1. Session 15: Writing across texts
I found a comparison text for “All Summer in a Day,” that we can use to look at comparing the two texts.
“If Only We Had Taller Been” by Ray Bradbury
The fence we walked between the years did bounce us serene.
It was a place half in the sky where, in the green of leaf and the promise of peach, we reached our hand and almost touched the sky.
If we could read out and touch, we said, it would teach us not to, never to, be dead.
We ate, and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had tallied then, and touched God’s cuff, his hem
We would not have to go with them, with those who had gone before
Who, short as us, stood tall as they could and hoped that by stretching tall that they could keep their land their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.

2. Today’s teaching point
What I want to teach you today is that literary essayists often write to think and grow ideas about more than one text at a time, pushing themselves to do the work of comparing and contrasting similar ideas across different texts.

3. Steps to generate writing-to-think about two texts…
You’ve done this work before-you have written compare and contrast essays. You’ll try flash drafting one tomorrow, but today I want to show you the kinds of thinking and notebook work you might do to set yourselves up.
First, start with naming the themes you see in both texts, to give you a starting point, and then you will pick a theme to compare that feels kind of similar in both texts.
Write long and fast to figure out what you are really trying to say about that theme.
Use the tools and strategies you already know to keep yourself writing and keep your thinking flowing.

4. Demonstration
Watch me go through these steps with my own texts-and look for the tools I’m using to push my thinking, because after I show you, I’ll want you to tell your partner what I tried.
1st Step-Themes:
One theme I already wrote about from “All Summer in a Day,” is that when people can’t get over their own pain, they wind up hurting others.Doesn’t fit the poem I read to you at the start of class!
The theme I pulled from “If Only We Had Taller Been,” is that people often want what they can’t have.
“Short man. Large Dream.” The poem is about wanting something bigger than what we have.Similar to “All Summer in a Day!”
2nd Step-Write:
Both texts share the idea that people sometimes want what they can’t have, and that this hurts. For example, in “All Summer in a Day,” the kids desperately want a break from the unending rain, but they don’t believe it will really happen. Similarly, in the poem “If Only We Had Taller Been,” the speaker wants to achieve something big, to explore the sky, but he’s not tall enough. This makes me think that in both texts, there is a really intense desire for what you cannot have-you see what you want but you can’t quite touch it. I think that is a difference in these texts-in “All Summer in a Day,” the desire for what they cannot have makes the children mean, but in the poem this desire makes the speaker a dreamer, and kind of ambitious. So now I’m thinking that what’s true in both texts is that in life, desperately wanting something you can imagine but can’t reach can push you to do things you normally wouldn’t do-either negatively or positively.

5. Well, what did I do to compare two texts?
Were there any thought prompts or transition phrases you noticed that I used?
Were there certain ways of thinking you saw evidence of? At the beginning? At the end?
Name the exact phrase used in your explanation!

6. You should have noticed…
Thought prompts: “This makes me think” “So now I’m thinking”
Transition words: “Similarly”
Comparative thinking-what was the same in the texts and what was different
Pushed myself to change my mind and try out different ideas in my entry, not just sticking to the first thing I came up with

7. Your Turn…
I want you to get a head start on this kind of thinking right now. Remember that before I compared themes, I had to name a few themes I saw in both texts, and then see which ones they had in common, where overlap in ideas might have been.
Talk with your partner about the themes you saw in your texts! Use the chart below to guide you.
Collect ideas about the themes in a text.
Name a central problem or issue that characters in the story face.
Reflect on parts of the story that pertain to this problem.
Think to yourself, “What is this story teaching me about this problem, this issue?”
Write long about your thinking to grow your ideas, perhaps by asking how different characters relate to that issue.

8. Work Time! Your partner talk got you off to a good start!
For the rest of today, work on writing long and fast about the themes you selected and discussed with your partner. By the end of class, you should have at least ½ of your essay done.
Just write your thoughts in paragraphs about the comparison of themes between your two texts.
You might also want to refer back to the anchor chart, “How to Write an Author’s Craft Essay” and write long and fast about the difference or similarities in the authors craft!
Spend your time wisely because you will be finishing this essay tomorrow in class! If you don’t work today, you won’t finish tomorrow!
Homework:
Write a claim for using in class tomorrow! See my example below. They are often longer than before.
In both “All Summer in a Day,” and “If Only We Had Taller Been,” we learn that in life, desperately wanting something you can imagine but can’t reach can push you to do things you normally wouldn’t-either negatively or positively.
Write about ½ of your essay.