Week 2: Using Revealing Details

Summary

Revealing details are specific details that uncover something more than they say at face value. They reveal something about the character, place, or idea they’re describing. It’s not about an abundance of details. It’s about being choosy with your details to imply something more than meets the eye. You should be sure that your young people grasp this distinction before moving forward.
Unsure where to start? Appeal to the five senses.
Avoid clichés, which are ideas that have been used so often they’ve lost their meaning.
For reference, check out Cure for IDK, pg. 42, 32, 38, 161.

Today’s goal

Use revealing details to describe a person or place (choose one to focus your lesson).

Start with an opening meeting!

Greet each other, Share how everyone’s week has been going, play a short Game, and go over the Schedule for the day.

Target exercise ideas

The T-chart is a simple tool for explaining the difference between boring and vivid language. Watch this video about using a T-chart to explain the concept to your young people (brought to you by Deep’s founder, Catherine Killingsworth).

Sentence Shifter: Divide writers into small groups and give each of them the same boring sentence like “He raced her.” Then challenge them to re-work the sentence with individual vivid words you’ve prepared on index cards. It’s amazing how different the sentences can be! See how it works and get a sample list of words from Cure for IDK pg. 42.
Tell your writers the story of dead words (Cure for IDK pg. 32). Together, make a list of dead words at the board. [NOTE: Young people love to get up and write on the white board together. Get everyone out of their seat and contributing to the board as a group, building off one another. This is called a “chalk talk.”] Once your list is complete, pick one of the dead words and unpack it as a group. “Love” is a good example. Is loving chocolate and loving your mom the same thing? Is the feeling the same? Why? How can you say what you really mean?

Reading ideas

Something with vivid, specific description that, when viewed as a whole, gives us a fuller picture of the subject beyond simply face value. You can find the readings below linked on the Deep Readings Archive, but we encourage you to choose your own from whatever it is you’re reading and enjoying in your own life, and from what the youth in your workshop are interested in and enjoying in theirs! Click here for the Deep Readings archive, where you can use CTRL + F to quickly locate the readings below.

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (excerpt) by Jack Gantos
“Ole Linconton” by Kennedy Fulton (Deep Author)
“Just Thick” by Bree LeVine-DeSpain

Writing prompt ideas

What is your school like? What are the classrooms like, and the teachers, and the other students? What are the really good parts of the schoolday, and why? What are the really bad parts of the schoolday, and why?
Write a poem about where you’re from. Use the five senses to paint the scene. (Who else is there? What do you see? Smell? How does it make you feel? Does where you’re from have to be a geographic place? Can it be something more?)
What different meals does your family cook for special occasions? Describe them to someone who has never seen or tasted them. What happens when your whole family gets together to eat these foods?

Sharing/performance ideas

Try an Author’s Circle. Everyone sits/kneels on a circle on the floor. This activity is silent except for approved ways of showing appreciation, so be sure to norm how listeners will show their appreciation (snaps, claps at the end, nods, etc. It’s okay to get silly as long as your group can all agree on it! Choose one writer who’s demonstrated a lot of promise today to share. All eyes are on the reader, giving them full attention. When finished, the reader may take a bow, if they wish, and listeners should nonverbally share their appreciation. As facilitator, be sure to acknowledge both the reader and listeners for keeping the space safe and honest.