Topic: Writing Fiction

10-second review: Be sure you are showing and not telling.

Title: “9 Signs You’re Telling, Not Showing.” LJ Peterson. The Writer (May 2009), 13. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Summary: Write a first draft as quickly as possible and then go back to analyze your scenes to make sure you are not simply telling instead of showing. Nine symptoms that you are telling and not showing:

1. Too many cerebral verbs: think, feel, hope, suspect, fear, regret and understand, for example.

2. Weak verbs: entered, moved, went, fell, rose.

3. Use of the verb to be: Produces static writing: be, am, is, are, was, were, and any verb ending in be, being or been.

4. Adverbs: They “weaken action.”

5. Missing senses. Use senses in addition to the visual—hearing, taste, touch and smell.

6. Non specific adjectives: “an old man”; “decrepit house.” Use specific images.

7. Generic nouns: children, building, vehicle—no specific image.

8. Narrative summary: summarizing what happened instead of showing it happening.

9. Overloaded dialogue: too long or too much information.

Comment: In the article, the author provides solutions to each of these problems. This advice applies to students who are writing narratives in describing incidents and scenes, as well as fiction. RayS.

Topic: Plot

10-second review: A plot is not an incident. A plot is a series of incidents leading to a crisis.

Title: “What a Plot Is, and What It Is Not.” Mona Farnsworth. The Writer (May 2009), 9. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Summary/Quote: “A plot is a situation, as intricately involved as life itself, peopled with characters who have a problem and who, through the unfolding of your plot, solve it. It requires a series of incidents—between 20 and 25 probably—to advance your action and bring the whole thing to a crisis.” p. 9.

Comment: In my literature class, this writer’s definition of a plot would enable me to help students distinguish between an incident and a plot and could be applied to creative writing. Leads to the question, “How is an incident different from a short story?” RayS.

Topic: Trailers to Promote Books

10-second review: You’ve seen trailers for movies. Publishers and bookstores are producing trailers for books to encourage people to read them.

Title: “Publishers Roll Out Book Trailers.” The Writer (May 2009), 8. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Summary/Quote: “As with movie previews, book trailers give the audience a taste of the book in the hope that they will want more. They are becoming a common marketing tool on sites such as You Tube, My Space and publishers’ Web sites.” p. 8.

“A section on Barnes and Noble’s Web Site includes trailers for classics like Gone with the Wind or excerpts from Huckleberry Finn read by well-known authors…. Borders plays book trailers on TV screens in its book stores.” p. 8.

Comment: A no-brainer. Beats book reports. Students write and film book trailers that entice other students to read the books. However, I checked out some examples on the Internet and they did not impress me. First, the background music was too loud and intrusive, distracting me from the pictures and the text. The pictures destroyed my imagination with regard to the characters and the setting. Too real. The text was wiped away before I could read even half of it. I think the idea of the book trailer is worth expending some creativity on producing one, but the ones I have seen as examples did not sell me on the books they were promoting.

Individuals can create their own book trailers by sampling novels and nonfiction which lead to readers’ becoming immersed in reading. If my readers are interested in this concept of sampling, write to me at raystop2@comcast.net and I will give you some details of how to sample or preview reading materials. RayS.

Topic: Professional Development

10-second review: Professional development requires a philosophical base, a research base and illustrative good practices.

Title: “Support, Resources, and Challenges for Teachers in Forming Professional Communities of Inquiry.” J. Avila. Language arts (March 2009), 311. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Comment: Thoughts on professional development. Workshops begin with a problem. Participants read theoretical, practical and research reports in professional journals and in books dealing with the problem. The resulting curriculum should contain lesson plans that reveal in detail the solution to the problem.

Example.

1. Problem: Teaching fifth-and sixth-grade students to write exposition.

2. Research: Participants read articles and books, including research, on teaching the writing process.

3. Lesson Plans: The members of the workshop plan and teach to the group illustrative practices, including brainstorming, models of the expository format, main idea, middle paragraphs with topic sentences, summary paragraph, introductory paragraph, revision and editing.

The problem with most summer workshops is that the participants produce the curriculum but the teachers who did not participate do not understand how to use the information. Providing model lesson plans explains how to resolve the problem to those other teachers, who can try the lesson plans in their classes and provide evaluative information. RayS.

Topic: Small-Group Discussion (3)

10-second review: Roles in Working with Small Groups: Familiarizing and Practicing Roles

Title: “Small-Group Discussion.” Raymond Stopper. Xlibris, 2004, pp. 299-303.

To familiarize students with these roles, Litsey suggests having students view a video tape of a group discussion. Each student in the class is assigned to observe one of the members of the group. After viewing the discussion, the students fill out the following evaluation form:

Name of Rater …………………. Name of Participant …………………

Directions: Circle the number which you think most closely approximates the extent to which the ‘ratee” has been each of the following.

(1) Not at all (2) A little bit (3) To some extent (4) Fairly Much (5) A Great Deal

Initiating 1 2 3 4 5

Information Seeking 1 2 3 4 5

Information Giving 1 2 3 4 5

Clarifying, Elaborating 1 2 3 4 5

Summarizing 1 2 3 4 5

Consensus Testing 1 2 3 4 5

Encouraging 1 2 3 4 5

Expressing Group Feelings 1 2 3 4 5

Harmonizing 1 2 3 4 5

Compromising 1 2 3 4 5

Gate Keeping 1 2 3 4 5

Setting Standards 1 2 3 4 5

Blocking 1 2 3 4 5

Aggressiveness 1 2 3 4 5

Seeking Recognition 1 2 3 4 5

Playboy 1 2 3 4 5

Deserter 1 2 3 4 5

Dominating 1 2 3 4 5

Another way in which to familiarize students with these roles would be to stage a small group discussion in which each student in the group plays one of the roles.

After participating in a group discussion or project, students could rate themselves, using the above scale, on which roles they think they played.

Litsey also suggests an evaluation form to be completed by each individual at the conclusion of a group discussion or project:

Our Effectiveness As A Group

Scale: 1…..2…..3…..4…..5…..6…..7…..8…..9…..10

Low High

1. ………. Members of the group felt free to state their real opinions.

2. ………. The group defined its task.

3. ………. All members accepted the responsibility for the outcome of the meeting or project.

4. ………. All members of the group were productive.

5. ……….. All members of the group feel positive about the work n this session.

Copyright (1969) by the National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted with permission.

Comment: Teaching students how to work in small groups requires a complete teaching effort. Like it or not, participating cooperatively in small groups is how the work of business and democracy is accomplished. Students need to learn how to help small groups work cohesively. RayS.

Topic: Small-Group Discussion (2)

10-second review: Roles in Working with Small Groups: Task Roles and Self-Serving Roles

Title: “Small-Group Discussion.” Raymond Stopper. Xlibris, 2004, pp. 299-303.

Assuming clearly expressed goals, maintenance roles are positive in helping the group to achieve its goals. So are the “Task roles.” Not so, the “Self-serving roles.”

Task Roles

1. Initiating: Proposing tasks or goals; defining a group problem; suggesting a procedure.

2. Information or opinion seeking: Requesting facts; asking for suggestions and ideas.

3. Information or opinion giving: Offering facts; stating a belief; giving suggestions or ideas.

4. Clarifying or elaborating: Interpreting or reflecting ideas and suggestions; clearing up confusion; indicating alternatives before the group; giving examples.

5. Summarizing. Pulling together related ideas; restating suggestions after the group has discussed them; offering a decision for the group to accept or reject.

6. Consensus testing. Checking with the group to see how much agreement has been reached.

Self-Serving Roles

1. Dominator: Interrupts, embarks on long monologues; is overpositive; tries to lead group; asserts authority; is autocratic; monopolizes.

2. Blocker: Interferes with the progress of the group by rejecting ideas; takes negative attitude on all suggestions; argues unduly; is pessimistic; refuses to cooperate.

3. Deserter: Withdraws in some way; is indifferent; aloof; excessively formal; daydreams; doodles; whispers to others; wanders from subject.

4. Aggressor. Struggles for status; boasts; criticizes; deflates ego or status of others.

5. Recognition-seeker. Exaggerated attempt to get attention by boasting or claiming long experience or great accomplishments. [Been there, done that. RayS.]

6. Playboy type: Displays a lack of involvement in the group process by horseplay; inappropriate humor; or cynicism.

Comment: Discussion of these roles is always interesting. RayS.

Topic: Samll-Group Discussion (1)

Topic: Small-Group Discussion (1)

10-second review: Roles in Working with Small Groups: Maintenance Roles

Title: “Small-Group Discussion.” Raymond Stopper. Xlibris, 2004, pp. 299-303.

Small-Group Discussion

“A second skill in speaking (after formal speech) is the small group discussion (related today to ‘cooperative learning,’ or group projects), which, in my experience, at every educational level, has been a complete waste of student time. Usually ‘getting into small groups’ meant ‘BS-ing’ about irrelevant topics, and group projects usually became the responsibility of one or two people in the group to complete the project. However, in the real world, group projects are the way in which the world’s business is completed. Group projects involve a variety of talents in producing results that could probably not be attained by any one individual. Teaching students how to work in groups needs to be taken seriously.

“English teachers have the responsibility to train students in the skills and attitudes needed to participate successfully in small group discussions and projects. They need to teach students how to moderate a discussion and how to act as leaders in projects, how to take notes for later reporting to the larger group and how to analyze the roles of various participants in order to learn what helps a group to achieve its goals and what prevents a group from achieving its goals. As usual, the teachers’ performing these tasks as they work with the students provides models to follow. “

David M. Litsey (1969) suggests 18 roles that people can play in a group enterprise. He divides these roles into three categories: ‘Maintenance,’ ‘Task Roles,’ and ‘Self-Serving Roles.’ ”

Maintenance Roles in Small Group Work

1. Encouraging: Being warm and responsive to others; accepting the contributions of others; giving others an opportunity for recognition.

2. Expressing group feelings: Sensing feeling and mood, or relationships within the group, and sharing one’s own feelings with other members.

3. Harmonizing: Attempting to reconcile differences and reduce tension by giving people a chance to explore their differences.

4. Compromising. When one’s own ideas or status is involved in a conflict, offering to compromise; admitting error; disciplining oneself to maintain group cohesion.

5. Gate-keeping: Keeping communication channels open and facilitating the participation of others.

6. Setting standards: Expressing standards for the group to achieve; applying standards in evaluating group function and production.

Comment: Of course, all of these roles are positive in keeping the group moving toward its goals. But “Maintenance roles” do not say anything about goals. You can’t assume that people understand the goals of the small-group work or project. They must be clearly expressed. And the best people to define the goals in their own words will be the people who are part of the small-group discussion or project. In my workshops, I always began with the problem we were asked to solve. We began by reading professional articles related to the problem. Then we defined the problem and the goals of the workshop. Rays.