1. 4.6 Writing to Grow Ideas

2. CONNECTION Look at your writing about reading from Reader’s Workshop.
What represents your best writing about reading?
What makes it so strong?
Interpretive essays require you to write about reading the same way you would in Reader’s Workshop!

3. TEACHING POINT
Today I want to teach you that essayists study the small, specific details in the text, or the parts that feel odd or important, to grow big ideas.

4. TEACHING
Richard Price said “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.” This means that on big issues you start with small, specific details and write about those.
He also said “You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance”—or the meaning or significance of that small part.

5. TEACHING Shells by Cynthia Rylant
“You hate living here.” Michael looked at the woman speaking to him. “No, Aunt Esther. I don’t.” He said it dully, sliding his milk glass back an forth on the table. “I don’t hate it here.”

6. TEACHING Shells by Cynthia Rylant
“You hate living here.” Michael looked at the woman speaking to him. “No, Aunt Esther. I don’t.” He said it dully, sliding his milk glass back an forth on the table. “I don’t hate it here.” Why is he calling his aunt the woman??? Makes her sound like a stranger.

7. TEACHING
In this story, the boy, Michael, is sitting at the table with a glass of milk in front of him and his aunt nearby. He looks at her, but in the text the author describes this by saying “Michael looked at the woman speaking to him.” He calls her Aunt Esther when he says her name, but he’s not enthusiastic about it. In the text it says, “He said it dully, sliding his milk glass back and forth.” This makes me think that just because people are family, the aren’t always close. You can live with someone and that person can still feel like a stranger to you.

8. ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
We will read a little more—be on the lookout for any details, or any odd or interesting parts! Then we will grow our ideas with our partners.

9. ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
“I don’t hate it here.” Esther removed the last pan from the dishwasher and hung it above the oven. “You hate it here,” she said, “and you hate me.” “I don’t!” Michael yelled. “It’s not you!” The woman turned to face him in the kitchen.

10. LINK
You learned one strategy for writing today—that writers reread and notice tiny details and then grow their thinking to big ideas.
You know other strategies too—like noticing repeating details and writing about patterns. Remember these strategies as you write today!

11. MIDWORKSHOP
One strategy to help is to write the line of text you are studying at the top of your page and then write about it.
Please find a line of text that speaks to you and that you could write a lot about. Write it at the top of a new page and try this strategy right now! We’ll be talking about these lines in a few minutes.

12. SHARE
Just like book club, we will do a sort of writing club with the other students studying the same texts as you.
Just like how book club helped you grow ideas, writing club will too.
Talk to your club about the lines of text you studied today and what you are thinking about them.
Tomorrow we will discuss in clubs what is going on with your characters!