Imitation Looking over the shoulders of talented writers with the Hamill Approach

What you’ll need … Text excerpts handout Image Grammar textbook – you can refer to Ch. 1 for ideas about brushstrokes, as you look closely at each excerpt. A piece of blank paper. Use this to cover the bottom half of your paper as we read excerpts 1 and 3, so you are not tempted to read ahead. Practice attending, looking closely.

Step 1: Looking closely Engage in shared reading of excerpt from Ethan Frome to get the full impact/overall impression. Independent reflection: Read the excerpt again—silently and closely—marking the text and making notes as you see fit. Analyze the passage, noting sentence lengths, sentence types, and word choice. Notice the author’s use of brush strokes – participial phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, strong nouns, vivid verbs, adjectives out of order. DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Refer to Ch. 1 of Noden for ideas regarding brushstrokes.

Step 1: Looking closely DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Engage in shared reading of excerpt from “Shooting an Elephant” to get the full impact/overall impression. Independent reflection: Read the excerpt again—silently and closely—marking the text and making notes as you see fit. Analyze the passage, noting sentence lengths, sentence types, and word choice. Notice the author’s use of brush strokes – participial phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, strong nouns, vivid verbs, adjectives out of order. DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Refer to Ch. 1 of Noden for ideas regarding brushstrokes.

Step 1: Looking closely DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Engage in shared reading of excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to get the full impact/overall impression. Independent reflection: Read the excerpt again—silently and closely—marking the text and making notes as you see fit. Analyze the passage, noting sentence lengths, sentence types, and word choice. Notice the author’s use of brush strokes – participial phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, strong nouns, vivid verbs, adjectives out of order. DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Refer to Ch. 1 of Noden for ideas regarding brushstrokes.

Step 1: Looking closely DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Engage in shared reading of excerpt from “A Hanging” to get the full impact/overall impression. Independent reflection: Read the excerpt again—silently and closely—marking the text and making notes as you see fit. Analyze the passage, noting sentence lengths, sentence types, and word choice. Notice the author’s use of brush strokes – participial phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, strong nouns, vivid verbs, adjectives out of order. DO NOT READ AHEAD. Stay with me. Refer to Ch. 1 of Noden for ideas regarding brushstrokes.

Step 2: Selecting and Imitating Review all four excerpts, and ask yourself the following questions: Which one speaks to me in terms of its structure, tone, form? Which one would I most like to try imitating? What content will I choose so that I am focusing on structure, tone, and form in my imitation—not content? Do a close or loose imitation of the excerpt you select. I recommend using a new sheet of paper so you have plenty of room to draft.

Step 3: Sharing Here is my loose imitation of the Ethan Frome excerpt (written in my summer writing class for teachers in June 2005 at Kennesaw State University): If you’ve been to Emporia, Kansas, then you’ve been to the place where the twin rivers meet—the Neosho and the Cottonwood—a place where children play hide-and-seek in their neighborhoods until long after dark on summer nights when the chiggers have worked their way up past feet and ankles to calves and backs of knees. If you’ve seen the twin rivers, then you must have also smelled the scent of the Iowa Beef Packing Plant. And you must have wondered what it was. It is a smell that, when the wind catches it just right, can knock you flat on your backside in both wonder and disgust. It is not so much its pungent, musky odor that surprises people, for what else do you expect in a slaughter house town? No, it’s the way the earthy, warm scent wafts and lingers, making its way into your conscious senses—both smell and taste— and your subconscious memories, dreams, and sense of what it means to be home. There is something sweet and almost lovely in that aroma of cattle and death, and I am not surprised that I look back on it fondly and with a kind of reverence.

Step 3: Sharing Tell us which piece you are imitating. Read expressively so we can appreciate your creation.

Using this imitation strategy (or others) in your teaching Would you try this strategy in your future teaching? What modifications might you make? What other mentor texts might you use for imitation? What other strategies did you find useful in Chapter 4? Anything else??