Why Literature Matters

Activities

This unit is intended to be completed throughout the course of one year. Teachers can use discretion when doing activities. Depending on the skill set of the students taught, additional scaffolds should be considered, as well as enrichment of the activities below.

Activity 1: What’s Your Craft?

Learning Objective

Students will be able to define what author’s craft means.

Criteria

Students create one craft collage

Procedure

Start the lesson by sharing background about Sharon Flake. Show the three novels and ask students if they have an idea what the books are about. Afterwards, write the word CRAFT on the board, chart paper, or some other visual space. Distribute construction paper or cardstock and ask students to write the word CRAFT in the middle of their space. Ask students to return to a general meeting space to discuss the word on the board. Have students share what they believe the word means in general. Take the lesson further by asking what craft means in various contexts: Art, Physical Education, Math, and English Language Arts. Write some responses on the space surrounding the word CRAFT. After taking the pulse of students’ ideas regarding craft, provide students with the definition of author’s craft. After providing the definition, ask students if the words they have shared come close to what author’s craft means. Ask students to eliminate words that are not associated with author’s craft. After narrowing the list down, ask students to think about their own style of writing. Provide students with magazine clippings and have them return to their seats to cut out images that reflect their writing craft. If students are having difficulty determining their craft, let them know that it is alright for their slate to be clean and that they can add images throughout the progression of the author study.

Activity 2: I Can’t Hear You!

Learning Objective

Students will be able to write using an audible craft technique called repetition.

Criteria

Students will choose a section from the three novels: The Skin I’m In, Money Hungry or Begging for Change as a model to imitate that style of repetition. Afterwards, students write a narrative that is a paragraph or a page and has at least five repetitions of a noticeable word.¹⁷ The word can be a noun, adjective or verb.

Procedure

Choose a section in one of the three novels that showcases Flake’s use of repetition. Here is an example from The Skin I’m In which speaks of a time when the teacher is not in the direct presence of the students:

When she’s far enough away, John-John says to me, “I don’t see no pretty, just a whole lot of black.” Before I can punch him good, he’s singing a rap song.

“Maleeka, Maleeka—ba-boom, boom, boom, we sure wanna keep her,  baboom, boom, boom, but she so black, baboom, boom, boom, we just can’t see her.”¹⁸

Write this on chart paper, chalkboard, or someplace visible for students. Ask students to point out where they find repetition of a noun, verb, or adjective. Engage students futher by asking questions like: What is the author trying to emphasize here? Why did the author choose to repeat certain words and not others? What impact does this repetition have on the character(s) as the plot unfolds? After discussing these questions, encourage students to choose a section from the book to mimic in terms of the style of repetition presented. The students can write about any particular topic. If students are having difficulty providing scaffolds may be necessary. Scaffolds may include: sample excerpts in which repetition is evident, and students can choose one from a pile, also giving students an opportunity to select certain topics from a different pile. Depending on the audience of learners, consider the gradual release method which gives students the opportunity to see examples of the product before being “released,” to perform on their own. It includes three steps: I Do, We Do, You Do. First, the teacher demonstrates, and then students try as a class (as with the whole group finding areas in which repetition is used in the sample excerpt from The Skin I’m In), and finally, the student completes the task on his or her own.

Activity 3: Can You Repeat That?

Learning Objective

Students will be able to write using an audible craft technique called repetition.

Criteria

Students will choose two sections from two of the three novels: The Skin I’m In, Money Hungry, or Begging for Change as models to imitate their style in terms of repetition of structure. The “structural repetition is the similarity of the events in a story: happenings that echo one another.”¹⁹

Procedure

Choose two sections from two of the three novels that showcase Flake’s use of repetition of structure. Encourage students to think of the dilemma that the main characters face in The Skin I’m In and Money Hungry. Ask students to identify how the events are a repetition. For example, in Steering the Craft, Le Guin highlights Jane Eyre as a prime example of structural repetition. In Jane Eyre, Jane is bullied as a young girl, and then gains the courage to fight back, yet is ostracized for it—similarly, when Jane gets older she goes through some similar hurdles and must once again become heroic.²⁰ Ask for students to think of examples in movies, other books, or in their lives in which this structural repetition has occurred. When students have discovered the mirrored events, they should link up with other students to try to figure out one another’s events. After students get the hang of the exercise, students will write a short narrative about a time in their lives that structural repetition is appropriate to describe what has occurred in their lives. This narrative account could be fact-based or fictional. 

Activity 4: Take It Further—A Culminating Project, Finding Your Craft

Learning Objective

After reading the three novels by Sharon Flake: The Skin I’m In, Money Hungry and Begging for Change, students will be able to write using one of the craft techniques that the author used the most effectively, i.e.: repetition, figurative language, voice or descriptive language.

Criteria

Students will write a fictional narrative using one of the craft techniques that the author used most effectively. Students may choose one of the following craft techniques: voice, point of view, descriptive language, repetition or figurative language. Five or more occurrences of the technique are recommended. The narrative should be three to five pages.

Procedure

This activity should be mentioned to students at the beginning of the author study. Explain to students that close examination of the author’s technique will be reviewed throughout all three novels. During a group discussion, after reading all three novels (although discussion of the author’s craft should be evident throughout the entire author study), ask students to point out various occurrences in which the author mastered a certain technique in all three novels. This may take some time. Students may reflect at their seats and come up with at least three examples before sharing. After discussion, ask students to write a written explanation stating why the author’s use of voice, point of view, descriptive language, repetition or figurative language was the most effective. Once students have determined the technique that they want to use, ask them to come up with a fictional story that will use the technique they found the most successful.  Use the writer’s workshop model to lead students through this process.