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Ideas. This trait is the heart of the message. It is the central idea and the support for that idea. Building with the 6-Traits. Quote. “You must be a reader to be a writer.”. Look for Clarity. The message must be easily identified. Look for Focus.
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Ideas This trait is the heartof the message. It is the central idea and the support for that idea. Building with the 6-Traits
Quote “You must be a reader to be a writer.”
Look for Clarity • The message must be easily identified.
Look for Focus • The topic is narrowed down to a manageable size.
Look for Quality Details • Details are beyond the obvious or general. • The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative
Strong Example • Read Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
Where do you get your ideas? 30 Second Moments: • Graduating from K-State • Best friend Cassie having Baby Jaymond • 1st day of teaching 5th grade • Wrecking my 4-Wheeler • My trip to Italy • My trip to Germany • The time my brother gave me a haircut
Generating Ideas! • Grab Bag Activity • Writing Fix Memory Game
Pick Out the Heart of the Piece • “The Dogs” • “King of the Surf”
Describe Your Shoe • Focus on Intriguing Details • My shoe is very patriotic in style! When I run they look like a flag waving in the breeze. I love to wear them when I am shooting hoops on the basketball court. This high top red, white, and blue sneaker is flashy and eye catching!
Now it’s your turn! • On a piece of notebook paper: • Describe your shoe using as many intriguing details that you can think of! • Do not put your name on your paper
Showing vs. Telling • Telling simply states what happened • Showing gives a vivid picture. Creates distinct and colorful scenes in the reader’s mind without naming the precise scene. Showing makes it possible for the reader to identify with the writer. • To show, try writing like a camera. Just give us the scene without explaining the meaning • Choose a specific noun and add some image provoking adjectives.
Examples • Telling: My mother likes books. • Showing: I can often find my mother curled up in a chair in our living room reading a novel, the shelves behind her overflowing with classics, household guides, self-help manuals, and old college textbooks. • Telling: He was proud of his appearance. • Showing: He looked at himself in the mirror, ran a hand through his hair, and smiled.
Examples • Telling: It was a lovely day. • Showing: The sky was a deep, cloudless blue. Birdsongs drifted to me in the breeze. • Telling: She looked thoughtful. • Showing: As she studied the handout, she bit the tip of her pencil. • Telling: He was nervous. • Showing: His face was bright red and his hands shook.
Examples • Telling: The child spoke up boldly. • Showing: Molly's small but steady voice interrupted the adults' conversation. • Telling: The letter made her angry. • Showing: She tore the letter into tiny pieces. • Telling: Things were never easy between my father and me. • Showing: Every day, my father drove me home from track practice in silence.
Examples • Telling: Upon returning they discovered a bear had made a mess of the campsite. • Showing: When they reached their tents, they discovered their equipment strewn all over the clearing. Large tracks made chaotic patterns in the dirt. • Telling: It was hot. • Showing: My shirt stuck to my back. Sweat ran into my glasses.
Examples • Don’t just tell me your brother is talented… show me what he can do, and let me decide whether I’m impressed. To convince your readers, show, don’t just tell them what you want them to know. • There. I’ve just told you something. Pretty boring, huh? Now, let me show you. • My brother is talented. • There’s nothing informative, or engaging, or exciting about this sentence. You have no reason to believe or disbelieve me, and no reason to care. (TELLING is boring and unconvincing.)
Examples • My brother modifies sports car engines, competes in ballroom dance tournaments, and analyzes chess algorithms. • “Wow, that guy is talented,” you say to yourself. You didn’t need me to TELL you what you’re supposed to think, because I carefully chose those details. (They SHOW you the range of my brother’s talents.) • You won’t need to write a boring, uninformative and unpersuasive sentence like “Texting while driving is bad” if you can instead SHOW your point, through well-chosen details (such as statistics, specific examples, or personal stories) that SHOW in a persuasive way.
Examples • If you want to engage the reader’s heart, mind, and imagination, SHOW with vivid details that create, in your reader, the emotions you want to express. Rather than classify and list all the emotions that YOU felt, use specific details that give the READER a reason to feel those emotions. • I’ll never forget how I felt after Fido died. I was miserable. • Simply naming the feelings that you experienced (telling your reader what you felt) is not enough to create interest in the reader. Can you find a way to generate, in your reader, the same feelings that you experienced?
Examples • If I live for a thousand years, I’ll never forget how utterly and terribly alone I felt after Fido died. Months and months went by, and it seemed that every little thing reminded me of him. I don’t know whether I am ever going to get over his death. • While the author has added specific details, those details merely assist the telling – they don’t actually give the reader a reason to love Fido, and to suffer along with the writer.
Examples • Whenever puppies in the pet store window distracted me from our walk, Fido flattened his scruffy ears, growling. But he always forgave me. As his sight faded, the smell of fresh air and the feel of grass would make him try to caper. Eventually, at the sound of my voice, his tail thumped weakly on the ground. This morning, I filled his water bowl all the way to the top–just the way he likes it–before I remembered. • These carefully chosen details help us to understand the relationship between the pet and his owner.
Activity - Labeling showing and telling words. identify the telling words and then the showing words from the list. Highlight the telling words green and showing words yellow. • Good • Pretty • Boring • Ugly • Awful • Slow-moving • Curly • Lovely • Splotchy • Capable • Wild-eyed • Pug-nosed • Cautious • Respectable • Bumpy • Great • Unlikable • Sweaty • Adorable • Timid • Amazing • Looming • Obese • Mad • Rough • Wonderful • Upturned • Awesome • Bug-eyed’ • Horrible • Ragged • Purple • Right • Exciting • Leathery • Blue and white checked
Activity - Index Cards • identify tired overused telling words. (walk, said, nice, run, smile, laugh). For each of those words begin a list of showing words. • Write your showing words on a blank index card.
Drawing pictures to illustrate sentences. • Draw a picture to illustrate the following sentence: • The pretty woman had her picture taken.
Draw a picture! • Now draw a picture to illustrate this sentence: • The woman with the long black hair bright blue eyes wearing a rose evening gown and green high heels smiled into the camera. • Share and discuss your two pictures. • Precise showing language of the second sentence helps you all to see the same picture more clearly.
