1. As they walked in, students picked up a copy of “The Power of Detail” from Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. After reading “The Power of Detail,” students wrote down a sentence they responded most strongly to. Then, we wrote for 5 minutes about what that sentence means and how it relates to their own writing. Then, we snaked around the room, sharing the sentence we picked and talked to our partners about why we chose it.
2. Group discussion: How does this reading help us write our own memoirs?
3. Next, students quickly answered five questions in their notebooks to get them to think about the power of details to communicate feeling:
Then, we shared our answers, marveling at the specificity we could come up with!
4. To review slanted imagery, students received a practice sheet to help them edit a piece for slanted imagery. I don’t have an electronic copy of this right now, but there are extra copies in the classroom! This was collected for a classwork grade.
5. We briefly reviewed “Don’t Marry the Fly,” which explains that while detail is important, it’s also key to pick the right details to match your story and your mood.
HW: None
Absentees: If you are in Honors, you need to turn in your “Memory and Imagination” annotations. Be sure to write on the paper that you were absent on 9/8. Click the link to read “The Power of Detail” and write to the prompts in #1 in your notebook or a separate sheet of paper. Complete #3. Pick up the imagery practice sheet from me at school to complete for homework. Finally, read “Don’t Marry the Fly.”
ALEXA GARVOILLE 