My second day of volunteering to help nine-year olds with writing went well.
The students were given a prompt to write to: Remember a time when something funny happened. I scanned three narratives and blurted, "What's wrong with you people? One paper has someone choking on a lollipop. A second story is about someone blowing cookies out of his nose and his nose is still wet. And the third story is about someone spilling milk."
It's funny. I had forgotten how the fourth grade mind works and the things they think are funny. Now let the lesson begin:
"Who remembers what I told you in assembly about writing stories?" No one spoke up, so I gently reminded them once again, "Get outside in nature so action can take place. Get out of your house in your stories! And above all, do not write about disgusting things for the state writing test."
Then I outlined my narrative.
I am at the beach with my best friend, Bobby. I noticed the students were beginning their narratives with One hot day . . .or One cold night.
"Begin with stories with dialogue. Rope that audience in right off the bat!" I told them.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Bobby there's something on my toe!" Bobby sprinted through the sand and started laughing hysterically as I stood their with a crab the size of an Eggo Waffle latched onto my toe for dear life.
Then I modeled two ways I could get the crab off my toe. First, I shook my leg and finally collapsed to the ground; but of course that failed. Meanwhile Bobby and I laughed so hard our sides hurt.
Next, Bobby tried to pull the crab off of my toe, with much yelping on my part. Eventually, Bobby pulled the crab so hard, he went flying backwards into the sand, crushing our sand castle.
Finally, a seagull swooped down, grabbed the crab in its mouth and lifted off, leaving me with a toe that looked like a strawberry. And that was the day something funny, but painful happened.
Way better than blowing cookies out my nose, don't you think?
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