Bless, Address, & Press No. 2

I love reading descriptive writing. I believe that the mark of a good story is one where the author evokes vivid images in the reader’s mind. After reviewing my peers' recent blog posts, I’d like to follow Hicks' model for peer review and “bless, address, and press (p. 83)” Denise’s blog titled The Power of Descriptive Writing.

Bless: While reading Tompkins chapter on teaching descriptive writing, Denise wrote that “the most beneficial element to me was incorporating sensory images. These senses can really allow the reader to feel like they are a part of your story.”  Tompkins said that young writers often incorporate just one sense, sight. (p. 139). I like Denise’s idea to require students to incorporate at least three senses in their descriptive writing pieces. Tompkins shares a variety of ways that teachers can help young writers craft sensory images (p. 139). In a library setting, I could choose mentor texts that evoke the five senses and use them for read-alouds. Then, I could ask my students to help me pick some of our favorite descriptions from the book and create a list of “sensory words,” that we liked. We could keep these words up on a board for various writing activities, or we could write stories together or individually that use some of these words!

Example of a sensory words chart
Source: Rocky Fork Middle School

Address: I’d like to commend Denise for sharing her personal struggles with descriptive writing in elementary school. Denise believes writing in general was a challenge because she didn’t know what to write about. I believe this is a common struggle for young writers, and one that Tompkins addresses several times in the text. Before expecting a student to write a story (let alone make it more descriptive) students need to understand the elements of story structure which include plot, setting, characters, theme, point of view, and narrative devices. Of course, Tompkins tells us that that descriptive writing is not limited to narrative writing (p. 153), but I think it’s a good place to start before a student can write descriptively.

One way to test a student’s knowledge of story structure is to ask them to retell a story they are familiar with (Tompkins, p. 182). I think this is a great way to get young writers started, first with simple narratives and then with descriptive writing. I think it’s not realistic to ask young writers to write a descriptive piece if they haven’t mastered the basic elements of story structure. If I was working with young writers on descriptive writing and some of them didn’t know where to start, I would differentiate my instructions for those learners. Can they retell a familiar story through writing? Once the students have proven they can write a simple story, then I think it’s appropriate to press them to revise it (as Tompkins says) “using words to paint a memorable picture and evoke a distinctive mood” (p. 136).

A sample organizer that kids can use to retell a story.
Source: education.com

Press: I was glad to see that Denise included two mentor texts in her blog: Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (2001) and The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg (1986). She writes that The Stranger “would be a great resource for teaching students about how to use and implement figurative language within their writing.” I would like to know more about Denise’s specific ideas to use these two mentor texts to teach descriptive writing. After sharing Skippyjon Jones (which Tompkins says is a great example of word choice on pg. 137) how would she teach her students to write more descriptively using this book as a model?

Kudos to Denise for digging deeper into Tompkins’ chapter on descriptive writing, and I enjoyed the opportunity to add my own insight and feedback!

Source outside class textbook
Holmes, D. (2019, March 30). Entry #9. The Power of Descriptive Writing.  Retrieved from https://holmessp19writing.blogspot.com/2019/03/

Bless, Address, & Press No. 1

After looking through my peers’ recent blog posts, I would like to expand on Kristina’s Week 7 blog on narrative writing. Hicks says that a good critique should bless (offer praise), address (ask specific questions about the ideas), and press (ask critical questions to help the writer move forward) (p. 83). I hope to achieve all three for Kristina through my feedback today, as well as add to my own understanding of the elements of story.

1. Bless: I really enjoyed Tompkins’ chapter on narrative writing as well as Kristina’s presentation on teaching the genre, so I was excited to see Kristina wrote about preparing for her presentation in her most recent blog. Since I’ll be doing a presentation on letter writing in several weeks, I was eager to learn how Kristina prepared for her presentation. She did a wonderful job explaining her process, from her own experiences with the genre to her research process (great idea to search The Reading Teacher journals for relevant articles!). She also remembered Hicks’ elements of a good presentation, focusing on the stickiness factor (p. 73). As someone who also may be inclined to read off the slides, I need to keep these elements in mind when designing my own genre presentation.
2. Address: Kristina wrote about her hesitations for teaching the narrative genre, having very few memories of learning to teach narrative writing during her undergraduate. I hope these memories are an exception to what most elementary teachers are teaching now, as I remember learning about story structure several times over when I was in elementary and middle school.
   
   In chapter 8, Tompkins talks about the elements of narrative writing, beginning with plot. I remember learning about the story structure pyramid when I was in school.

   

   Freytag's (story structure) pyramid.
   Retrieved from rookreading.com

   My classmates and I would read a story and then map it out using the pyramid, from exposition (beginning) to climax (middle) and end (resolution/denouement). Later, we learned to write our own stories using the story structure pyramid as a guide to map out the plot. In high school, I remember using the pyramid to map out Shakespeare’s plays to add to my own understanding of the text.
   
   Tompkins’ cites Applebee’s (1980) research that “by the time children begin kindergarten, they’ve already developed a concept of what story is, and these expectations guide them as they respond to stories and tell their own.” (Applebee, cited in Tompkins, pg. 171). Tompkins goes on to say that children as young as two and a half have a concept of story (p. 171), something I notice with my own 2.5 year-old who will eagerly say “The End!” when we finish a story. As a future library media specialist, I’m certain that helping my young readers understand the elements of story would be important. I found these great videos on weareteachers.com that would be great to show my students while we discuss the elements of story!
3. Press : Kristina says that “when students are explicitly taught about the structural elements of narrative writing, they will develop into better writers.” I would like to know her ideas for teaching young students these elements. We got a glimpse into Kristina’s life as a teacher through her genre presentation, and I really enjoyed the character maps to show the outside and inside (F.A.S.T. acronym) of characters. What are some other teaching strategies that she might use for teaching the elements of story/narrative writing with elementary students? I believe that including more examples of ways to teach story in her blog (such as talking about the character maps) would be beneficial to readers like me who are interested in learning more about how to teach story. 

Sources outside class textbooks
Applebee, A.N. (1980). The child’s concept of story: Ages 2 to 17. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wells, K. (2019, March 17). “Genre expert” workshop presentation. Retrieved from https://kristinawells-lted618-spring2019.blogspot.com/2019/03/genre-expert-workshop-presentation.html