 Today we will talk about how journalists develop the action, dialogue, and setting. They do this not just to enliven their news stories, but also to highlight what they want to convey about the issue or lesson they are advancing. They especially harness these techniques to reveal their central ideas and to inspire their readers to feel compassion.

 You know that I’ve been looking at the difficulties that teens face, and I’ve been looking for story ideas. One place I went to look for ideas was the cafeteria. So much happens up there each day!  I took some notes about what I witnessed, and I want to show you how to use the storytelling techniques you’ve learned to stir up compassion in the reader.  Watch how I use action, dialogue, or setting details to do this work. As I work on the opening scene, you should compare how you would do it. What would you include to get your reader to feel compassion?

 I might try to begin my story with some of the setting details. My angle as a journalist is that the cafeteria can be kind of awful, so I want to develop that unpleasant scene.  The cafeteria smelled of hot dogs and grease, and somehow, old socks…  This gets at the smell of the cafeteria, but the issue I’m really trying to look at is hardship. Can I change this to make that more clear?

 I could start out with the food smells, but those details don’t really help get at the issue. I don’t want to just scatter craft details; I need to be purposeful. In journalism, when I am focusing on not letting my piece get too long, I really need to make sure my details accomplish big work. Every detail needs to work toward illuminating my central ideas.

 Maybe now I will try emphasizing setting details that would show how isolating the cafeteria can be, which fits what I’m trying to show in my news story. Let me try again.  It was just another lunch period in the middle school cafeteria. Looking around, one saw table after table of bustling conversation. Groups of kids reached across each other, squished in next to each other…except for the table where one boy sat alone.

 Now I want you to try this out. We want our reader to empathize and really feel how lonely it can be, even in a crowded place like the cafeteria. If we want to stir up empathy and get our readers to care about this issue, what should we add next?  With your partner, write the rest of the story “in the air.”  Boy was sitting alone  Not talking to anyone  Two boys sat next to him  Began talking about soccer

 As you are working on this, you need to be careful about not exaggerating. At the same time, you can be purposeful about using action, dialogue, and setting details-or other narrative techniques-to shine a light on the issue you want to reveal, and get your reader to really feel it and care about it.

 You will need to decide which techniques will really highlight the issue you are showing and get your readers to care. For some of you, the story you’re telling will make it easier to use dialogue, while for others it might be more setting or action, or even something else such as figurative language or symbolism. Take a moment to consider specifically what strategy you will use today.  Turn to your partner and share what you wish to accomplish today and how you plan to do it.

 Writers, especially journalists, need to know their deadlines. The deadline for this group of journalists is five days from now. That’s actually a pretty long stretch of time for a journalist to work on a column.  The piece you’re writing now can be longer than the newscasts you wrote. It should be denser, more elegant-it can have longer narrative parts, and you might include longer explanatory parts.  By the end of workshop today, you will need to have chosen your main focus so that you can really begin to develop it.

 Look at the copies of the 7 th and 8 th grade narrative checklist here. You want to make a habit of making sure when you’re drafting that you not only set yourself a task of figuring out what to write about, but also choosing a writerly move you are trying to practice.  Take a moment to look over the checklist, and find one or two items that would push you as a writer. When you find one, put a star next to it. Then, when you finish your writing today, be sure to underline the part of your new writing, or put a star, where you did this work.checklist  Quickly show your partner something on this checklist that you will be trying today.

 By now, you have collected several stories in your notebooks. It is time to choose what some writers call a seed idea-the story that you can grow into a fully developed piece, which you will do over the next several days. For the majority of you, this will be about the Riverview Homeless Night.  As you begin to write, consider these questions.these questions.

 Tonight for homework, I want you to decide which angle you will take to relay the events of Homeless Night to your readers. Then, do some freewriting in response to the questions I will hand out.  Just like I started to do with my potential topic on teens, you will probably come up with several different possible messages you could send. Make a list of these issues, and write about them. Keep writing until you feel clear about your purpose.