Building Background Knowledge for Writing "Wisdom begins in wonder" Socrates

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Building Background Knowledge for
Writing"Wisdom begins in wonder"
Socrates
Building Background Monday, July 17 1005-1150
Notebook

• Composition and the Genre of Historical Fiction
• Monday, July 17
• 1005-1150

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The Wise Woman and Her Secretby Eve Merriam

• the secret of wisdom is to be curious-to take
  the time to look closely, to use all your senses
  to see and touch and taste and smell and hear. To
  keep on wandering and wondering.
• To keep on wandering and wondering, Jenny
  repeated softly.
• And if you dont find all the answers, you
  will surely find more to marvel at in this
  curving, curling world that spins round and round
  amid the stars.

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A Research Community Parent-Kid-Teacher
InvestigatorsPrimary Voices K-6, Volume 8,
Number 3, January 2000

• The secret of research is to take time with the
  process, to use a variety of tools and methods,
  and to let research questions evolve and guide a
  discovery.

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Session Objectives

• Define the genre of Historical Fiction and the
  Narrative mode of writing.
• As an adult researcher/writer, experience how the
  Waccamaw fourth-grade students researched and
  developed a description of a swamp setting.
• Since parents, teachers, and students are ALL
  researchers, chart how each might contribute and
  interrelate in writing Historical Fiction.

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Time Schedule

• 1005-1025 Setting the purpose, defining the
  genre, and explaining the Research Grid (slides
  4-12)
• 1025-1045 First Quick Write describing setting
  (slides 12-15)
• 1045-1105 Second Quick Write describing setting
  (slides 16-18)
• 1105-1125 Third Quick Write describing setting
  (slide 24)
• 1125-1150 Compile group findings on Research
  Grid and present. Discuss next steps.

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Research Grid
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Earlier

• In the morning session Precision and Purpose in
  the Literacy Block What Rigor Looks Like, the
  students are writing historical fiction in the
  narrative mode of writing.
• Look carefully at the definition of genre
  and mode. Genre is the form of writing while mode
  is the purpose for writing that considers the
  audience. The purpose of writing created in the
  narrative mode is to tell something in a
  sequence. The something told is a story.

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Historical Fiction Defined

• A metaphor for historical fiction Mind play
  with a time period.
• Children often create historical fiction in their
  play.
• Formal historical fiction texts are built upon a
  solid foundation of fact. The texts become a
  living entity when writers of this genre use
  their creativity to speculate upon the
  possibilities of living in the past. This is
  almost the same process as when students create
  historical fiction through their play.
• Parents and teachers can aid the child in
  understanding that the research aspect of this
  genre is interesting. The surrounding community
  is full of research resources.

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Historical Fiction Defined by Students

• Historical fiction is a genre that takes you on
  adventures through time and history allowing you
  to feel and imagine the experiences of people and
  places from long ago.
• This genre lets you get close to the story and
  experience the events by creating sensory images
  that are partly based on fact and detail the
  characters feelings in such a way that you feel
  a part of the story!
• There is a connection between your experience or
  schema and the story. Research builds deeper
  understanding of the chain of events. You see how
  one thing causes another.

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Historical Fiction Defined by Waccamaw
Fourth-Grade

• Historical Fiction is a story that recreates a
  period of time or the setting or a period of time
  in history that often uses Historical Fiction
  figures as its characters the author writes from
  research rather than personal experience and may
  use imagination or schema to embellish the
  details.

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What Students Should Learn about Historical
Fiction

• Historical fiction has three simple forms or
  types. These are the three basic things students
  should learn about historical fiction
• 1. Setting
• 2. Character/Person
• 3. Events

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Literacy Block Video

• The children are researchers. They used
  paintings, researched books-fiction and
  nonfiction, watched movies, studied timelines,
  and scrutinized graphs. They used drama and talk
  to build the language of the period necessary for
  writing.
• Writing in this genre requires extensive building
  of background knowledge research, research,
  research, attentiveness to accurate historical
  details, and practice in the descriptive and
  narrative mode of writing.

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Narrative Mode of Writing What the students
were taught

• Hook the reader with an interesting beginning.
• Keep a big idea across the composition.
• Include a big event.
• Include a problem. Resolve the problem.
• Use details to let the reader know my characters,
  setting, and big event.
• Use adjectives, adverbs, and verbs to paint a
  mind picture by showing and not telling.
• Use interesting and effective dialogue.
• Include a specific time and place.
• Include a surprise or something interesting in
  the conclusion.
• Use precise, appropriate vocabulary. The verbs
  should be active.

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Narrative Writingand Historical Fiction

• These two are joined by the use
• of details to let the reader know
• the storys characters, setting,
• and big event.

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Descriptive Mode of WritingWhat the students
were taught

• Showing Not Telling Chart
• Descriptive Writing and Creating Sensory Images
• Show me without telling.
• Strong verbs show action and feeling or emotion.
• Action verbs create emotion and mood in writing.
• Verbs are more descriptive than adjectives if
  they are well chosen.
• (Adapted from Shelton, R. (1999). Write Where
  You Are.)

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How does it feel?

• How does it feel to develop a description of a
  setting for a historical fiction piece of
  writing?
• We will do 3 Quick Writes using photos, music,
  paintings, and video to compose a description of
  a swamp setting.

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Preparation for Quick Write 1

• Turn and talk to your partner about what you see
  and what you feel when studying this photograph.
  Make a mental picture in your mind.
• You have 2 minutes.

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Developing SettingQuick Write 1

• As a researcher, drop yourself into the time
  period before the American Revolution.
• Travel with me as I read a mentor text describing
  a swamp adventure of Francis Marions boyhood.
  Follow along on your Handout 1.0 The Swamp
  Adventure.
• You may mark your text for details of a setting.
  Pay close attention to text chunks that show
  without telling such as I catch the glimpse of
  flashing white, razor sharp alligator teeth
  searing the edge of a too-slow large mouth bass.

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Pretend

• You are Francis Marion in South Carolina.
  Research carefully the following photographs of
  the swamp and write a description of what you
  see, hear, smell, and feel. Listen carefully to
  the swamp sounds.
• Refer to H.O. 1.3. Here is your stem
• I am excited about this day of travel into
  the swamp. I push my small pirogue out
• You have 5 minutes and 34 seconds to start this
  quick write on setting. Remember you can refer to
  your Mentor Text Swamp Adventure.

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Turn and Talk

• You have 2 minutes.
• Turn and talk to your partner about your writing.
  
• Read one line that shows the swamp setting
  without explicitly telling the reader.

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Prep for Quick Write 2

• With your partner, prepare to research a painting
  by studying HO 1.3. Continually use your Mentor
  Text Swamp Adventure.
• This will aid your ability to add more details to
  your first Quick Write.

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With a partner list the details from the painting
of people, objects, actions, and setting on the
grid belowUse Handout 1.3 and 1.4 to give
focus to your research.You have 5 minutes and
20 seconds.Watch Me First!

• Analysis Grid

Photograph or Painting Analysis
Sheet www.archives.gov/digitalclassroom/lessons/an
alysisworksheets/worksheets.html.)
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Quick Write 2 and ShareYou have 3 minutes to
write and 2 minutes to talk.

• Add to the writing you have composed on H.O. 1.3.
  
• While researching the painting, take about three
  minutes to add a few more sentences to Quick
  Write 1.
• After you finish writing, talk to your partner
  for about 2 minutes and share your sentences. Try
  your hand at showing without telling. Use the
  page of verbs on your table.

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Prep for and Quick Write 3

• Observe a video clip of The Birth of the Swamp
  Fox to develop more details about the swamp
  setting.
• Video no. 1 339-419 AND 1311-1427 Video
  no. 2 226-426
• Use the Analysis Grid Handout 1.4 to take notes
  on the people, objects, actions, and setting in
  the video clip.
• Talk to your partner about your notes and orally
  share one sentence you are going to add to Quick
  Write 3.
• Take 5 minutes and add more to your Quick Write
  Handout 1.3.

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Reflection on Quick Writes

• Literacy Fellows please choose two pieces of
  writing to aid the groups learning.
• Would our writers please share what they learned
  about themselves as writers?

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At your table

• Discuss all the possibilities when parents,
  teachers, and students are researchers in a unit
  of study involving Historical Fiction.
• Use your individual Research Grid Handout 1.5
  to think together and discuss the possibilities
  for gathering materials, providing experiences,
  and insuring collaboration in the study.
• Transfer your best thinking to a large Research
  Grid. Each table report out on one area that you
  consider your best thinking on how parents,
  teachers, and students might contribute and
  interrelate in a unit of study.

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Did we meet ourSession Objectives?

• Define the genre of Historical Fiction and the
  Narrative mode of writing.
• As an adult researcher/writer, experience how the
  Waccamaw fourth-grade students researched and
  developed a description of a swamp setting.
• Since parents, teachers, and students are ALL
  researchers, chart how each contribute and
  interrelate in writing Historical Fiction.
• "Never let your memories be greater than your
  dreams.
• 
  Doug Ivester