Entry 7: Let's Make Our Students Writing Come Alive (Through Descriptive Writing)!

For this open entry, I am combining my future students (who in this case we will say are First Graders) and my Teaching Genre Presentation topic. I have come to feel extremely passionate about the descriptive writing genre! It seems self-explanatory in some senses, how this genre "involves using words to paint a memorable picture and evoke a distinctive mood" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 136). That descriptive writing is all about well... being descriptive. Which is very true! Yet, what is meant when we say to be descriptive with our writing? Why exactly is it important for educators, for myself, to teach my future students this genre? First of all, when we write in a way that has to engage the reader since the writer is not providing all the answers up front, this creates a sense of satisfaction. If our writing happens "To let go of that auditory image, to miss the repetition of that sound, is to miss some of the drama of the scene and, symbolically, to miss the... [writing] need" (Bomer, 2006, p. 527). Think of the last time you read a piece of work, especially a story. Each character had a distinctive voice and tone. Based on this auditory image as Bomer describes, we are able to gain information and build upon our understanding of a text. That is why we love certain characters so much, because we feel the weight and status of their place within the page! This ties into how Tompkins is a strong advocate of "Writers us[ing] description to create vivid, multisensory word pictures... [being] attentive" to their word choices (Tompkins, 2012, p. 136). I foresee telling my students to be attentive to their word choice to not go over very well. Not only because they are (in this case) first graders, but rather I have to make a point about what exactly I mean. In fact, I feel that the power of understanding why descriptive writing is important for readers AND writers, is to tell students how much clearer (and concise) ideas become. This can be demonstrated in reading aloud different passages or sentences that share the same idea, and to highlight to students how the more descriptive sentence pins point the exact time, location, and emotions. Creating for students "visualizations of the story world" (Parsons, 2006, p. 493). I find the reason we are often so drawn to books, is because they relate our experiences and our hopes. They confirm what we know and fill in what we wished we had the ability to do and drive us to go after those wishes when we feel the desire hit us. Hence, why tell students they should read or write because it is good for them? We should be telling them not only these true facts, but the reasons behind why we read rich sentences and why readers write in such thought provoking manners. 

 References

Bomer, R. 2006. Reading with the mind’s ear: Listening to text as mental action. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(6), 524-535.

Parsons, Linda T. 2006. Visualizing worlds from words on a page. Language Arts; Urbana, 83(6), 492-500.