Writing like the Pros

Society writer for St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press, 1941.

Sports writer for the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press, 1942.

Teaching the Lesson

Introduction

Pulling it all together!

Tape collages around the room, grouping them by decade. Give students a few minutes to walk around the room and look more closely at the collages. What are the main events, or images that stand out?

Procedure

• Interview Review

Break students into pairs to discuss notes from the interview that they conducted during Lesson 2. Ask students, "After looking at your collages and thinking about the interview, can you find any common words, events or descriptive language in the interviews and collages?"

How does the interview relate one person’s experiences to the historic events that they’ve studied? Use the venn diagrams from Lesson 2 to remind students of "social history" and links between individuals and events. Ask students to work in pairs to find one example of a historic event in their interview notes. Write responses on the board.

• Analyzing Story Structure

Tell students that they will be converting their interview from Lesson 2 into an historic narrative like the ones that they've read during previous lessons. Distribute the "Historic Narrative Writing Assignment and Story Organizer Checklist to students. Ask students to work in pairs to analyze the James Becker Story Excerpt that they read during Lesson 2. Students should notice that the checklist is similar to the Reading Guide from Lesson 1. Are all of the narrative writing components included in the Becker story?

• Writing like the Pros

Students should have class time to begin drafting an historic narrative with the help of these handouts and each other, if desired. Remind students that their stories should include all of the components listed on the Story Organizer Checklist, and it can/will be used as a basis for grading the completed assignment. Note: Students may ask about what 'voice' to write this story in—it should be written in third person, "she/he" descriptive voice, rather than from the 'first person' perspective as in the sample historical narratives.

• Optional Activity

On completing a narrative draft, students may work in pairs to offer each other editorial comments for another draft.

Evaluation

Use the Story Organizer Checklist as a rubric to check that the narratives are complete and coherent. Teacher and/or students may work together to choose the best-written piece. The best story (or stories) may be submitted to the Share Your Story website, if desired. Please have the interview subject read and edit the completed story before submitting it to the website. The student will have to open an account on the website, and should identify him/herself as the story subject's interviewer. You can send a release form with the story to the website's editor, Linda Cameron, c/o The Minnesota Historical Society, 345 Kellogg Boulevard West, Saint Paul, MN 55102.

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