For more information, Shauna can be contacted at shauna.mymail@gmail.com.
First, Shauna began by sharing a book with us called Zoom by Istvan Banyai.
Here is an example of the first few pages:
As you read the book and each page introduces a new perspective, you come to see things differently. Each pictures zooms out from the original picture, giving you an entirely different story.
You can also use a video called Everyday Creativity with Dewitt Jones to illustrate this concept. Jones is a professional photographer and in this video, talks about how beauty can be found not only by zooming in on a particular detail, but also in zooming out for the big picture.
The video is expensive to buy and sometimes difficult to find, but at Jones' website is an introductory video clip that has the exact part of the video that you would need. The website is found at: http://www.dewittjones.com/ Click on 'Watch Dewitt Now'.
We then did the following activity:
Zoom activity
1. Have students write a description of their bedroom. Tell them they will have about 5-7 minutes to write but that is the only instruction they will receive.
Here is my writing:
Fortunately, I just cleaned my room a couple of days ago, so I won't have to describe the dog goobers on the wall or the unmade bed. Instead, I will describe the rustic bedspread patterned with black bears and pine trees, the freshly vacuumed speckled brown carpet, the family portraits hanging (slightly eschew) on the wall. Just recently I re-painted the room, transforming the white walls to a three-tone, earthy palette of sandstone, cream, and off-white. However, I do need to admit that we haven't purchased blinds yet, so currently the windows are accessorized with what I call 'Redneck's Glad`e'.
2. Zoom in. Have students draw a line under what they have written and zoom in closer. Have them picture themselves standing in the middle of the room facing just one wall. Have them extend their writing by describing what they can see from that perspective.
Here is my writing:
The wall is split in two halves by an off-white chair rail. The bottom of the wall is suede (or at least attempted suede), and the top is a cream color. It makes me think of staring really hard at the mid-section of an old cowboy wearing a cream, long-sleeve shirt and worn, leather chaps. On the wall hang two family pictures one with dad and baby, and one with mom and baby. Looking around, you could probably guess that there is one loved baby in the house.
3. Have them draw a line and now zoom in on one object that is on that one wall. Have them write again with a description from this new perspective.
My writing:
A father's day gift-the portrait hangs (slightly crooked) on the wall. A chestnut frame wraps around the collage of two pictures. In one is a picture of my two boys-my husband, looking dignified and handsome in his black suit and red tie, holding my three month-old, also looking adorable and handsome in his pin-stripe vest, green shirt, and tie. My son is a miniature version of his father with twinkling eyes and that same mischievous smile.
Discuss with students how their writing changed as they changed their perspective. Also discuss what things stayed the same. You could also discuss when being aware of your reader and his/her perspective and when it is good to get closer and examine details in writing and when it is better to step back and see the big picture.
Some of my thoughts after doing this activity:
It was interesting to see how my focus changed from each perspective. In the first writing, I was really just thinking about how messy my room is typically. In the second writing, I was focusing on imagery and how I wanted my walls to look western and rugged when I painted them. In the third writing, I was focused on my family and my love for them. I think that this would be a great activity for generating ideas, for writing a memoir, and for examining writer's craft.
When I used to teach my students Ideas and Content and, more specifically, having a main idea and then blowing it up with detail, I used a Where's Waldo picture. I would put the picture on an overhead and tell the students to write about what they see. After writing for a few minutes, we would discuss how difficult (and boring) it was to write about everything. Then I would put a paper with a small hole cut-out over the picture and again tell them to write about it. Maybe they would only be able to see a dog riding a bike and juggling. They could then expand on that image and come up with creative scenarios. We would then discuss how when we write about something, we don't want to write everything. We want to find what is most important and really focus on bringing that to life in our writing using sensory details.
I always liked having my students write a memoir at the beginning of the school year. I liked that I could read these memoirs and get to know my students a little better, and I liked that writing about one's self and examining one's life is something most of them will use through out their lives. However, many times their memoirs were so boring! Often, I received 'What I did over summer vacation' and travel logs. I often gave them the quote about how the reader doesn't want to hear about every ride in Disneyland but if one the rides broke down or someone got sick on one of the rides, that is worth hearing about. But some of them still never got it. I think this zooming in and zooming out activity could really help students figure out what they really want to write about. What made that memory stand out in their minds? What made it memorable and worth writing about?
You could also use this activity for further discussions about writer's craft. For example, I don't like the book Eragon very much. I know, I know, there are probably Eragonites hunting me down right now for saying such a thing. The story was fine but there was too much detail. I remember one scene where the characters were about to enter a room through a door. I swear there were two or three pages just describing the door, and the whole time I was shouting in my head, "Just walk through that door, for crying out loud!" I felt like the plot got bogged down in details. Another example might be the unabridged version of Les Miserables. A chapter on the sewer system? Really?
But there are times when the reader needs the details. I want to be sitting at that campfire with the characters. I want to feel its heat and hear the crackle and snap of the wood burning. I want to choke a little on the smoke and have to move to the side to get away from it. But only if it that scene is important enough that I be there with the characters. I think of really good scary stories. Many times, a scary story won't give you all the details of the 'monster'. The writer knows that we all have monsters in our minds and that the details the reader will supply from his/her own imagination is far scarier than anything you could describe as a writer. This is where many of the gore movies go wrong in trying to produce horror--too many (often cheesy) details.
Another great resource that Shauna mentioned was: Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing by Harry Noden. You can also find some good teaching strategies at the companion website: http://www3.uakron.edu/noden/.
So many great ideas and possible discussions generated from this one activity. Thanks, Shauna!
You can also use a video called Everyday Creativity with Dewitt Jones to illustrate this concept. Jones is a professional photographer and in this video, talks about how beauty can be found not only by zooming in on a particular detail, but also in zooming out for the big picture.
The video is expensive to buy and sometimes difficult to find, but at Jones' website is an introductory video clip that has the exact part of the video that you would need. The website is found at: http://www.dewittjones.com/ Click on 'Watch Dewitt Now'.
We then did the following activity:
Zoom activity
1. Have students write a description of their bedroom. Tell them they will have about 5-7 minutes to write but that is the only instruction they will receive.
Here is my writing:
Fortunately, I just cleaned my room a couple of days ago, so I won't have to describe the dog goobers on the wall or the unmade bed. Instead, I will describe the rustic bedspread patterned with black bears and pine trees, the freshly vacuumed speckled brown carpet, the family portraits hanging (slightly eschew) on the wall. Just recently I re-painted the room, transforming the white walls to a three-tone, earthy palette of sandstone, cream, and off-white. However, I do need to admit that we haven't purchased blinds yet, so currently the windows are accessorized with what I call 'Redneck's Glad`e'.
2. Zoom in. Have students draw a line under what they have written and zoom in closer. Have them picture themselves standing in the middle of the room facing just one wall. Have them extend their writing by describing what they can see from that perspective.
Here is my writing:
The wall is split in two halves by an off-white chair rail. The bottom of the wall is suede (or at least attempted suede), and the top is a cream color. It makes me think of staring really hard at the mid-section of an old cowboy wearing a cream, long-sleeve shirt and worn, leather chaps. On the wall hang two family pictures one with dad and baby, and one with mom and baby. Looking around, you could probably guess that there is one loved baby in the house.
3. Have them draw a line and now zoom in on one object that is on that one wall. Have them write again with a description from this new perspective.
My writing:
A father's day gift-the portrait hangs (slightly crooked) on the wall. A chestnut frame wraps around the collage of two pictures. In one is a picture of my two boys-my husband, looking dignified and handsome in his black suit and red tie, holding my three month-old, also looking adorable and handsome in his pin-stripe vest, green shirt, and tie. My son is a miniature version of his father with twinkling eyes and that same mischievous smile.
Discuss with students how their writing changed as they changed their perspective. Also discuss what things stayed the same. You could also discuss when being aware of your reader and his/her perspective and when it is good to get closer and examine details in writing and when it is better to step back and see the big picture.
Some of my thoughts after doing this activity:
It was interesting to see how my focus changed from each perspective. In the first writing, I was really just thinking about how messy my room is typically. In the second writing, I was focusing on imagery and how I wanted my walls to look western and rugged when I painted them. In the third writing, I was focused on my family and my love for them. I think that this would be a great activity for generating ideas, for writing a memoir, and for examining writer's craft.
When I used to teach my students Ideas and Content and, more specifically, having a main idea and then blowing it up with detail, I used a Where's Waldo picture. I would put the picture on an overhead and tell the students to write about what they see. After writing for a few minutes, we would discuss how difficult (and boring) it was to write about everything. Then I would put a paper with a small hole cut-out over the picture and again tell them to write about it. Maybe they would only be able to see a dog riding a bike and juggling. They could then expand on that image and come up with creative scenarios. We would then discuss how when we write about something, we don't want to write everything. We want to find what is most important and really focus on bringing that to life in our writing using sensory details.
I always liked having my students write a memoir at the beginning of the school year. I liked that I could read these memoirs and get to know my students a little better, and I liked that writing about one's self and examining one's life is something most of them will use through out their lives. However, many times their memoirs were so boring! Often, I received 'What I did over summer vacation' and travel logs. I often gave them the quote about how the reader doesn't want to hear about every ride in Disneyland but if one the rides broke down or someone got sick on one of the rides, that is worth hearing about. But some of them still never got it. I think this zooming in and zooming out activity could really help students figure out what they really want to write about. What made that memory stand out in their minds? What made it memorable and worth writing about?
You could also use this activity for further discussions about writer's craft. For example, I don't like the book Eragon very much. I know, I know, there are probably Eragonites hunting me down right now for saying such a thing. The story was fine but there was too much detail. I remember one scene where the characters were about to enter a room through a door. I swear there were two or three pages just describing the door, and the whole time I was shouting in my head, "Just walk through that door, for crying out loud!" I felt like the plot got bogged down in details. Another example might be the unabridged version of Les Miserables. A chapter on the sewer system? Really?
But there are times when the reader needs the details. I want to be sitting at that campfire with the characters. I want to feel its heat and hear the crackle and snap of the wood burning. I want to choke a little on the smoke and have to move to the side to get away from it. But only if it that scene is important enough that I be there with the characters. I think of really good scary stories. Many times, a scary story won't give you all the details of the 'monster'. The writer knows that we all have monsters in our minds and that the details the reader will supply from his/her own imagination is far scarier than anything you could describe as a writer. This is where many of the gore movies go wrong in trying to produce horror--too many (often cheesy) details.
Another great resource that Shauna mentioned was: Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing by Harry Noden. You can also find some good teaching strategies at the companion website: http://www3.uakron.edu/noden/.
So many great ideas and possible discussions generated from this one activity. Thanks, Shauna!
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