Chapter 4 Creating Characters
When creating characters, I have always let the students be one of the characters (personal narratives). Even when they created fantasy stories, they were always one of the characters. In reading this chapter, it would be fun to create two or three characters and look specifically at their personalities, then develop the story around this info. For young children it seems natural for them to be one of the characters. But maybe it would be fun to let the second character be created with some unique personality traits. ~ Vickie
Chapter 5 Voice: Connecting with the Reader
Bringing out the voice in my writers has always been a daunting task for me. Some children naturally have humor and wit, as do some adults. When children are writing stories, they are the narrators. I like the view of RF as he says "the narrator must have a compelling voice". I think this will be a challenge for me as I work on writing stories with students. I want to find ways to encourage them to have a "compelling voice" to keep the reader following along deep into the writing. Again, I still believe that the voice is the personality of the student coming out. It is important to teach kids to write to their audience. Sometimes a prompt will say write to a friend. This is important for students to understand audience. It is also a major component for the ADAW. ~Vickie
Chapter 6 Thoughts on Voice
More info on voice...again my challenge is to help student's understand their voice / style. I agree with the author that your 'voice' can be lost in writing just as your personality can be lost around certain people. When I think of myself, if I'm with friends, I'm naturally happy and full of fun. But if I'm in a crowd, I'm much more reserved. The same holds true in writing. If I'm writing with or for students, I'm naturally at ease and it comes easy for me. If I'm writing for an adult (like a research paper for a professor), I'm more tense and not my true self. I like to think when I'm writing a story that I'm telling it to my best friend. That way, I'm more relaxed and my true personality/voice comes out. I think about sharing at home with my family. It is easy to talk and be silly...let your true voice shine. We have to encourage that same "release" in writing and engage our students to let their voice come out in their writing. The next time I work on a story with students, I may do a "personality poll". I may ask them what kind of personality do they have? are you serious? silly? humorous? Maybe if they understand their personality they can explore it in their writing. ~Vickie
5 comments:
I love the idea that RF gave in Chapter 5 for an "Expert List". I think it would give those reluctant writers...the ones who say "I can't think of anything to write about"...something meaningful to write about. When we are able to write about what we really enjoy, we can most likely go on and on about it. I'm going to try this with my students. I'll let you know how it goes.
While reading these chapters, I was surprised at how much influence RF put on characters, dialogue, and voice. I can honestly say I don't remember being taught much about these topics. On the other hand, I began thinking about all the books that I truly couldn't put down while reading. Those were the ones that had such intense characters that I either related to or wanted to know more about.
With that being said, I hope I can find a way to inspire students to use their own voice and really develop their characters to let the personality shine. I know I have always worried about being grammatically correct, but just like Fletcher enjoyed the writing from the young Andy Schlaak, I enjoy reading writings that have a compelling narrator or characters. If everyone was to just state the facts, writing would be dull. I consistently tell my students to create pictures in their minds as they read, and I learned on page 48 that we should do the same thing when we write. It says, "Create pictures for your readers with the words you choose so the reader can see just what you see, and hear in their mind the same voices you hear in your head when you write dialogue."
Chapter 4
When the author talks about the character and the depth he goes into creating his characters I feel as though this is a great strategy. Writing to the characters and asking questions would be a great place to start and answering the questions before one begins to write. However, I ask myself can a third grader do all of this?
Chapter 5
When the author discusses voice I am interested in how he discusses Voice as the characters personality. I also love the expert list! I would love to try this with my students. I have many students who always say they do not know what to write. I would enjoy asking my students to make their expert list and then give a writing assignment.
Chapter 6
In this chapter it talks about how everyone is different so of course our writings will be different. Many times we see students begin to share their writings and others begin to change their writings because they think theirs is not as good as their classmates. I find myself when I think my writing is stupid I begin to add words that take the voice out of my writing. Remember why you are writing and create pictures.
RF really focused on characters a lot. I have really never gave my characters a lot of thought. I have focused on the problem and solution more. Characters make the story!!! I wasn't taught like this, and I wished I was. Focusing this much on characters, can be hard for my third graders. I am now into teaching my kids dialogue. I tell them to give their characters voice!!! Some of my students can really give their papers voice. They have a personality that makes the paper come to life. I think this is something that come natural for some and not others. I do realize that everyone writes different. Our stories are different. RF talks about this in Chapter 6.
I agree Vickie, developing character and voice has been the hardest thing for me as a teacher to teach. I have always used the book the Pizza Monster to help students see how different characters can be and how an author develops those character traits through their actions. With making meaning I found another wounderful book to help me teach character development and that was The Paper Bag Princess. Students absolutely LOVE these stories and to some extent it helps them create a character. I like you have always allowed my students to make themselves one of the characters because I think it is easier for them to talk about themselves but after reading this book I just wonder if maybe I should take them out of the story and encourage them to write about others?
Voice, yep it's hard. It either comes naturally or it does not and for most third graders it does not. I wonder if that's because of their maturity just as a person has not yet really started to develop?
I really like the idea of the expert list because every year I have students who say I just don't know what to write. Those attitudes are really one of the reasons I started using picture books and our content studies to spark writing prompts. However even with those aids I have still had students who are reluctant but the strategies that you gave like the book flood has really helped them to have a starting point.
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