Writing Right- Reeling in Readers
"Exhausted
from a day spent with students, the majority of who displayed their impacted
wisdom teeth mode during class discussions and feeling as if her head was
clogged with cold oatmeal, Delaney plucked the first frayed red folder from her
worn classroom carry-all. 'Oh, why did I have to pick fourth period
first,' she said. A groan rolled from her throat as she leaned back and ground
her fists into her eyes, her attempt to sting them into life.
'They hate to write and it shows.' She
shuffled through the papers, skimming the first paragraph of a half dozen narrative
essays discussing, 'My life-changing moment'. The only writing most of her fourth
period juniors cared about was texting. For
them, writing a complete sentence with properly spelled words and no texting
abbreviations was almost impossible. She
yawned as she picked up her purple pen, 'I just wish they cared enough to hook
my interest instead of putting me to sleep.'"
Does this
scenario ring any bells? Okay, I might have exaggerated a tad. Compared to the fantastical
stories my Teaching of English professors fed my peers and I, though, where
soon we would be begging, “More, please,” when faced with mountainous stacks of
perfect essays because all of our students loved to create word pictures and to write
right, these paragraphs exude realism.
In this age
of testing and data collection, ELA teachers are challenged to empower their
students to proficiently follow an: Introduction
(with a thesis)- Body (supporting
material)-Conclusion (wrap-up and
final thought) format. Various titles for each of these sections exist, but
they all boil down to: Introduction-Body-Conclusion.
What you don’t
see mentioned in the various essay outlines is the word Hook. That’s usually
saved for creative writing. Why? Don’t those who read essays, for work or
recreation, deserve to be lured into writing, too? If we want our students to
write pieces that we want to read, our lesson plans must include activities
where students can practice writing Hooks.
I discuss this basic aspect of writing in my book, The House of Comprehension. Here is an excerpt from the book:
“If students are to write right, they need to learn to reel in their
readers. One of
the most important elements of writing is to engage the reader. 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. Think of the lead sentences as a
fishing hook, and every word that forms each sentence as the bait. The hook has
one main purpose: luring readers to the writer’s world.
Readers are more apt to keep reading if the writer grabs
their attention.
TYPES OF HOOKS:
• Anecdote:
relates an emotional or exciting part of a situation
The longer my fingertips wrapped themselves in the scarlet and
gold cashmere scarf, the
more my desire for it mushroomed. I closed my eyes, visualizing my
neck decorated like
October’s maple trees. My yearning blocked any common sense from
my brain. “Just this
once,” I argued to myself as my hands edged the treasure toward my
jacket pocket.
• Description of person, place or object: paints a word picture
At eleven o’clock every day, Maude hobbled to the wooden bench in
the loneliest corner
of the park and slumped onto its splintery slats. After easing a
wrinkled letter from its
envelope, she would study it again and again as tears dripped from
her faded blue eyes
onto her tattered gray sweater.
• Example:
Develops a specific instead of a general idea
Many factors can erode teenagers’ academic success. Among these
are lack of sleep,
extra-curricular activities, and procrastination.
• Stance on an issue: clarifies the writer’s opinion on a controversial point
Any high school that chooses to delay the start of school by an
hour or more might as
well have a funeral for interscholastic athletics.
• Startling fact or statement: to shock the readers
Four out of ten adolescent girls will be the victims of dating
abuse.
• Question:
this is an acceptable format, but is a very, very weak choice. The purpose of
writing is to answer the readers’ questions.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORDS:
• Strong concrete nouns and adjectives: help create clear mental
pictures. They destroy
haziness, erase questions, and incite emotional responses.
The use of sensory imagery
(sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing) lures readers.
Every sentence should contain at
least one sensory imagery appeal.
• Vivid verbs: Verbs are the backbone of writing. Without vivid verbs,
writers’ words will
collapse. Verbs MUST combine the subject’s action plus
his/her emotion while performing
this action.
EXAMPLES:
Weak
noun:
car
Concrete
noun:
Ferrari
Weak
adjective:
nice
Strong
adjective:
sleek
Weak
verb:
drove
Vivid
verb:
roared
Weak
sentence:
The nice car drove
into my driveway. It changed my life.
Strong
sentence:
The sleek, red
Ferrari roared into my driveway that golden
fall afternoon, destroying my shy-girl image
forever.”
Whether our lesson plans are for elementary, middle
school or high school students, we must snag our charges' interest and entice them to
write by baiting our lesson plan hooks with a multitude of opportunities for
them to own their writing because they are involved emotionally.
During a
mini-lesson, allow them to practice writing the various types of hooks shown
above while incorporating strong nouns and adjectives and vivid verbs. In a
matter of minutes, they will experience AHA moments when they see that their
writing will tantalize even the most reluctant reader when it flexes one of the types
of Hooks along with vocabulary muscles.
When and how do we do that considering the
pressures to concentrate on the Introduction-Body-Conclusion? Here are a few
ideas where students can practice baiting their writing hooks following the
mini-lesson(s):
A. Warm-ups:
1. Let students choose a
topic in the Reel in Readers With Magnetizing Hooks handout and give them 10 - 15 minutes to write a two to three
sentence hook.
2. Have them turn clichéd expression into fresh
similes or metaphors: examples: This
sandwich is as dry as dust; The
actor/actress was not the sharpest crayon in the box, or The ballerina was as pretty as a picture.
3. Write one sentence
each for something heard, seen, smelled, tasted or touched, making sure that
the reader mentally experiences that
sense.
B. Write Now Moments:
1. Hand out the Reel in Readers With Magnetizing Hooks
activity. Have the students choose a topic to develop: for a Warm-up, during
the time after they finish an assessment but while their peers are still testing, or any
time you have a few minutes to fill-like at the end of a period.
2. For each response, let
students choose the type of writing: fiction, narrative nonfiction, personal
essay, descriptive piece, expository essay, newspaper story, etc.
When students know how to reel in their
readers, they will make their teachers exclaim, “More, please,” because they will be
hooked by the introduction. They will capture the interest of the people who
rate standardized test writing responses, and, most importantly, they will
embrace writing because they are Writing Right.
For some terrific articles on teaching
kids to love writing and loving what they write, check out the blog: http://thatwritinglady.com/.
Happy Teaching,
