Secondary Smorgasbord - All Treats & No Tricks for Teachers Blog Hop

Secondary Smorgasbord - All Treats & No Tricks for Teachers

Teachers Resource Goody Bags must always be reviewed, and updated with fresh material. The problem is- by the end of the day, or a non-stop week- who has the energy to mine their exhausted brains for engaging, challenging, and inspiring new ideas? 

The solution is nearer and easier than you can imagine.  Present the issue to your students. 

One late October day in my not-so-far-away past,  when my brain was clogged with fog that threatened to settle in and hibernate for a while, I asked my Creative Writing 2,3,4 students to, "... brainstorm some  ways that we can mine the buried creative veins in our minds for writing ideas." Their eyes started to ping and glow as their brain-gears chugged to life.  "And," I continued, "Figure out a way we make them easily accessible to the class."

The Lost & Found Idea Box was born.  Very simply, the students and I could add as many writing ideas to the box whenever we remembered a forgotten idea for a story, poem or personal narrative, concocted a fresh one, or found an idea from a printed/published source.

Kseniya, whose creative brain was always conjuring up -out-of-the-box (yes, I really wrote that) breakthroughs, led the class's planning session. Here are their results:

1. Ideas or hooks had to fit on a 3" x 5" Index Card- either written, glued, stapled or taped.
2. If the brainchild was not from their own minds, they had to cite the source.
3. All items had to follow my class rules- No Swearing, No Graphic Violence, No Direct, Indirect or Implied Sex, No Drugs. Also, no text abbreviations or slang that promoted any of the above Nos. that I might not be aware of without interpretations from a kind but probably snickering, eye-rolling, How can she not know this? student.
4. I would provide them with an empty copy paper box that they would all decorate whenever their creative muses inspired them.

Within a week, the Lost & Found Idea Box perched on top of a bookcase stuffed with novels donated from years of bookaholic students and my own collection. Multilayered with pieces of scrapbook paper, colored tissue paper, newspaper headlines, personally created and Internet found graphics and images, foam letters, feathers, mirrors and other local craft store purchases,etc., its very presence boldly lured students to explore its treasures.

The box was crammed with Index Cards revealing items like horoscopes, obituary clips, stories from any section of online and hardcopy newspapers and magazines. original opening lines from their pieces. quotes from a book that grabbed their interest, headlines, text messages, social media statuses, tweets, doodles in the margins of their notebooks, images from a graphic arts class, to...well...you get the idea- from absolutely anywhere. 

The entries were only limited by the boundaries of the students' imaginations.And that is the key to student brain drain, When students are included in the planning, they are more apt to be hooked into learning because they feel their thoughts and ideas are valued.

Not only did my students allow items from Lost & Found Idea Box to inspire them, but so did I. Many times when my mind froze and I needed a Warm-up Prompt for my English 12, journalism or my Creative Writing 1,2,3 or 4 classes, I would sift through the  Index Cards until my brain pinged, "That's it!"

Here is a Halloween Freebie to add to your  Resource Goody Bag and to start your own classroom Idea Box - Comprehension and Writing Activity - Trick or Treat?  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-and-Writing-Activity-Trick-or-Treat-1484248

Thank you  Darlene Ann Curran http://meatballsinthemiddle.blogspot.com/  and Pamela Kranz http://desktoplearningadventures.blogspot.com/ for organizing this most excellent All Treats & No Tricks blog hop.

Enjoy a Teach It Now Day, Every Day,

An InLinkz Link-up

Language Arts Activity - Tripping Through Time

In this 4-page Free activity, Tripping Through Time, students use their thinking and writing skills to show their understanding of the character, conflict and other elements of literature in the piece that they are studying through narrative writing. 

As the character of their choice from the reading, they are transported to a totally unfamiliar time and geographic area. After researching this different time and place, the students will write a personal narrative comparing and contrasting both societies. Their responses must reveal the point of view of the character that they chose to personify, not their own.

The students’ completed writing will show their comprehension of the reading, of the material that they gathered in their research, and they will strengthen their higher level thinking skills.


Download this FREEBIE from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Activity-Tripping-Through-time-1174672

Happy Teaching,

Teach it Write

Building Powerful Academic Homes

Language Arts Activity - "Predicting Outcomes"

All people, real and fictional, have experienced the Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda dilemma at least once in their lives. With this FREE lesson, Language Arts Activity - "Predicting Outcomes", students dig into this Choice/Consequence quandary that a specific character experiences throughout a story. 

The chart that students complete for this activity will show the round and dynamic qualities of the character as well as how the person  acts and reacts to the Plot/Conflict.

Introduce this activity during the latter part of the Rising Action or when enough information about the character has been given. In completing it, students exhibit their range of thinking skills from knowledge through evaluation. 

The written segment allows them to show their understanding of all aspects of the character elements of literature as well as their analytic and critical-thinking skills. The oral response/discussion aspect enables students to exercise and develop their speaking and listening skills.

This Common Core aligned activity has students, remembering, thinking, applying, analyzing,

writing, evaluating and speaking. Their motivation is tweaked  by the age old, "Woulda', shoulda', coulda'" dilemma.

Download this FREE activity from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Activity-Predicting-Outcomes-1152153. The Teacher Notes page details the Who, What, When, Why and How for this lesson as well as the selected Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy choices.







Happy Teaching,

Teach it Write

Building Powerful Academic Homes

Language Arts Activity - "Taking a Break"

Language Arts Activity - "Taking a Break"

Just a moment ago, I turned my back to my window as a chill ran up my spine.  Why?

Because it is March 3rd and the "...weather outside is frightful," (From Let it Snow). Here in the suburbs northwest of Washington, D.C., snow in falling, and falling, and falling.  The wind is circling the street hunting for a face to face confrontation. Like the vast majority of the country, we are experiencing yet another Weather Event, this one bears the name,Titan.

Although  all of the school districts in a 50+ radius of my home office are cancelled today, many of you, my teacher colleagues, have splashed, slid and pushed a path into your classrooms for the first Monday in March. What do you do when those lessons that fanned your teaching flames in the fall and that kept your teaching passion warm during most school days of this endless winter now seem as drab lifeless as the arugula on that tuna sandwich you squeezed onto the top shelf of the Teacher Lounge fridge last Friday?

If it's impossible to actually pack your bags and set off for a sun-soaked sandy beach along with a few good friends, at least take a mental break. 

Ask your students to envision their own Fantasy Vacation mental break, too, but instead of enjoying themselves with a few of their real friends, they are hanging out with three fictional characters.

This engaging lesson is a terrific Any Time During the Year Recap to assess your students' comprehension, understanding and analytic skills of the material that they have read so far this school term, On dreary days when  any R & R seems far, far away, it offers a needed getaway for your students- even if they are only jet-skiing through their heads. 

For this activity, students will decide on traveling companions for their dream vacation. They will ask three characters from books that they have read for school assignments this year to join them on this fantasy trip. 

• Who will they take? 
• Why them? 
• Where will they go? 
• How will these people help them have a perfect trip?

Students must detail their responses to these questions so the reasons behind their choices are clear.Their explanations for these selections must reveal which physical, emotional and personality traits made them desirable trip mates.

Escape Storm Titan. Let your mental meanderings take you away to your dream getaway with some interesting and novel companions.

Download this FREE activity, with detailed Teacher Notes, from
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Activity-Taking-a-Break-248681

Happy Teaching,




Enjoy this an hundreds of other free and priced lessons on
 http://www.pinterest.com/TheBestofTPT/free-lessons-priced-lessons-the-best-of-teacher-en/

Score With the Literature Super Bowl

After a weekend of football playoff games, I woke up this morning with Pigskin Fever, so I decided that I would offer you my literature review product,   Score With the Literature Super Bowl.  I originally created this review activity that will fit virtually any text-fiction or literary nonfiction in 2012. 

When Compass Publishing contacted me to write my book, The House of Comprehension, we decided to include it in Chapter 5 Decorating: Putting it all Together . Since it tied together all of the elements of literature and how they form the structure of any literary test, we tweaked it, so now it can be found on pages 160-165.

I am offering it in this post because I absolutely love how it engages and energizes students to review the novel or narrative nonfiction book that they have been studying. This novel analysis activity not only checks students’ comprehension of facts, ideas and details, but it also assesses their analytic and interpretive comprehension, ergo, it develops their higher level thinking skills. Score With the Literature Super Bowl includes specific directions for creating and playing the game, and all game pieces-football cards for the point values and questions, a spinner, and a score sheet.

With this teamed activity, students will quit playing their off-task Desktop Football with that folded triangular paper football that they flick toward their index finger goal posts.  If your desk is anything like mine used to be, you probably have a drawer full of these.  Instead, they will be singing,

                “I've been waiting all week for this review
The tough get rough when they’ve gotta’ clue. 
The last one standing gets an A for the game
After this day you’ll remember my name.”

(adapted from the song, “I’ve Been Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” sung by Carrie Underwood

and set to the tune” I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett).

To begin, create questions about the novel. Gather the material that you want to review from study questions/guides, activities used during the study of the book, discussions, quizzes, and the final test, and from whatever other lessons from the unit . Make a numbered master list of your questions and a separate answer key, including each question’s point value. See the Teacher’s Directions page for the rest of the specific directions for how to prepare and then play the game.  Download and laminate the spinner and the football cards.

Add to the Super Bowl atmosphere by asking the students to wear a jersey of a favorite team or player, by starting the review playing the Sunday Night Football theme song, and by offering snacks, i.e. popcorn, football-shaped cookies, etc, if this doesn’t interfere with school policy.  Hint- ask the students to bring the snacks. For closure, have Literature Super Bowl Winners certificates.

Download this FREEBIE from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Score-With-the-Literature-Super-Bowl-1058494   .  For more activities that teach students the importance of the elements of literature in creating a durable story structure, check out the preview for The House of Comprehension  on http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-The-House-of-Comprehension-Preview-125128  or on the publisher’s TpT site: Digital http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-House-of-Comprehension-digital-edition-566148

Edition:

Print Edition: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-House-of-Comprehension-print-edition-566107 or publishing Compass's publishing site http://www.teachitwrite.com/

Meanwhile, enjoy this activity.

Happy Teaching, 

Start Strong!

Any point in the school year, but especially from January to the end of the academic year, is a perfect time for students to review their past few months' writing accomplishments and to analyze areas where they can strengthen their work.

Start Strong! offers teachers three activities that they can use when they want their students to proofread their writing, and to revise and rewrite segments with a specific goal in mind. The objective of each of these activities is to Start Strong! in any of their writing.

Activity topics include:

1. Vary Sentence Beginnings
2. Booming Beginnings vs. Fizzling Beginnings, and
3. Reel Them In!

In Vary Sentence Beginnings, students choose the first twenty sentences from one of their papers and

number each sentence. On the activity sheet, they write the first word of each sentence on the line by the corresponding numbers. If any two consecutive sentences begin with the same word, they are to revise one of them so it begins with a different word. Finally, they must write their revised sentence on the line beside the word that they changed.

Booming Beginnings vs. Fizzled Beginning, the second activity, asks students to look through their papers for places where they started sentences with and, but, so, then or well. This exercise reminds them that in some casual writing, such as blogs, tweets and status updates, using these words is acceptable, but not in most other pieces.  After that, they are to find examples in their writing portfolio where they have used these sentence joiners as sentence starters, and then revise them so their sentences begin with a boom, not a fizzle.

Finally, in Reel Them In!, students are reminded that good writers know that they must snag readers with the

first few sentences. If they don’t, chances are the piece will sink into oblivion. When they think of the lead sentences as a fishing hook, and every word that forms each sentence as the bait, their writing will lure readers to the writer’s world. Readers are more apt to keep reading if the writer grabs their attention.

Note-the first two pages with this FREE activity are from my book, The House of Comprehension (37-39).  To read about the whole teaching program this book offers, and to get the Reel Them In! activity (The House of Comprehension 40), see http://www.teachitwrite.com/. 

Aligned with Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy, this trio empowers students to assess their pieces while using their higher level thinking skills with the goal of strengthening their writing beginnings. Download this FREE product from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Start-Strong-1044876

Happy Teaching,

P.S. Because I try to follow the same criteria that I ask my students to do, I proofread and revised this post so each of the 20 sentences in it begin with a different word.  Talk about a challenge!

How do your expectations for your students test your skills?

Literature Review: Tying it All Together

How can we teachers assess our students' understanding of a work of fiction before an assessment?

How can we teachers prepare our students to confidently analyze an excerpt from a literary work during a standards of learning exam?

How can we teachers empower our students to build durable comprehension homes that will last them for a lifetime? 

We can make sure that we use the building blocks of any short story or novel: the elements of literature.

If they are to withstand the test of time, stories must build durable structures, be they short pieces or novels.To do so, authors use the elements of literature for the framing, the finish work and the decorations. Each student's level of knowledge forms his/her understanding and creates this person's own house of comprehension.

Understanding how the elements of literature create resilient structures empowers students to

build sturdy academic homes. I use this principle as the foundation for all of my unit plans and individual literature-based lesson plans.  In fact, I feel that its importance is so crucial to students' learning that I used it for a teaching program that I developed in my book, The House of Comprehension (www.teachitwrite.com).  

This FREE 10-page activity is no exception. It offers teachers 8 activities: one each for Character, Plot, Conflict, Setting, Theme, Symbols, Point of View and Closure. Each activity supports Common Core Standards. Depending on each student's skill, ability and understanding level, teachers may choose to have their charges complete one, some, or all of the activities. When all are completed, students will advance their understanding of each aspect of Bloom's Taxonomy: Remember/Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. This enables them to develop their higher level thinking skills, a crucial aspect of learning.

Because the activities are open-ended, teachers can have students who need reinforcement in any of the areas complete any of them after the assessment, or in future literature studies.

Download this FREEBIE from my Teachers pay Teachers store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Tying-it-All-Together-975182 and help your students to add some bricks to their academic homes.

How do you promote reading comprehension in your lessons? I would love to hear your ideas. Please share them in the Comment section with links.


Happy Teaching,

What's the Idea?

Texts that are difficult to understand can turn off students to reading and analyzing the fictional and non-fictional pieces that they study in school. They need to push aside their comprehension fear factors and turn their, "I don't understand this; it's too hard," frowns into, "Wow! Now I get it," smiles. 

They can accomplish this by practicing to deconstruct complicated texts so that they can understand them, and, subsequently, the whole piece. In this free activity, students will select a passage that they find difficult to understand.

Teachers will divide the students into groups of four; each person will share his/her confusing passage with the other three group members. The students will read and revise their group members' passages for clarity.

When their original papers are returned, they will choose the revision that they feel best clarifies the passage, and will discuss, in writing, how/why the revision accomplishes this. Finally they will analyze the meaning of the original passage and explain its importance to the whole piece.

Teachers can use this activity again and again to check the development of their students’ comprehension as well as how they utilize their higher level thinking skills orally and in writing.

“What’s the Idea?” reduces students’ fear factor when they read challenging fiction and non-fiction. This Freebie is aligned with Common Core Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy, and includes a detailed “Teachers’ Notes” page.

Download this free activity from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Language-Arts-Activity-Whats-the-Idea-889395 and say, "Good bye," to reluctant readers. Your students will be fist pumping to, "I read it, I thought about it, I wrote about it and now I get it! YES!"

Happy Teaching,

Mental Picture Moments-Make Every Word Count

Writing that includes generalities instead of be-Be-BEING Specific bugs me. That's why I created this activity based on bugs- a cockroach- to be exact. Students don't know this, though.

I copied the poem, "Roaches", by Peter Wild, replacing specific nouns, strong adjectives and vivid verbs with weak, bland words. I titled the poem, "Bugs." Students are to rewrite the poem turning my foggy word picture into a one as sensory-explosive as the original, or even more captivating. Because they won't see Peter Wild's poem until they have finished theirs, they will need to stretch their ability to create word pictures as much as they can.

To accomplish this, they must consider the following when creating their Mental Picture Moment:
1. Replace all general nouns with specific ones. Example: cardinal for bird. 2. Replace all vague verbs with vivid ones that show emotion as well as action. Example: strutted for walked.  3. Appeal to the reader’s sense of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. Example: crunch for chew.

4. See that some of the format used for the Bugs version, such as putting words and phrases on separate lines gives emphasis to specific thoughts. They should do this, too.
5. Make every word count by removing any unneeded words. Students should make their point in as few words as possible but still keep their word picture sharp and focused.
6. Show the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How completely, yet concisely.

When they have finished their poems, they must write their final draft in the space given, and include a picture if they so desire. Then they turn in their piece, but with their name on the back of the paper.

You will staple all of the poems to the bulletin board along with the original verse. After they have read all of the poems, the students are to use their own paper to briefly explain, by title, which poem they feel creates the clearest Mental Picture Moment and why. When they are done, they should fit it into the space at the bottom of their poem page on the bulletin board with tape.

When they have completed this segment, you may reveal the original poem.
This activity will help students to get the bugs out of their writing by being specific and appealing to readers' emotions instead of hiding their thoughts in the dark crevices of their minds.

Download this FREE creative writing activity that is aligned with Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Mental-Picture-Moment-Make-Every-Word-Count-736923

Take the sting out of reading student writing that is much too general.  Help your charges choose specific words that will focus their thoughts and make every word count and lure readers in by appealing to their emotions.






Happy Teaching,

Tell Me a Story

Since I am combining my Tuesday: Elements of Literature Day with my Thursday: Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary Day, I needed an idea that would speak to as many of those ELA subject areas as possible. Today's activity, Tell Me a Story, manages to touch on each of these segments that contribute to a typical English program of study.

This FREE activity enables students to develop both their analytic and creative thinking and writing skills. First, the students review a list of 12 qualities of Strong Fiction that they created, and then they analyze their personal examples for each of the various criteria.

Next, they write examples of Specific Characters, General Objects, Specific Objects, Adjectives, Abstract Nouns and Setting on 3" x5" pieces of construction paper color-coded to match the topics.

Finally, they select the basic bones of their story from the cards the class made in the prior segment of this activity and then they write either an individual story or a collaborative piece in groups of three. Whichever writing idea teachers don't select can be used for another lesson at a later date. After the students complete their stories, they peer critique each other's writing using the Strong Fiction criteria as their guide. They also address varying sentence structures and making strong vocabulary choices. On this sheet, they are also asked to choose and analyze specific sentences, phrases and words for how well they meet the qualities outlined and analyzed on this list of 12.

This Common Core and Bloom's Taxonomy aligned activity offers students a chance to analyze fiction for specific criteria, and to exhibit how they can combine these characteristics with the elements of literature to create a durable story that SHOWS instead of TELLS. As always with my products, this one includes a full page of Teacher Notes that detail the Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy goals, the Who, What, When and Why aspects of the lesson and a bullet list to explain the How to teach the various segments.  Download this FREEBIE  from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Tell-Me-a-Story-725289

What do your students choose as Strong Fiction criteria?

Happy Teaching,

Words, Words, Words: Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

It's Summertime, summertime-sum-sum- summertime and many of you are already digging your toes in the sand- literally and metaphorically. Others are still anticipating the time to take a complete breath without  a, "Teacher! Teacher! What do I do now?" interruption. Some of you will have a short break before you are back in the classroom for summer studies.

This short yet worthwhile post offers word lists for June, July and August for those of you who will be leading your students to the academic spigot for long gulps of learning during the sultry months of June, July and August. Every monthly vocabulary list is comprised of 20 words, each with its main definition and part of speech. Download these lists from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Words-Words-Words-719463

For Common Core and Bloom's Taxonomy aligned activities that will expand students writing and speaking vocabularies, download these FREE postings already in my TpT store and discussed in separate blog posts. These two product offer you multiple ways that to empower your students to make vocabulary study as integral to their lives as eating, texting and talking. "Words, Words, Words" will allow students to say what they mean, and mean what they say.

Product and Blog URLS for awesome activities: the first URL gives the place in my TpT store where you can download this product and the second refers to one of my previous posts on this site.

1. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Word-Up-With-the-Power-of-Words ( blog post: http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/04/word-up-with-power-of-words.html)
2. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-31-Ideas-for-Teaching-Vocabulary (blog post: http://teachitwrite.blogspot.com/2013/03/amplified-vocabulary-lessons-when-words.html)

All three of these products are FREE, so add them to your repertoires. In August, I will post word lists for September through May and MORE vocabulary study activities to hook students into becoming lifelong word enthusiasts.

NOTE: Until mid-August, I will be posting lesson ideas only on Tuesdays. My Teacher Talk posts will continue to be published on Saturdays or Sundays.

To all my colleagues, have a fantastic summer.
Happy Teaching,

Think It and Link It

Although I am going on a day adventure in an hour, I didn't want to miss presenting  a Tuesday-Elements of Literature Day blog and FREE coordinating activity for you all to enjoy.

We educators are always searching for engaging, sound and practical activities to check our students' levels of comprehension-the KEY ability behind any learning, no matter the subject area. Here is a Common Core

and Bloom's Taxonomy aligned FREE activity for ELA teachers. Through this activity, students show their understanding of a reading assignment by listing their thoughts, opinions and comments for three categories: Observations, Wonderings and Connections.

Students will write literal and inferential comprehension statements, ask questions about textual issues or vocabulary that caused them confusion, and will connect content with examples from television, movies, theater, music and art that share the same experiences, thoughts and feelings the author revealed. This lesson allows students to exhibit their understanding of all aspects of the elements of literature as well as their grasp of analytic and critical-thinking skills.

No matter the text- fiction or nonfiction- teachers can use this activity any time that they want to check their students' understanding. After they see and hear (students have a speaking component to meet) their charges' thoughts, feelings and comments on the selected reading assignment, they can choose activities that meet various student needs and which help the young people to build durable houses of comprehension.

Think It and Link It provides the KEY that will unlock the focus of the students' reading, resulting in an across-the-classroom, "Aha! Now I get it," response. Download this FREEBIE from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Think-It-and-Link-It-716987. A full page of Teacher Notes details the Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy thinking skills met. Also, the Who, What, When, Why and How to teach this lesson is included.

What are your favorite lessons for checking and building your students reading comprehension? Please share them here and/or on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TeachitWriteOnlineLessonPlans.


Happy Teaching,

Five Ways Writers May Customize Character

Back in 1964, Barbra Streisand sang, "People, People who need people, are the luckiest people in the world," for the musical, Funny Girl. Although she was addressing how much humans need companionship from other humans in her iconic song, she could  just as well have been singing to writers, too.

Obviously fiction authors need people. Where would Moby Dick be without Ishmael, The Shining without Jack, The Color Purple without Celie or Othello without Iago? Non-fiction writers' stories

would be drab and lifeless without people to create word pictures from the writers' thoughts and opinions.

The conundrum questioning whether Characters were created before Plot is as strong a controversy for writers as the Chicken vs. Egg argument is for any enquiring minds.

My story ideas have always germinated with a person, one involved in a contentious situation for sure, but still, a person. A Fine Line, my young adult novel about teen dating abuse was the result of one too many adolescent girls showing up for class with bruises. When I asked Jennifer,  a fifteen-year-old with deep purple-green-yellow bruises stair-stepping up her arms what happened, she said, "My boyfriend and I had a fight... but it was my fault."

"Hold it right there," I said as I held up my hand, palm out, to ward off any more attempts she might offer to excuse her boyfriend's actions.  Over the next few weeks, as we discussed teen dating abuse and possessive, obsessive relationships, my story was born.  But first, first I needed a person to showcase.

This person would show herself through her thoughts, words and actions, which would be seen, heard and analyzed by the other people in the story, ergo, I needed rising action and a climax and falling

action and a resolution. Yes, I had to have a plot, too. Without one how would the character reveal the "me nobody knows" hiding beneath her bruised skin or behind her sad eyes?

And so the conundrum continues. The only way that I know to answer it is, "Character and Plot are separate by definition but so tightly meshed in action that one could not exist without the other". Like a phoenix from the ashes, a character emerges from the plot, but a plot wouldn't subsist without people to bring on the conflict.

For this post, I want to deal with the separate, but all-important development of Character. Students need to learn how to develop a character in a series of word pictures-Kodak moments- so to speak. They can do this by exploring the person forming in the attic of their brains. They need to not only be able to describe how the person looks (physical being) but to dissect their person just like marketers do. Why for example, does Person A like Crest toothpaste and person B like Aqua Fresh?  What does this selection show about each individual? Why does Jill love dogs, the bigger the better, and Jack adore furry angora cats?

And if...if students are to create these Kodak moments in readers' heads, than they must learn how to Show, not Tell. Few people like to be told anything; they want to toss around the facts, details and opinions shown to them and come to their own conclusions.

I used to give students a few words and they had to show this person, such as: woman and park bench. Students new to this ultra-important Show not Tell writing commandment would respond with something like, "The old woman sat on the bench in the park." Now that was a complete sentence, but what did the reader see? Was the woman old, young, rich, poor?  Was she thrilled with life or beaten down by it?

Veteran writers would pen, "Mabel clutched the iron arm of the splintered bench with her gnarled hand for support and winced as her hips creaked into a sitting position. Tears wound through the wrinkles creasing her face as she eased a stained envelope from the torn pocket of her grey sweater."

Yes, this example uses over 4 times as many words, but it creates a clearer word picture. After the author would read it  aloud and write it on the board, I would ask my students to copy it down, to close their eyes and allow a picture of this woman to form in their heads, and then to write 2-3 sentence Showing more about her: Why was she so sad?  Did she live alone? Where? What kind of a place? Who was the letter from? Did she cherish it or did its words fill her with dread?

A word picture will make readers ask, "More, please." It will pull them into the lives of the characters and the plot/conflict.  It will make them wonder, to be thrilled or saddened or angered. It won't make them shrug with indifference and respond, "So?" as a telling sentence like, "The old woman sat on the bench in the park" does.

Today's FREE activity allows writers to unlock the secrets that make their characters unique individuals. With the five Warm-Up topics, students will learn how to customize each character with  specific, focused word selection and to create word pictures by Showing, not Telling. It is aligned with Common Core Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy, and comes with a detailed page of Teacher Notes as well as a suggestion on how to use this product with literature that you are studying in class. Download it from:  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activities-Customizing-Character-Writing-Warm-Ups-699757

How do you help students to develop character in their writing?  Please share your ideas here.

Happy Teaching and Writing,