"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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All About Ivan the Shopping Mall Gorilla

I know I've blogged about Ivan before, but I just can't get enough of him.  I love him so much.

Bringing the story of Ivan into the classroom is so much fun because kids love animals and his story is so interesting and endearing.  It's hard to find stories with real emotion that both the boys and the girls will buy in to, but this story manages to do it.


We are almost finished reading The One and Only Ivan right now in class.  My students are hooked.  What I love about this story is that it is just a little tricky for fourth graders to comprehend, even when read aloud, because there is a lot of inferring.  It's perfect because that happens to be what we are working on in reading right now.  It's also quick and easy to find great mentor sentences to lift and use during writing time- especially for incorporating figurative language.  The writing is beautiful.

As I was browsing the shelves at the bookstore the other day, I found this new treasure... Ivan the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla.  I picked it up immediately and added it to my stash.

I love the contrast between the the true story of Ivan the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla and the One and Only Ivan.  In writing, we've been working on telling narrative stories and turning our true stories into fictional stories- this was PERFECT.  The author (Katherine Applegate wrote both books- bonus!!) took the true story and made it a "story we wish existed" by adding fictional characters to tell her story.  It is exactly what we are working on!  It honestly could not have been a more perfect fit or perfect timing.

PLUS, now that I'm in Seattle, the location of the "Big Top Mall" ("B&I Mall" in real life) is located in Tacoma, WA so my students were extra interested because it took place so close to us.  

The Urban Gorilla was a movie made about Ivan that tells his story.  The kids love seeing "the real Ivan" because they already feel like they know him.  If you're interested in watching the entire video, I included the link below where you can watch it online- or show parts of it to your class.

Since I read this book closer to the beginning of the year this year, I think I will have my class adopt a gorilla through WWF, since we will have the rest of the year to enjoy a pet gorilla.  Plus I can count this as a class pet and maybe be off the hook for the year.

You can learn even more about Ivan (and gorillas) by visiting these websites...

The One and Only Ivan

Meet Ivan: the Gorilla Who Lived in a Shopping Mall {NPR Article}

The Urban Gorilla {Entire Video- 53 minutes}

Zoo Atlanta- timeline of Ivan's life there

WWF Gorilla Fact Pages

WWF Gorilla Adoption

            

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"Currently" and a Charming Gorilla

Happy June!  

My favorite part of Farley's monthly Currently link up is seeing how many teachers have blogs and are excited about sharing their craft!  It's so motivating!

Yesterday I had a friend in town from college to celebrate her 30th birthday.  I think the last time we celebrated a birthday together was when we turned 21, so it's been awhile since I've seen her and we've done so much in the past nine years- it's so fun to catch up!  She is also teaching 4th grade now so we had a lot to chat about.

I'm considering spending a large amount of time scanning in all of my paper files so that they are on the computer and then getting rid of all that dreaded paperwork.  I've been reading up on blogs and other threads about so many teachers scanning everything in, using apps, and all that jazz.  It totally sounds like something that I would already have done, but it's time consuming, and sometimes old habits die hard.  So the inner debate begins:  paper or digital?  What do you do?!?  I'll probably go digital because I'm horrible about just putting papers in piles everywhere and forgetting never looking at them again.

Enough about me.  I've been wanting to share about this book for awhile, and this week's ELA Mentor Text link up with the Collaboration Cuties is the perfect time.   

So I bring you:  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  

Have you read it?  It's lovely.  This book now rocks a Newberry award on the cover, but I bought it before all that excitement- for once I was ahead of the game.  

Ivan is a gorilla in an old mall/arcade that was turned into some kind of unfortunate zoo.  I completely fell in love with the story from page one.  Ivan speaks simply, but not all the sentences are "simple".  We did this as a read aloud this year- so many opportunities to stop to check student comprehension (lots of inferencing) and tons of similes and metaphors.  Here's a couple examples from the book:

"Her voice was like the throaty bark of a dog chained outside on a cold night."

"She makes a happy, lilting sound, an elephant laugh.  It's like the song of a bird I recall from long ago, a tiny yellow bird with a voice like dancing water."

It was a sweet story that both the girls AND boys enjoyed.  Sometimes I find that the girls love sweet animal stories, but the boys want more action.  This story isn't "action packed", but it wrapped the kids up in a fascinating tale.  Plus it's about a gorilla, so the boys loved it.  Even better, while we were reading, my Bing Dynamic background {which I blogged about here} switched to a baby elephant that all the students were convinced was Ruby.  

Next year I plan on doing more with it as far as figurative language goes.  This year was my chance to test student interest.  Success!  Some reviews have argued that the author "overuses" similes and metaphors, but from a teacher perspective, it's perfect for that exact reason.  

Link up!