Mimicking A Sentence Pattern

OBJECTIVE
Students will remain focused on one writing idea in order to expand their ability to create viable writing topics.

5-minute silent read
“The Book of Memory, Book Thirteen” by Paul Auster
Think About It: What might have inspired the writer to write this passage after his father passed away?

TOOLS YOU'LL BE USING

• What were the effects of repetition in “The Book of Memory, Book of Thirteen” (“He remembers…”)?
• As a reader, what are the differences between third person and first person narration?

YOUR ZOOM IN
Step 1 Create a new page in “Writing Explorations” of your Writers Notebook called
“Zooming In on a Moment”
Step 2 Zoom in on a moment from your "He/She Remembers" "I Remember" piece.
Step 3 Ask yourself Why does Auster use he instead of I for his list of memories?

Can You Borrow the Writing Technique Correctly?

from “The Book of Memory, Book Thirteen”, Paul Auster

First-Person Narrative

• Make a new entry in the Writing Explorations section of your Writer’s Notebook: “I Remember: Mimicking Paul Auster”
• Start writing an “I Remember…” of your own. You have only 10 minutes.
• If you have trouble starting, turn to previous entries in your Writers Explorations section and your Sentence Explorations section.
• When you finish writing, re-read your writing for spelling and punctuation.
• First-person pronouns: I, we, us, our
  

Example: I remember a hospital bed and the doctor’s empty timelines. I remember my grandma’s pallid face and her lonely pinky wrapped in white gauze. I remember my granddaddy asking me to make a trip down the long, dusty graveled road for Grey Goose and cigarettes. I remember the thick laughter that followed, slow as dough kneaded by my mother’s hands.

Second-Person Narrative

• What is a Third-Person narrative?
• Turn to your Glossary of Literary Terms on page 171.
• Third-person narrative: The participants in the narrative are distinct or separate from the person telling the story and the person who is reading it and who its being read to; perspective from the outside looking in; a story told as its happening to someone else.
• Third-person pronouns: she, he, her, his, their, they
  

Take the Style & Use It!

• Under your First-Person Narrative, skip two lines and write your First-Person narrative as a Third-Person Narrative.
• Start writing a “He Remembers…” OR “She Remembers…” of your own. You have only 7 minutes.
• When you finish: highlight or underline your favorite lines in both passages.

Example: She remembers a hospital bed and the doctor’s empty time lines. She remembers her grandma’s pallid face and her lonely pinky wrapped in white gauze. She remembers her granddaddy asking her to make a trip down the long, dusty graveled road for Grey Goose and cigarettes. She remembers the thick laughter that followed, slow as dough kneaded by her mother’s hands.

MIMICKING A SENTENCE PATTERN
Zoom In Strategy (Read Aloud/Think Aloud)

• Is there a memory that may be a candidate for more writing?
• Return and reread the Passage
• Select a line where I have more to write because the memory is such a strong “photograph” in my mind.

Wide Angle: She remembers the thick laughter that followed, slow as dough kneaded by her mother’s hands.

Zoom In: She remembers her grandma’s voice like summer rain waking her from a deep slumber. She remembers climbing out of bed as the red fleece blanket slides slowly to the floor. She remembers her toes hitting the ice cold of the floor. She remembers her narrowed eyes twisting themselves into a smile as she listens to the conversations of adults in the kitchen. She remembers the smell of buttermilk biscuits wafting over her nose as the red Saturday morning sun rose its way into the breakfast sky.

SHARE OUT

• Read the class your favorite line. (5 min)
• What’s the difference between first-person and third-person?