5.4 Reading Literature to Inspire Writing

CONNECTION Kafka wrote “Literature can be an ice axe to break the frozen sea within us.” Reading can make us pause, reflect, remember, experience, and grow.

TEACHING POINT Today I want to teach you that when writers want to write powerfully, one strategy they use is to read or listen to literature and then write.

TEACHING We take something powerful and meaningful and write off the text. We don’t copy it and we don’t write about it. We write off it. Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson Alone Some days I wear alone like a coat, like a hood draping from my head that first warm day of Spring, like socks bunching up inside my sneakers. Like that. Alone is how I walk some days, with my hands shoved deep in my pockets, with my head down, walking against the day, into it then out again. Alone is the taste in my mouth some mornings, like morning breath, like hunger. It’s lumpy oatmeal for breakfast when Mama doesn’t have time to cook and I still don’t know how much oatmeal and water and milk will make it all right.

TEACHING WHAT I WROTE: Some days I feel as if stress has seeped into every nook and cranny of our classrooms. It’s there, on teacher’s faces, when we try to nudge more and more into the day, when we read the practice tests with a sinking feeling, when we glance up at the clock, the calendar, and realize time is passing. Stress is what we feel as we approach the meeting area: what did I forget? What must I cover? Will my students understand the heart of today’s lesson? Stress presses in to our minds and bodies, making our hearts beat quickly, our skin get damp, our heads pound. Stress clings to us like a great, dark shadow that won’t leave our sides.

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT Journey by Patricia MacLachlan In the picture the girl who was my mama sat behind a table, her face in her hands, looking far off in the distance. All around her were people laughing, talking. Lancie, Mama’s sister, made a face at the camera. Uncle Minor, his hair all sun bleached, was caught by the camera taking a handful of cookies. In the background a dog leaped into the air to grab a ball, his ears floating out as if uplifted and held there by the wind. But my mother looked silent and unhearing. “It’s a nice picture,” I said. “Except for Mama. It must have been the camera,” I said after a moment. Grandma sighed and took my hand. “No, it wasn’t the camera, Journey. It was your mama. Your mama always wished to be somewhere else.” “Well, now she is,” I said. After awhile Grandma got up and left the room. I sat there for a long time, staring at Mama’s picture, as if I could will her to turn and talk to the person next to her…The expression on Mama’s face was one I knew. One I remembered. Somewhere else. I am very little, five or six, and in overalls and new yellow rubber boots. I follow Mama across the meadow. It has rained and everything is washed and shiny, the sky clear. As I walk my feet make squashing sounds, and when I try to catch up with Mama I fall in the brook. I am not afraid, but when I look up Mama has walked away. Arms pick me up, someone else’s arms. Someone else takes off my boots and pours out the water. My grandfather. I am angry. It’s not my grandfather I want. It is Mama/ But Mama is far ahead, and she doesn’t look back. She is somewhere else.

LINK If you get stuck in your writing, try reading one of the powerful examples for ideas.

MIDWORKSHOP We all use mentor texts differently. One student might use Eleven to realize that they need to stand up for themselves against peer pressure. Another student might use Eleven to realize that they are growing up but still holding onto younger parts of them, like the part that likes tree forts or stuffed animals. You might be inspired by: The topic The themes or issues A word, phrase, or image

SHARE Your mentor texts today were published authors but you can also be the authors of the mentor text that inspires someone! Read your partner’s work and write off from it.