NCTE17 panel: How'd You Do That - Authors share revision strategies that student writers can use, too

1. How’d You Do That?
Authors share revision strategies
that student writers can use, too
Tracey Baptiste
Kate Messner
Linda Urban
Loree Griffin Burns
Sarah Albee
Laurel Snyder

2. Tracey Baptiste
www.traceybaptiste.com

3. 1.Binder/Folder
2.3-hole punched paper
3.3-hole punched lined paper
4.Sticky notes

4. 1. EDIT LETTER
2. NOTES/RESEARCH
3. MANUSCRIPT
4. LINED PAPER
5. STICKY NOTES

5. Notes/Research

6. Sticky Notes

7. More Notes/Research

8. Tracker

9. Rewrites

11. Signing
Saturday 11am
@Workman booth
#637

12. Kate Messner

24. Kate Messner

25. Linda Urban
@lindaurbanbooks
www.lindaurbanbooks.com

31. Linda Urban
www.lindaurbanbooks.com
Signing Today!
5pm
HMH Booth # 704

32. Loree Griffin Burns
www.loreeburns.com
@LoreeGBurns

33. By Eric Kilby from Somerville, MA, USA - Boston Harbor Fireworks – Composite, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44425848

39. © Ellen Harasimowicz

41. Sarah Albee
www.sarahalbeebooks.com

42. Tools in the Toolbox:
Adding ZING to your Writing Voice
• rule of three
• misdirection/reversal
• rhythm and sound
• revisit the verbs
• cool comparisons
– Simile/Metaphor

43. Rule of Three
I can't think of anything worse after a night of drinking than
waking up next to someone and not being able to remember
their name, or how you met, or why they're dead.
--Laura Kightlinger

44. Misdirection/Reversal
Murders were common, punishments severe, and swashbuckling
adventurers risked life and limb for their queen—all while wearing
perfume, makeup, and high heels.
I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my
neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them
and took their land.
- John Stewart

45. Important things happen in the fall.
Going back to school.
The World Series.
HALLOWEEN!
It’s also election time, when we choose people to
run our cities and states. Then, every four years, we
elect someone to lead the whole country:
The president of the United States!
Rhythm: Line Length

46. • Trochee: Sarah Albee; cellar window
• Iamb: behold; awake; To be, or not to be.
• Dactyl: merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily;
Indianapolis
• Spondee: black hole; bright star; drop dead
• Anapest: understand; get a life; giant squid
Rhythm and Sound
• Trochee: Sarah Albee; cellar window
• Iamb: behold; awake; To be, or not to be.
• Dactyl: merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily;
Indianapolis
• Spondee: black hole; bright star; drop dead
• Anapest: understand; get a life; giant squid

47. Rhythm [Anapest]:
“The bleedin’ boy’s got bloody snakes
in the ruddy tub!”
Rhythm [Spondee]:
Drop-Dead Gorgeous

48. The Wretched Renaissance
Bears and Goats and Antidotes
The Age of Shovelry
Twentieth Century Pox
It’s all Fun and Games until Someone Loses an Isle
Make New Friends But Keep the Gold
No Dog, No!
Padded Bros
Caulk Like an Egyptian
No Bane, No Gain
Rest in Pieces
New World Disorder
Alliteration/Cliches

49. Vivid, Unconventional Verbs
If you can machete through the
lingo and obfuscated writing, you
will find an extraordinary body of
work.
--Mary Roach, Bonk

50. All the waste was thrown into the
river.
Residents dumped, poured, and
heaved everything into the river.
Poisonous gases rose from the
surface of the river.
Poisonous gases burbled and
popped on the greasy, oozy
surface.
Vivid, Unconventional Verbs

51. In the depths of the ocean lives a
sea creature as big as a bus, with
eyes the size of soccer balls and a
beak sharp enough to rip and shred
the skin of a sperm whale.
--Candace
Fleming
Cool Comparisons
(Simile/Metaphor)

52. When people examined his body, they
found Becket’s clothes to be full of
fleas and lice. The dead man’s robes
boiled over with them like water in a
simmering cauldron.
When people examined his body, they
found Becket’s clothes to be full of
fleas and lice. The dead man’s robes
were swarming with bugs.
Simile/Metaphor

53. Laurel Snyder

54. ______ APPLE IN THE
______
The single smartest thing I’ve ever done as a writer… is to
think small.

55. red bowl
_____ APPLE IN THE
______
Often, students have been trained to search for the right
answer.
So they default to what feels “right.”

56. _____ APPLE IN THE
_______________
bruised bottom of my backpack.
Rather than what feels true to them.

57. Or
interesting/creative/compelling/funny/evocative/persuasive...
____ APPLE IN THE
____________
Lonely land of
bananas

58. Some tricks! (for avoiding defaults)
1. Play before you work: try using the “apple” exercise as a model. The trick to this is TIME.
Students are so often accustomed to racing. If you want them to really internalize this exercise, you
need to give them more time than they actually need.
2. Get small: Instead of having students revise a paper or story, have them start with a sentence or
paragraph. Again, ample time is key.
3. Make your own mad libs: Have students replace a single element in their work. Trying adjectives
or nouns. Have them use a thesaurus, or swap papers with each other, and fill in another student’s
blanks.
4. (related to that) Collaboration: We all read differently. If you aren’t already introducing “writers’
workshop” to the class, give it a whirl. Encourage students to think of these not as corrections, but
as partnerships.
5. Revise backwards: After we write, our minds will continue to default to what we’ve written (or what
we think we’ve written). Sometimes, reading a paper or story backwards can shatter that, and get us
reading our own work more clearly.
6. Shift your POV: Students are often used to writing personal narratives in first person, and
everything else in third. Change that up, and have them try writing about their weekend in third
person, or writing about a historical figure in first.

59. 7. When all else fails, stop writing: Sometimes, the best way to write is actually to talk or sing
or play. Try having students dictate and transcribe their thoughts, or go outside and “play” the
story or character or argument they’re attempting to craft.
8. SIlence is golden: Meditation is a really critical part of the writing process for many people,
and so often, with the time limitations of the school day, we have to skip it when we teach. I
know silence can be impossible in a classroom of active students (some of whom simply
CANNOT be quiet or still), but if you can, try building silence into writing time (or homework).
Take students outside to sit alone and JUST THINK for a while. The experience of trying to hold
onto their thoughts until they can get them onto the paper might be useful for some.
9. Sentence structure: One way we all default is in the patterns of our speech, and this has as
much to do with how we put our words together as with which words we choose. Have students
read through their own work and hunt for sentences that use the same basic construction. (in
exposition, this will typically be Subject-Verb-Direct object. Once they’re done, see if they can
find another way to say the same thing, not by replacing vocabulary, but by rearranging the
elements.

60. Last, but not least… don’t be afraid of poetry!
On the “Poetry Toolbox” handout, you’ll find a lot of terms you probably already know, but might not
always think about in relation to daily student work. In fact, these are all devices/tools a student might
use by accident, in attempting to write a story or essay. But sometimes, when that isn’t happening, having
a list like this can help young writers realize that their natural/default way of saying something isn’t the
only (or always the best) way to say it.
When students get stuck with a revision, I highly recommend revisiting this list, and considering if there
might not be a better, more artful choice. Encourage students to try adding just a single “poetic” element
to each page or paragraph.
I know that these terms can feel very academic, and sometimes intimidating to kids. You don’t have to
introduce them THIS way, using the formal names for the terms, but the tools themselves are actually
pretty natural. Goodnight, Moon uses at least five of them. (personification, alliteration, repetition,
meter, rhyme, and probably more) When your students are writing at their best, THEY are using these
tools, whether they know it or not.

62. Sarah Albee Book Signing
Saturday, 3 - 3:45 pm
Random House booth #626

63. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Booth #704
Friday, November 17
5-6pm
Loree Griffin Burns & Linda Urban
#NCTE17

64. Laurel Snyder signings at NCTE
Friday, 12-12:45
THE FOREVER GARDEN
Random House (booth #626
Friday, 4-4:30
ORPHAN ISLAND
Harper Collins (booth #206)
Saturday, 10:30-11:30
CHARLIE & MOUSE/
C & M & GRUMPY
Chronicle (booth #709)
Saturday, 2-3
THE KING OF TOO MANY THINGS
Rodale (booth #219)