One of the most widely known and least-actually-practiced elements of learning and literacy is that you become a better writer by reading, and you become a better reader by writing. It's important to link these two as often as possible. This is where Style Steals come in!
When you read a text that is particularly stylistically rich and powerful, take your students a step further by asking them to apply some of the author's techniques in their own writing. One way to start this discussion is with a Notice-Name-Effect chart as you read. Ask students to identify things that stand out to them in the text, things that they Notice. Then work together as a class to Name those things--an opportunity for a quick mini-lesson on strategies and devices that may be new to students. For example, maybe your students noticed that five sentences in a row began with the same three words. They Noticed it, but they can't Name it. There's your chance to introduce anaphora, a lesson made even more powerful by the fact that students drove the recognition of the device in an authentic text. Finally, talk about what Effect the things students Noticed had on the text as a whole.
The next step is for students to pick something to try in their own writing--no more than one or two things. Below, see some example of how that could look:
When you read a text that is particularly stylistically rich and powerful, take your students a step further by asking them to apply some of the author's techniques in their own writing. One way to start this discussion is with a Notice-Name-Effect chart as you read. Ask students to identify things that stand out to them in the text, things that they Notice. Then work together as a class to Name those things--an opportunity for a quick mini-lesson on strategies and devices that may be new to students. For example, maybe your students noticed that five sentences in a row began with the same three words. They Noticed it, but they can't Name it. There's your chance to introduce anaphora, a lesson made even more powerful by the fact that students drove the recognition of the device in an authentic text. Finally, talk about what Effect the things students Noticed had on the text as a whole.
The next step is for students to pick something to try in their own writing--no more than one or two things. Below, see some example of how that could look:
- Mentor Text: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"; Writing Assignment: A persuasive letter utilizing figurative language, anaphora, or strong diction to inspire fear.
- Mentor Text: Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Glass Castle; Writing Assignment: A micro-memoir focusing on one of the following: short sentences, dialogue, imagery and sensory details.
- Mentor Text: "Half-Hanged Mary" by Margaret Atwood; Writing Assignment: A poem about a bad memory utilizing one of the following: "chapters" of time, figurative language, synecdoche, anaphora, stream of consciousness.