Edit Language Conventions
•Read out loud to check the flow of the text. Ask, “Does the
punctuation help the reader read each sentence fully?”
•Read to notice and edit transitional phrases between sections.
•Edit for appropriate punctuation with sentences, with
appositives and dependent clauses separated by commas.
•“Kill your darlings” cut what’s not needed at the sentence
level
•Check for misplaced modifiers
•Read to find your own personal spelling demons, whether
those are homonyms (their/there/they’re) or words ending in –
ence vs ance
Congratulations!
Your books are due tomorrow
You should celebrate the great
reading and writing work
you did to get these
companions book
published!
WAY TO GO