On Tuesdays, Two Writing Teachers hosts the Slice of Life. Everyone is welcome to share writing and comment on others in this special community.
During the two weeks of the Olympics, I'm a fan. Therefore, I was pretty excited when one of the students I tutor suggested wanting to write about some Olympic moments. How hard could that be?
I gathered up some clips, and I started giving it a go. What I realized quickly was that capturing a moment in an athlete's life was tricky, especially when I didn't really know some of the key vocabulary. I started with a more complex skiing run, and dialed myself back to the more manageable ski jump, and I decided to write about Paige Jones. In full disclosure, I had to pause the video several times to zoom in on her form and body positioning. I also had to do some on-the-fly (pun intended) research to give some background information about her.
A group of us have been Zoom-meeting on Thursday evenings in the spirit of being teachers who write. (All are welcome, and if this is something that interests you, send me an email or mention it in the comments. meehanmelanie@gmail.com) I was the "leader" last week, so I gave Olympic writing as an option, and we all agreed that it was hard to do, and great practice for close reading, careful word selection, and expanding a small moment. Anita, Giovanna, and Ana have generously agreed to share their samples.
So maybe my morning slice will inspire you to bring some Olympic moments into your classroom. If you do, I'd love to hear how it goes!
Great idea and challenge! I might try this in March… I recently wrote about a Blues concert and similarly found it so challenging to try to write about music, as you did about sport. What great practice and stretching (pun intended!)
ReplyDeleteHello old friend!
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a bit since I found these pages again. So good to see your words.
I love the idea ti write about Olympians! What meaningful informational writing work. And that a student suggested it. And that it was challenging. Spectacular!
Julieanne Harmatz
Melanie, this really is a great idea for spurring along some of our writers, particularly those who are into the Winter Olympic sports! I was thinking about this when I started a conversation from Italian speedskater Betti about Arianna Fontana's age, saying, "I don't think I will get to her age. I'm already tired" We could probably all write about how old is too old to be in the Olympics or even speedskate!
ReplyDeleteThat was a lot of fun. I look forward to more Thursday writing!
ReplyDelete