Student Writer Instructions:
People love to tell stories, but what makes a great story? Details, emotion, action and description.
If you told an incredibly exciting story from your past in the form a research paper or even newspaper article, we would miss out on all the good stuff! What were you thinking, feeling, reacting to? What sounds and smells and sights complete the event?
For this activity you will be listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which takes an actual event and places us right there on the ship with the mariners as it sank. We hear the crashing sea, taste the salt, and feel the desperation. We sympathize with the wives and sons and daughters more because WE WERE THERE!
After listening to the song and reading the lyrics, you will choose your own historical event that inspires you and model Lightfoot’s amazing storytelling. Choose a story that needs to be told…not as a history book might tell it, but rather as a poet.
To do the event justice you will focus on strong verbs and adjectives which means our focus trait for this lesson is word choice. Also, since pacing, repetition, strong titles and great introductions and conclusions make or break a story, the support trait is organization.
You will fill out a detailed graphic organizer that will help you break your event down into your own interpretation and then build it back up again in the form of a poem. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, use the interactive buttons to help generate some.
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