Wednesday, November 19, 2014

"Adding Drama" to writing

I was watching The Book Thief the other day- I adore the book and the movie is charming.  The book is one of my favorite stories ever and if you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it (other books by Zusak are wonderful as well, in my opinion).  As I was watching, there were so many parts that I wanted to share with my class, but I teach fourth grade and it's not a movie or book I would read with that age group- nothing sticks out to me as inappropriate, it's just a WW2 story that I wouldn't show/read in school, although many of my kiddos have seen/heard of it.

However, one part struck me as exactly what we are working on in writing right now.  We have been practicing "adding drama" to our narratives (hey fellow Lucy Calkins Units of Study teachers!), and writing things as if they are happening right now (versus just telling what happened) and choosing interesting words to create vivid descriptions.

...and then I heard this in the movie...


...and it is perfect, so I had to share with my class and with you.  It says everything I want to say to them and shows how to brighten up a description.  Beautiful!  



            

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