Sentences
I have assigned my students a series of four summary paragraphs. Each paragraph must introduce the author and title of the essay, identify the main idea of the essay, and then go on to detail supporting evidence.
Yesterday, students brought draft paragraphs and read them aloud to a partner. The partner then read the same paragraph back to the writer. After that, the pair chose one sentence from the paragraph to rewrite. Once each of them had rewritten a sentence, they shared their results.
I gave them an example of one sentence I had written five different ways:
1. Using examples and humor, King examines how horror flicks help us face our fears, feel normal, and have fun.
2. King, with humor and examples, illustrates how horror flicks help us face fears, feel normal, and have fun.
3. According to King, scary movies allow us to experience our sanity in the face of insanity, our fears in the face of real fright, and our own fun at the expense of someone else’s suffering.
4. King uses examples and his personal brand of humor to prove his theory that scary movies allow us to safely be afraid, feel sane, and be entertained.
5. With examples that make us cringe and laugh, King asserts that scary movies let us stare fear in the face, feel completely sane doing so, and even have fun in the process.
I thought the students would find the exercise tedious or frustrating; in fact, they loved it. Several commented that it really helped them to hear their paragraph read aloud, and that once they heard it, they noticed where they stumbled. That stumble pointed to a particular sentence that they then rewrote. They also liked having a partner rewrite one of their own sentences so that they could compare notes.
It was a good class.
Example from Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies.”
Comments
Great information! I want to know more about a “sentences sandbox.” Thank you.
-jd
jan Nov 4, 10:01 am
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It must be a week for sentences. On Tuesday, I visited an English 101 class in which students were workshopping sentences. Then, I read your post (above). On Thursday, I went to a conference on learning disabilities, at which I was most interested in a research talk on a sentence-combining curriculum for elementary school children. The results of that study suggest that giving students regular practice in writing and revising sentences ultimately frees “cognitive resources” for other difficult tasks, like conceptualizing, planning, and organizing. All of these convince me that I am going to do a good deal of this with my students in the spring, and I might even try to develop a “Sentences Sandbox” workshop in our writing center.
Jane Nov 4, 09:58 am