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I walked into McDonald’s and there were people everywhere. Use a colored pencil and highlight all the emotion words in your paper. Weird Excited Scared Angry Happy Hurt etc. Zooming. I walked into McDonald’s and there were people everywhere.
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Use a colored pencil and highlight all the emotion words in your paper • Weird • Excited • Scared • Angry • Happy • Hurt • etc
I walked into McDonald’s and there were people everywhere • What did they look like? • What were they wearing? • What were they doing? • What did it smell like? • What was the air like? • What was the taste in your mouth?
I walked into McDonald’s and there were people everywhere The workmen leaned on the stainless steel counters, bellies bursting out of stained T-shirts. An old man in the corner held an aluminum cane in one hand and a rolled-up newspaper in the other. He swatted at flies as the workers scurried behind the counters, stuffing bags with greasy burgers, rushing to the beeping Frialators to scoop the golden greasy potato sticks, slinging steaming robot food into cardboard trays and papers bags. The smell of sizzling fat hung in the air and I could taste, swallow and digest that hamburger before the young girl could say, “Have a nice day.”
As a class • List details that would make the blurry sentence below come alive. Remember, keep zooming in on the specific details. Polka dots is a nice detail, but pink-and-purple pear-shaped polka dots is even better. • He/She liked crazy clothes
Partner work: Blurry to detailed • Choose one of the sentences below and make it come alive with specific details • I have a dragon • Mr. Jones had a bizarre way of punishing his students
Partner work: Blurry to detailed • Choose one of the sentences below and make it come alive with specific details • It was a more awesome planet for kids than earth • Americans care more about freedom than safety
Partner work: Blurry to detailed • Choose one of the sentences below and make it come alive with specific details • He/she was a disgusting eater • Neil was getting the feeling all night that Elizabeth may not be interested in a second date
Write small • Writing gets beautiful when it gets specific. It gets funny too. Author Ralph Fletcher teaches us to write small, to zoom in on the little things, especially when big issues are at stake. Don’t write about your fear of airplanes, write about the flight attendant pulling the yellow oxygen mask over her bored face and instructing all the breathe normally. Thinking small is a way of thinking that helps us write more distinctly.
On your own • For each of these big ideas, find a specific image or object that gets to the idea without explaining it. • Birthday parties are fun • School dances are strange
Now, for your own paper • Find those emotion words and idea words • On your loose leaf paper, brainstorm ways you could use specific, small images to convey that emotion.