Write About What You Know
Sid Fleischman drew on many of his past experiences when writing
By the Great Horn Spoon!
| "About Hangtown,
where some of the action takes place. An actual small town (now
called Placerville, as you know), which I played when I traveled
with the spook and magic show in 1939, fresh out of high school.
No clue then that I would someday be writing about the place." |
On that trip, a modern day miner named Rosey taught Fleischman
how to pan for gold and to check for spangles in the roots of
weeds. Pitch-Pine Billy taught Jack and Praiseworthy the same
techniques! Sid Fleischman was in the Navy on a steam powered
ship. While on the way to China, his ship was threatened by a
typhoon. Fleischman says he drew on this experience when writing
the storm in By the Great Horn Spoon! He also says many
of his characters, including Praiseworthy, are like his father
(Abracadabra Kid, p.13):
| "I
can't say that I had had my father up front in my mind when I
was writing these characters. But when I finished the novels
and took a look, there he was." |
 It is a helpful
for students to have a list of things to write about in their notebooks.
Fold a piece of paper into four squares. Brainstorm one topic per square
(both sides), and you'll have list to refer to when choosing a writing
topic. Possible topics to label each square:
Things I know how to do really well
Things I know a lot about
People I know
Places I've been
Things I remember
Things I'm worried about
Things I'm angry about
Things I'm happy about
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Tease Out Important Information
Tease out important information to dramatize the important
scenes. For example:
|
Here are two versions of a phone
call:
"Aunt Amanda! You just won the lottery!"
Here's the same scene, teased out. "Aunt Amanda! There's
big news! I've been trying to reach you for an hour! Don't you
ever answer your phone?"
"I thought it must be Gertrude calling."
"Gertrude's been dead for ten years."
"What?"
"Turn up your hearing aid."
"Why are you yelling?"
"There's wonderful news!"
"You're going to get married?"
"I am married, Aunt Amanda. You remember that lottery
ticket you bought? I hope you didn't misplace it."
"Of course I didn't misplace it. I threw it away. I never
win."
"Go through your trash, Aunt Amanda! You won! You won the
lottery!"
(p.179, The Abracadabra Kid)
|
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Dialogue Tags /"Said" is Invisible
How you say something
is as important as what you say! On a butcher paper, brain storm and
list dialogue tags with the students. For example: cried, whispered,
complained, replied, whined, shouted, and giggled. Continue collecting
tags when reading any book. Chapter one of By the Great Horn Spoon!
is chock full of great examples. Keep this list posted so students can
incorporate the dialogue tags into their own writing.
Give students
a sentence for example: "Let's go to the library." Have the
students repeat the sentence using the intonations and gestures according
to the different dialogue tags. For example:
"Let's go to the library," Jack pleaded.
"Let's go to the library," Praiseworthy barked.
"Let's go to the library," Cut-Eye Higgins said with
a wink.
Make a set of
dialogue tag cards out of sentence strips or paper. Distribute these
cards to groups. They can embellish various sentences with their various
tags.
| WARNING: Overuse of tags can clog
your dialogue and can be hazardous to your piece. Fleischman
explains that the word "said" is invisible: |
| "(it) . . .
means when you tag speech with said, it passes before the reader's
eye, invisibly, which is what you usually want. I only use expressive
verbs when they help. The advice I was giving is to avoid clogging
the dialogue with cumbersome and unnecessary tags. . ." |
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Names Resonate
A character's name should be a reflection of that character.
For example: Quartz Jackson, Good Luck the pig, Cut-Eye Higgins,
The Big Bad Wolf, and Little Red Riding Hood. Sid Fleischman
keeps a notebook to jot down interesting names that might be
useful later in his work. Once, on a family drive, he caught
a glance of a sign: PRAISEWATER MORTUARY. He didn't quite remember
it right when he wrote "Praiseworthy" into his name
book.
Students should
keep a list of interesting names in their notebook to use in their writing.
Students share
their "nick" names. How did you get your "nick"
name? Who gave you your "nick" name?
As students read
any book, stop at the first mention of a character's name, and brainstorm
what that character might be like. Later return to these lists. Were
your predictions true?
Have students
write at least 3 name ideas when introducing a character for the first
time in their story. Circle the best name. Then, use it.
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The Title is Very Important
How did Mr. Fleischman title this book anyway?
| "Why, the name
By the Great Horn Spoon!? I finished the book nameless
-- couldn't come up with anything usable. In the notebook I jotted
down: "Gold Pan Alley" -- can you believe it? The Cross-Eyed
Gold Mine -- haven't a clue what I had in mind there. The Happy
Hills. Dull and commonplace. After a couple of frustrating weeks,
I decided to use an expression of the times." |
Collect titles
from books, movies, songs, etc., on butcher paper and discuss which
titles "grab" the reader and which ones don't. As you read
By the Great Horn Spoon!, discuss the title of each chapter
and make predictions about what will happen based on those titles.
Fleischman's The Whipping Boy has particularly creative chapter
titles.
Pick a topic
that you know a lot about. Work in pairs to brainstorm five or six titles
that might be used for a piece about that topic.
Wait until you
have completed a piece before you select a title. Does this technique
work for you?
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Character Transformation
The main character should be changed by the events of the
story.
Make a Venn diagrams
for Jack and Praiseworthy to compare their characters at the beginning
of the book with the end of the book.
Can the students find clues about these transformations throughout the
story? For example, Praiseworthy's bowler hat is symbolic of his personality.
One clue that the butler is changing is when a snap of wind carries
his hat away!
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Show Don't Tell
Together, find
examples of "show don't tell" in the text of the book. For
example, instead of telling us that Jack spotted the Sea Raven,
Fleischman shows us what it looked like.
| "Hanging on
the yardarm, Jack was the first to notice a white speck on the
horizon behind the Lady Wilma. The speck grew into sails,
the sails into a ship, and the ship turned out to be the Sea
Raven (p.69.)" |
First model
how to show not tell. Start with the statement, "She was tired."
Ask students to "show" what that would look like with out
saying the word "tired."
For example: She had been dancing all night. She plopped her
body down onto the couch. Her head was so heavy that it rolled
from side to side as she struggled to hold it up. She let out
a long, wide, yawn. More than anything, she wanted to let her
eyes droop shut.
Distribute cards
with a variety of "telling" statement on them.
Sample Telling Sentences:
That dog looks fierce.
The books are heavy.
The car is old.
The pie smells delicious.
We waited a long time.
The movie was funny.
The gold nugget was worth a lot of money.
The water in the river was cold.
The miner was hungry.
The captain was grouchy. |
Students write "showing" sentences about their statement without
directly stating what they are telling. Then, they share their writing
with the other students in the class who try to name the "telling"
statement.
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Write in Scenes
Explain that
writing a story can be like directing a little movie that is played
in the head of the reader. Distribute comic strips for students to write
out frame by frame. Encourage them to include descriptive detail of
the setting, dialogue with tags, and an interesting title! Students
can also practice describing pictures from magazines, textbooks, or
a videotape scene from a TV show.
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Imagery is Powerful Shorthand
A metaphor is a lie, which tells the truth! Similes and metaphors are
like gold nuggets found literature. The perfect opportunity to discuss
"Gold Fever" is on p.3, when Fleischman says, "The California
fever was sweeping through the cities and towns and villages like a
heady wind." Some other "gold nuggets" from the book
include: "p.3 . . . her smokestack stained the frozen winter sky
like ink." "p.36. . .at night the sky became their textbook."
While reading,
have students collect "gold nuggets" on butcher paper for
discussion. Be sure to post the list so students can incorporate the
"nuggets" into their own writing. Students should practice
writing their own similes and metaphors. Give them some sentences to
think about. They can write four or five ideas for each sentence, then
decide which is best! Some practice sentences:
Good Luck the pig is as cuddly as . . .
The splash of the paddle wheels sounded like . . .
Jacks horn spoon was as smooth as . . .
The river was as cold as . . .
The gold spangles sparkled like . . .
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Give Weather Reports
It helps to make a scene feel real to include details about
the weather. For example, "He was trying to thaw the ice
in his curly black whiskers over a lighted candle. 'Well, don't
just stand there invitin' in the weather!' (p.8.)
Have students
scout out weather reports in By the Great Horn Spoon! and other
books.
Challenge them
to give weather reports in their own stories.
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