The Story of Things: Part 2 

Last time, I helped my student look at a baseball by examining its connections to the senses. Using this approach let us create a chart divided into touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste qualities associated with the used toy. From there, we picked one quality related to the baseball; the idea that it was a round object.

“Round” might become:
·         As round as the Earth, the baseball held a world of summer within its surface.
·         The pitcher gripped the stained round ball, and then released it in a catastrophic pitch.
·         Spinning the round ball on his fingertip, the egotistical catcher smirked at Carl.
·         The amazing round ball rolled along the grass after my fumbled catch failed.
·         Round, streaked with green, and hard as rock, the baseball sat unused and neglected in the discarded toy pile.

Any of these story starter sentences could be used to begin a story. For sixth grade and fifth grade, California students have to create a personal narrative as one of the first classroom writing assignments. It is much easier for students to do this if they have had a little practice at home first. 

The next time I meet with the student, I look at the sentence the student picked to use for homework. For this post, however, I want to look at what can be done with each sentence using a personal narrative format.

There are a few "rules" that apply to a simple personal narrative for the tween writer. 
1. Students are expected to write it from the first person point of view.

      2. The narrative tells about one single event where the student did something new, did something for
    the last time, learned something about someone else, learned something about himself or herself,
    and experienced a strong emotion connected to the event.
      3. The narrative may use some dialogue, but the emphasis is on the exposition that reveals the event
    and its impact. The event is introduced with a long lead-in, a quick event, a short explanation of
    the aftermath, and then a strong reflective section explaining the lasting impact on the student.
     4. The student is expected to know how to write and punctuate dialogue, use strong verbs to build
    rising action, and create a basic story arc.

These are kids aged 9-12. They often need help applying rules 1-4 to their efforts.

       

      Given that, the next thing I do with my young client is to review the rules and provide examples of each to help the student know what to do. Next, we pick one starter sentence and brainstorm what to write about. 

      "The pitcher gripped the stained round ball, and then released it in a catastrophic pitch."

       - Who is the pitcher? - Did the client play in the game or watch it? - What made the pitch "catastrophic"? - Was this the last game of a season or the last playoff game? - Why did the ball wind up in the possession of my client? - Where was the game played? - Was someone important in the audience? - Was my client the batter? - Did the ball hit the batter, strike the batter out, or result in a solid homerun hit?

      As we work through these questions, we explore why that sentence was selected. It turned out that my client's older brother was the batter. It was the last game of the season. His brother did hit a homerun, and my client scoured the grass beyond the fence to find the ball. The game mattered to my client because his brother was moving on to high school. As a result, the two boys would no longer be in the same school. My client wanted to keep the baseball to help his brother remember that day, and to remember the time they spent together that summer. Therefore, the ball represented the last time my client spent a long summer with his brother.

      I helped the boy write the story, illustrate it, and frame it as a present for his brother's birthday. 

For my own personal narrative related to baseball, I wrote a short piece about my Mother's Day present last year. Can you tell where we went? Do you have a baseball memory?

Next time, the focus will be on The Story of Things: Part 3, writing an anecdote.
      
      Keywords: character, cartoon, traits, writing, writing sprints, character traits, students