Reading/Writing This Month: Don't Waste Our Time!

We're up and running! That exclamation point is well warranted. Last year was my first teaching 5th grade at Deer Hill. That transition was nice and easy. I had about 6 students from my 4th grade class and they were amazing at getting all the new kids familiar with our classroom systems and, well... me. "Don't worry, he'll forget about that by lunch time." Or, "Wait, you're complaining about that? That's not so hard, get with the program." Most importantly, they could breeze around the room and help with the technology. This year, I was starting at square one. So, although it took a little longer you guys are now almost independent with our systems. Exciting.

The Reading/Writing Connection:

Hopefully, you're having a tough time figuring out when writing ends and reading begins this year. And don't just tell me reading is when we're reading a story, writing is when we're writing a story. Yes, yes I get it. But I hope that you're seeing that what's talked about in reading ends up becoming the same idea in our writing. Let me break it down for you. 

Theme

We're looking at the theme of overcoming challenges. We discussed the 60 minutes story Hard Times Generation and we'll be picking back up with some more media next week. As we discuss the theme in the texts we read and video we watch, we're layering it into our narrative. Each of the characters we've spent the last 2 weeks building needs a problem, a challenge. After they go through the challenge, they'll learn something about themselves.

Strategy Versus Skill: What's the Deal? 

It's a skill. Like juggling a soccer ball. You can say you just kick it up and then when it falls you kick it up again but anybody's who's juggled a soccer ball knows that you have to be aware of the angle of your foot, how soft or hard you need to kick depending on how high the last kick was, etc. Each kick looks different depending on a bunch of different things. The more times you kick the ball up, the better you get and choosing the force or the angle of your foot. 

You improve your juggling skills by using strategies. Strategies are the steps you have to think about in order to improve a skill. The force of your kick, the angle of your foot; those are the strategies, or steps you think about when you want to improve the skill of juggling a soccer ball. 

Skill Work

When we've met in our small reading groups we're talking about making inferences. The tricky thing about inferences is there's no right or wrong. There may be better and worse inferences but they always look different depending on what you're reading and your own life. We've started off small; reading a paragraph, examining the details of what is written, and then using those "facts" to identify main idea or the purpose of the paragraph.

How will that work with your writing, you ask? Great question. Remember when you'd write a narrative about getting your new puppy (well maybe it's not a new puppy but stick with me here)? 99% of those new-puppy stories usually involve a line like, "I was so excited when I got my new puppy."(Let's just say I've read a new-puppy story or two in my career.) Well, duh. And, I say this lovingly- I'm not stupid, none of the other kids in our class is either, and neither are you. None of us need to be told what to think, we're completely capable of doing it on our own.

So next week, when we take to drafting and revising our scenes you're not going to tell us that you were excited. You're going to write something like,

"I got into bed and tried to fall asleep but all I could think about were those tiny, furry paws. I couldn't help it, I had to go see Fluffy one last time. I cracked open the door. Peeking out, I saw the hallway was empty and I could hear the TV downstairs. I got into my best flamingo mentality and made the dash down the hall, stepping lightly on my tip-toes first followed by the rest of my foot. I am a great and silent bird, I thought as I snuck through the final door. Fluffy lifted her head at the crack of light. 'Puppy!' I whispered, diving towards the cage door. Her tail was shaking so hard as I opened the door that the whole back half of her body was whacking again the cage. I tried to shush her but as soon as the door swung open, she was jumping at my face in a mixture of licks and barks. I fell back to the floor giggling. Fluffy on my neck in full-on touunge mode just as my parents opened the door. 'I know, I know. I'm grounded, 'I said, my eyes never leaving the adorable little lick-machine, 'but I wasn't going to be going anywhere for a while anyway.'"

Think that we can figure out that you're excited for your new puppy? You betcha. See, when you expect that the reader is smart and that they can figure out what you're thinking, you don't need to waste words telling us what to think. You show us, we'll do the thinking. Inferencing.

Strategies

So how do we get better at making these inferences, you ask? Another great question that I would be happy to answer. We use a bunch of different strategies. And there are tons of different ones we could use, the trick is to use the right ones at the right time. I'm not going to lie, it's complicated. So, we're just focusing on identifying plot and characters. In the little story about Fluffy you could infer lots of things. You could definitely say that Jane (we'll just call her Jane to keep it anonymous even though her real name is Julie) is excited about her new puppy. But think about the prewriting we did to develop our characters. You know I've thought a lot about her before creating the story. It's your job to figure out as much about her as you can. And you do that by looking at the evidence and coming up with inferences, watch:

Now that we've used that information and inferred more about the kind of person Jane is, we can better predict her behavior in other situations.

What would Jane do if her friends wanted her to jump off the Border St. bridge?
Well, we know she doesn't always have the best self control and she probably knows that a lot of people do it safely so we could infer that she'd probably agree.

Jane and her friends are walking down town when the railroad crossing comes down. Some of her friends take off running, saying that they could beat the train. What would Jane do?
We know that Jane does think about the consequences before she acts. So, what do you think she would do?

Why it Matters

If you're reading a story about Jane (or writing one). You get to the part about the puppy, make all of those inferences, then you get to a section when she's at school. Jane's and her friends are outside in the hall and instead of reading like they're supposed to be. They start flinging pencils back and forth at each other and Jane says, "Guys, stop. That's not how we should be acting out here." 

It just doesn't add up. Remember how I told you about the book The Peculiar I read last weekend? In the first half of the book, the guy (can't even remember his name anymore) spends whining about how he'd rather not have the government job his mother got him. He'd rather just lounge around at home or with friends. He dreads arguments. He'd rather just ignore the problems of his day. 

Then, all of the sudden, in the second half of the book he's running around the country trying to save a boy that everybody hates. He ruins his reputation. He puts his family in danger. He risks his life many times. It made no sense. No sense. 

But the story had been kinda good. And that didn't start happening until 250 pages in. So, I stuck it out. For almost 400 pages. And in the end, the story was just okay. There's so many great book that I still haven't read, so excuse me if I get a little offended at stories that waste my time. 

Why it Really Matters

We're writing a fiction story. You'll read a lot of fiction in your life. Not all of you will go on to become novelists. But, we can learn a great deal about ourselves, others, and life through reading fiction. When we read stories, true or made up, we put ourselves in places and situations we will never encounter. By thinking deeply about how those characters act, we can learn a lot about we should act. Or, how we shouldn't. We can become better people right from the comfort of our favorite couch. 

For parents: If you'd like to know a little more about the benefits of reading fiction, this article comes from the Harvard Business Review Blog.

And since you were so great about reading this, here's your fun-time, bonus activities: 

Want to put your character inferencing skills to work? Of couse you do! In short, Pixar creates awesome characters! 

This one was just released online yesterday! It's called Partysaurus Rex.