The Promise

Before we started reading the "The Promise,"

we listened to each piece of writing you'd done throughout the last week, writing that focused on the connections you'd made to the text.

Well. Wow. Speechless. 

Such good writing. 

I hope you find it in you to post your writing here!

Cody, you wrote about a scene: the first time Jody sees Gitano's rapier on his lap. It reminded you of the first time you saw your dad holding his machete. I asked you how seeing your dad and that machete affected how you "saw" your dad. You said, "I realized that we could be like the villagers in Costa Rica now; that it would be the key to being more like them." 

Ellie, you wrote about irony and character: Gitano's quiet refusal to ask for food at the farmhouse table. He waits, instead, for food to be passed to him. You said you thought it was ironic because Carl thought he was being the powerful one, but really it was Gitano, in his quiet way. We talked about when in your life you might have used a quiet power to, well, overpower someone. 

You are going to think about it.

Logan, you wrote about character and theme: Jody's connection to his horse and your connection to Rubicon. See the fabulous entry below. We talked a bit about how getting older makes you see new things in routine or old experiences.

Eleanore, you wrote about theme: the intersection of life and death at the spring above the farmhouse. You did a great job of chronicling your own experience with life and death's intersections. When you finished, Logan, you exhaled, "It's so true!" 

...So we talked about life and death. 

Lots of different personal stories. 

And yes, when we look at it, 

life and death happen together all the time. 

Only as we grow older do we see that truth and how it affects us.

 

THEN...

We marveled at the master, Steinbeck.

A few of us even admitted 

we'd give our two front teeth to write like him.

We read the reason he won the Nobel Prize for Literature: 

"for his realistic and imaginative writings, 

combining as they do sympathetic humour 

and keen social perception." 

THEN...

We opened the book to "The Promise," read the first page and a half about Jody's walk home from school and saw firsthand why

 Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for the reason above.

Then you all went on your own walk to try your hand at writing about a simple walk like Steinbeck can. 

 You carried a pencil and your notebook. 

Cody's first sentence:

"In early morning, on the first day of fall, with a chilly wind, the crab apples had started to fall off the lush green trees into the dry yellow grass." 

Here Cody is writing more and more and more!

Eleanore's first sentence:

"A sleek little city car whizzed by and I thought, 'Slow down! Kids live on this street!' I glared at its proud tail lights."

She wrote more here and switched some sentences around and we all counted her s-sounds! 

Logan's first sentence:

"On a crisp fall morning, the sun gleaming on my neck, the old worn down light post groaning as if he were about to fall down, everything was silent except for the faint roaring of the river and the quick clapping of my flip-flops." 

We just had to hear that again...read it again!

He questioned his tenses 

(all writers question themselves as they read!)

and still we loved it so much!

Ellie's first sentence: 

"I walk along the street, kicking rocks and trampling wood chips and dodging tall flowers by ducking."

Love all the edges to those words! 

Talk about "hard" writing! So great! 

Like a handful of pebbles that writing. No fluff anywhere!

Look closely...down the street...there she is, twirling!

Busy at work writing about her walk/twirl.

Thank you all for such a great day...again.

What writers you are. 

I love hearing the words you write as you read them...

and the thoughts you think as you think them!

Assignment:

1. Work on your "Walk" piece.

2.  Try writing 10 or 15 minutes every day.

Try it. 

3.  Re-read the walk section 

up to the part I said would make you laugh. 

Stop after Mrs. Tiflin opens the lunch box.

 

4. Post your writing on the blog before Thursday!

We want to read you! 

Carolyn