WRITER’S NOTEBOOK Session 6

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 “I think of myself as focusing a camera lens as I write, always striving to make the picture clearer, sharper, more detailed.” Martin Espada

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Quote Analysis  First, copy or paraphrase this quote in your notebook.  Then, discuss this quote with a person next to, in front of, or behind you. Explain its meaning and what it is saying about writing.  Finally, write notes from your discussion beneath the quote.

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Teaching Points  Poets observe the world and write about its small daily events.  Poets use detailed description and figurative language to capture their observations.  Poets often discover that observations can turn into discoveries about the world and how the world works.

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Active Engagement As I read the poem…  Listen for several instances of close description, including sensory details, images, metaphors, or similes.  Name the devices and explain how the detail helps you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell the description.  State how you feel and what you think as you read/hear this description.

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Active Engagement Continued  With a partner, read 2 poems aloud to each other.  Select one poem that has the most interesting observational details. Answer the Questions…  Which details provide the close observation? What do the words help you see? Help you feel? Help you understand?  Which poems do you connect to most powerfully? Poems that primarily observe and describe? Or poems that use observation, specific detail, and description to tell a story? Why?

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Independent Practice Using the pictures you brought in…  First, in your writers’ notebooks, write five to seven sentences that describe the picture. Use sensory details, similes, or metaphors.  Next, tell a partner why your picture matters to you. Point to details in the picture and explain how these details help you remember the story of the event—or help you invent the story of the event.  Then write a close description or a story using details from your close observation of the photograph. Shape this writing like a poem. Start the poem with a specific detail. See where this detail takes you.

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Formative Assessment/Exit Slip  Write a paragraph-length reflection that answers the following questions:  What reaction did you try to create for your reader?  What observational details did you include to create that reaction?  What are the strengths of your poem? And/or what changes would you make now that you have heard a reader’s reaction to your writing?

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 Sit-on-a-Bench Poem [15-20 lines]  Go for a walk with your writer’s notebook. Notice the people, animals, plants, and places you see as you walk.  Practice describing them in your mind as you walk. Think of the specific words that would recreate the scene in a reader’s mind.  When you find a spot you really like, stop and write a 3-6- sentence description of it. You can make these sentences a list.  When you have finished writing the descriptive list, write about the walk, a memory, anything that pops in your head.  Shape this like a poem. You may decide to use some of the details in your poem.

Writer’s Notebook: Session 6 You are to Submit/Complete  Quote Analysis  Active Engagement Questions  Independent Practice Writing  Formative Assessment/Exit Slip  Sit-on-a-Bench Poem