4.2 Growing Ideas Means Reading with a Writerly Wide-Awakeness

CONNECTION Ever found a youtube video that you liked so much you watched it over and over again? Panyee Football Club Has subtitles Watch for characters, what happens to them, and how their problems are resolved.

TEACHING POINT Today I want to teach you that writers read differently by noticing more when they intend to write about their reading.

TEACHING I will replay the video from 0:00 to 0:25. Watch it as a writer, seeing more and noticing more about the details of the text. What feels important? What did you notice the second time that you didn’t notice the first time?

TEACHING Please write in your notebooks. What is a detail that I notice—one that for some reason seems sort of important? What might be especially meaningful about what I’m noticing? How might this detail connect to earlier or later parts?

TEACHING Now we will watch more of the video from 0:25 to 0:52. Narrow in on a detail and start writing. If you run out of things to say about one detail, think about another detail from that same part and write all about it. Talk with your partner to grow your thinking.

LINK When you read alertly and write to grow ideas, you often develop ideas you didn’t have before you started to write. Bring these ideas with you as you read on. This will change what you see! Sometimes the new scene gives you additional evidence or helps you refine your idea. Or it might make you revise your idea! What are some ideas you have right now? Watch the next part of the video 0:52 to 1:12 with those ideas in mind and see where it takes you!

LINK We will study this video over the next few days. You might watch 30 second clips of the video and then use that to write about. You can also write about the images from the video.

MIDWORKSHOP This video is a story. You can analyze it using the elements of stories.

SHARE How can you move from thinking about details to growing ideas? Look for patterns in characters, plot, setting, and repeating objects. Example: in Little Red Riding Hood, the red hood is an object that is mentioned Again and Again! Find a detail you wrote about earlier—maybe about relationships or setting or a repeating object. Look for places where that detail repeats. Mark any patterns you find and talk with your partner about what you’re noticing.

TO CRAFT POWERFUL, INTERPRETIVE ESSAYS…