Reading Linda Sue Park's "The One Thing You'd Save"Recently, on my Education Mecca of Twitter, I saw fellow educators discussing the poetry compilation/short novel written by Linda Sue Park called "The One Thing You'd Save." It continued to come up for me on my never-ending Goodreads recommendations and was quickly added to my list of "to be read" books. After reading the synopsis of what the writing was about, I immediately felt compelled to purchase the book so I could read it for myself. I thought it would make an incredible mentor text for a writer's workshop project. Meaningful prompts that explore emotion and identity are always at the top of my list when looking for a writing project, and this seemed like a great fit. In summary, Sue Park's writing explores the question: if your house was on fire and you could only take one thing with you (your friends, family, pets, etc. are all already safe) then what would that object be? It forces us to think about the things that are important in our lives and the things that cannot easily be replaced. In "The One Thing You'd Save" this question is posed to a group of students and they venture into writing poetry on the one thing they'd save. Our Writing:To begin our project, we started with a PearDeck to get our brainstorming brains activated. First, I read some small sections of the novel for my students. Then, I posed a series of 'yes' or 'no' questions to my students about whether they would save certain objects (memorabilia, family heirlooms, photograph of a loved one, etc.) Then, we explored some of the writing in the novel and discussed what these fictional student author's did well in their writing. I even posed a few questions to them about the imagery present in the poems where students drew what they thought the writing was talking about (this was fun, some very interesting drawings took shape!) Next up was the brainstorming piece. I modelled and thought aloud what object I would save with students, and brainstormed aloud with them what memories I had with this item, why it was important to me, a list of adjectives I would use to describe it and 3 literary devices I could make up to enforce my writing when I went to write my poem. Modelling this for students is important, it helps them see what's expected from them but also models the writing process. I tend to write every project I give to my students myself, so that I can see how long it takes and what challenges I faced as a writer. That way, I can help mitigate those issues as they arise for students. The last step before writing their poems is sharing my own writing with students. I share my own poem, then we do a 'success criteria hunt' where students receive a copy and we practice annotating it for the success criteria of the assignment. For this assignment, I am looking for a strong voice, the use of descriptive words and the ability to use figurative language/literary devices to strengthen the imagery of the poem. We will have a structure of 3 line stanzas and the minimum I required was a 9 line poem (3 lines x 3 stanzas) but they could absolutely go beyond that amount! We're in the middle of the writing process now, but I'm already so impressed to see what students are coming up with as the items they would keep. Sure, there are some cell phones and laptops in the mix, but many students are digging deep into what really matters in life and questioning the things they could never replace. Hey, even a laptop can be significant and one of the writer's in Linda Sue Park's novel described their own laptop as "a second brain" and the opening to an entire universe! That's the kind of language that I can get on board with. If you're interested in exploring this unit with your class, then feel free to take a look at the resources compiled in this Google Drive folder. I ask that you do not request permission but make a copy of the documents and use them as you see fit! You'll need to create your own poem, which is half the fun, and might need to adapt some resources to work specifically for you! If you haven't used PearDeck or you don't want to use it, the introductory lesson will need to be adapted so students can respond on the slides instead of via the third party app that I use. Happy writing!
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AuthorHi! I'm Mrs. MP and I teach grade seven English! I'm so excited for you to learn along with me Archives
January 2022
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