Narrowing the Focus

What’s another tool -craft element- in our writing tool boxes?



Ralph Fletcher introduces the element of “Narrowing the Focus “and suggests Grades 3 and 4 are ready to learn this element, but possibly many students in lower grades may also be helped in their writing by using a graphic like the one he suggests.

Kids like to write about topics they know –don’t we all?  But they are apt to bite off such gigantic topics as “My Life” “School” or “My Family” – again, passionate topics for them.  But they may not have a window into how to put “meat on the bones” of a topic like “Cousin Land”.  Fletcher suggests drawing an extra-large pizza and, for example, name the pizza “My Family”.  And pushing the pizza analogy, ask if they could eat an entire pizza – or one slice of pizza at a time.  Further questions like “Who is the one person who is really special to you?”  If it’s Grandma – write about her. You might even draw another large pizza and put Grandma across the entire pizza, and then suggest that putting special things about Grandma might be a way to organize.

Fletcher et al also suggests using such a graphic for writing a simple report on nonfiction topics.  For example, a student who wants to write about “Sharks”; this graphic may help them identify a subtopic, such as, “How Sharks Survive”. 

All the graphics are not the writing part – but rather a window into how to structure the writing.  We shouldn’t get lost in the perfect graphic and the “prettiest”, but rather see such graphics as means to the end – a piece of writing with a strong focus.  Then the “slice” analogy helps the writer to only include information that fits within this “slice”.


I’m also including a link to a document on Anchor Charts – Lots of great information on these anchor charts – and the graphics are outstanding.  Again, if you – like me – struggle with the “cutsie” art – let’s remember it doesn’t have to be perfectly drawn; anchor charts just serve to remind students (and teachers) of important points and steps in a process.   One teacher suggested that when she is learning procedures, etc., she often puts anchor charts behind the students – in a place where she can read them – a great idea!  I can see doing that as some of us get more comfortable with Jan Richardson’s guided reading steps. 

Marty

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