Use Roald Dahl Books to Teach Writing
Improving Descriptive Writing Using Award Winning Authors
Nov 1, 2009
Motivating students to write descriptively is a difficult task for many elementary teachers. Student writing is often underdeveloped and uninteresting, relying only on simple words and phrases such as "he was scared", "the witch was ugly" or "I felt bad". Sometimes students don't understand what it means to develop an idea or to describe a character or setting fully. Using quality children's literature by authors such as Roald Dahl is a highly engaging means of demonstrating for students how to effectively describe settings, develop characters and write more effectively.
Setting the Scene with Fantastic Mr. Fox
Roald Dahl's book, Fantastic Mr. Fox, [Bantam Books, 1970] provides a number of examples that demonstrate how to describe the setting of a story. In the chapter titled "The Shooting", Dahl, portrays a night time scene as Mr. Fox ventures out of his hole:
"He was almost right out in the open now. He took a last careful look around. The woods were murky and very still. Somewhere in the sky the moon was shining." (Dahl, 1970, p.9-10)
In just a few simple sentences consisting of words most students know, Dahl paints the scene of a dark, still night. He effectively sets the stage for following events and provides the necessary detail for the reader to be able to picture the scene mentally. Reading this passage aloud to young writers illustrates concretely how to describe a setting. Students can easily achieve this level of writing when presented with numerous examples like this.
Later, in the same book, Dahl, describes the foxes hole after the farmers have been digging overnight:
"They had dug a hole so deep you could have put a house into it. But they had not yet come to the end of the fox's tunnel." (1970, p. 18)
Using examples combined with short exercises challenging the students to try the same strategy in their own writing helps beginning writers focus on the specific aspect of writing. Teachers can reduce the scope of the assignment by encouraging students to write several sentences describing a hole, or a night instead of an entire story.
Teachers must provide a variety of examples from literature as well as from other students' writings so students come up with their own ideas instead of relying on too closely on the author's words. For beginning writers or English language learners, using a sentence frame such as "They had dug a hole so ____________ you could have ______________." provides a starting point for effective writing. As students become more skilled with language, with writing, and more confident in their own writing ability, the use of such sentence frames becomes unnecessary.
The Twits Help Teach How To Describe Characters
Dahl's book, The Twits [Puffin Book, 1980], is loaded with descriptive writing that creates vivid imagery for the reader. Students relate to the conversational style of this writing and readily make connections with the descriptions of hairy faces, Mr. and Mrs. Twit, dirty beards, and the other characters in this book.
"If you looked closer still (hold your noses, ladies and gentlemen), if you peered deep into the moustachy bristles sticking out over his upper lip, you would probably see much larger objects that had escaped the wipe of his hand, things that had been there for months and months..."(1980, p.7)
Using this passage (and the many others like it in this book) is especially effective if preceded by an assignment where the students have to view a picture of a man with a dirty beard and write a brief description of the picture. After students have written their descriptions, the teacher can solicit volunteers to share their efforts with classmates. Reading aloud Dahl's description of Mr. Twit's dirty beard after students have had an attempt to work on their own descriptions helps students compare their own work to an excellent model.
An Example of A Mini Lesson using Roald Dahl's, The Twits
To flesh these concepts out further, here is what one such mini lesson might look like using Roald Dahl's book, The Twits, as a model.
- Display or project an image of a man with a dirty beard. Discuss the picture with the students having them note details they see in the picture.
- Have students write a paragraph describing what they see.
- Invite volunteers to share their writing. Refrain from evaluating at this point but encourage all efforts and note where children are especially strong in their writing.
- Read the chapter "Dirty Beards" (1980, pp. 5-7) aloud to the students. Encourage them in advance to listen for interesting words and descriptive phrases that help them picture Mr. Twit in their minds.
- Discuss students' reactions to the passage. What were the key words and phrases that were helpful to them in imagining what Mr. Twit must look like. What words did they especially like. What words didn't they know.
- List interesting words Dahl used on a chart in class.
- Brainstorm other words that could be used. (Using a thesarus to come up with ideas is another complete lesson that can be done to help children improve the word choice in their writing.)
- Assign students the task of re-writing their paragraphs so that they get the emotional response from their readers/listeners that Dahl elicits from his. This last activity could be done with students working together in pairs to help each other revise.
Choosing examples students connect with and which provide good writing models for children can help ignite the imagination of the young writer. Showing students how other authors have described the place of the story or the characters in the story, having students attempt to model the writing after the author and discussing and sharing the results in class, are valuable strategies for inspiring children to elaborate more in their writing.
Sources:
Dahl, Roald. Fantastic Mr. Fox. New York: Bantam Books, 1970.
Dahl, Roald. The Twits. New York: Puffin Books, 1980.
 |
