Literacy Speaks Volumes

This past week, I read an excerpt from Karen Hesse 's novel Out of the Dust   aloud to my seventh graders .  The novel is set in the Oklahoma Panhandle during the Great Depression. The novel is written in free verse and told from the point of view of Billi Jo Kelby. It is a beautiful novel , which would make a great read aloud for middle schoolers. As part of the lesson, I taught four specific genre features: free verse, format, alliteration, and imagery. Free verse is poetry that does not rhyme and has no rhythm. When read, it has the natural cadence of the spoken word. Free verse is also some of the easiest poetry for students to write. Format is the way that a piece is written. Out of the Dust has lines of varying lengths. This again goes along with the fact that it's written in free verse. Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sound. Students love to play around with this poetic device. It can be both amusing and serious. Imagery is usi...

Imagery is used in literature in order to give the reader a virtual picture in his mind~the author might use the five senses to create this image. Notice the imagery in this passage from One Thousand White Women  by Jim Fergus: From these cold rocks we can see the camp dogs beginning to slink back into the village to pick among the ruins for scraps of meat. The still frigid morning air bears the odors of roasted meats, spent gunpowder, scorched hides, burnt flesh. There are still dozens of soldiers about in the village so that we are unable to go back down to scavenge with the dogs, perhaps find a scrap of meat for sustenance, a flame of warmth...a blanket...   A good author creates imagery with words~he shows, he doesn't tell. Imagery and mood can affect the way you feel about a work of literature. An author's style , though, is what helps you recognize the writing of a particular author. In literature, style is the way that something is written~it is the way it...

Elizabeth Gilbert talks about Creative Genius on TED Talks. What is "creative genius"? Do you have that illusive ability to be creative? What loaded questions these are for the average writer. Perhaps even more so for the average middle school writer. Never have a I ever said about a student, "Wow! This kid is a creative genius!". Now, I've had students who were talented artists and exceptional writers~but, their talents were always within the boundaries of average middle school genius. But then again, I teach regular ed language arts not the gifted. What does this have to do with mood and style? Mood, imagery, tone, style~that blend of spices that an author uses to make you want to tear through a story; it makes you want to stay up late hungrily turning the pages; you wake up craving those words that set your senses reeling. Does it take a creative genius to create that need in you or has the storyteller seemed to have found the creative genius in hi...