Mary C. Elmore
Objective:
To write narrative stories, inspired by the artwork viewed at the museum, which are organized, creative, elaborate and fluent.
Materials:
Access to authentic landscape paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (or any other museum), writing prompt frame, revising and editing checklist, student friendly writing rubric.
Procedure:
-
1.During a museum visit, allow students to choose a piece of landscape art, which interests them and sets the stage for a narrative story they will be writing.
-
2.Provide ample time (20–60 mins.) for students to observe the painting by way of taking note of what they observe, either in the form of words or pictures.
-
3.Upon returning to the classroom, provide students with the following story planning frame for their adventure narrative.
-
4.Remind students that the painting they chose at the museum should give them ideas about where their story will take place and therefore, what might occur in such a place. The teacher might model this by using
Tahitian War Galleys in Matavai Bay, Tahiti
by William Hodges, 1744–1797, wherein the author might choose to set their narrative in Tahiti or some imagined tropical island and the activities might include exploring the island, meeting one of the natives and finally building a ship to sail back home.
-
5.Explain to students that the story plan is merely a map to guide them as they create their story and can always be changed throughout the unfolding of the story.
-
6.Once students have constructed a plan, in order to provide a structure to their stories, give them a story frame similar to this one, inspired by Nancy Boyles:
-
7.It is important to note that the template I use includes images above each of the sections, which remind students to include snap–shots, thought–shots, gestures and dialogue by way of clip–art graphics. The template would also extend to two to three pages in order to provide ample room to include all of these elements within each section and allow for smooth transitions throughout the story. Students are certainly free to replace the transition words provided with more interesting words
like suddenly, in the blink of an eye, eventually
, etc.
-
8.In addition to this sentence framework, I provide students with this check–list which they can use once they finish their first draft of the story as a way to revise and edit their work for content and to ensure that they have made their story entertaining and elaborate.
-
9.After allowing students to edit their own narratives, pair students up to peer–edit and score each other's narratives. At this time, a student friendly rubric can be passed to each student as a way for them to not only critique their partner, but more importantly, to become aware of the components which they will be graded on by the teacher. Encourage partners not only to provide critique but also suggestions for improving in the key areas of elaboration, fluency and/or organization.
-
10.Collect narratives and grade them using the same student friendly rubric used in the peer–editing phase. Conference with students if and when necessary and always encourage students to make the revisions to earn a higher score!
-
11.In order to take these narratives to the publishing state for the publishing party described in section 6, it will now be necessary to rewrite the rough drafts over neatly or type them out on computers.