Sketching

5 minutes:

Reflect once more on the significance of your topic, very briefly, like this:  "Once I thought________________ and now I see it like ____________________________________.

Then, write a quick narrative of your thought process about your topic like this...When I began writing about my trip to Spain, I thought I felt excited and happy when I was there but now I realize I was too afraid to experience anything new and I spent most of my time trying to impress Sophie.  Then I decided that the experience of being on my own was important for me and realized that I'd learned so much about Art from the Bosch and Goya works the museum told me about, and now I realize that......

20 minutes:

II. Write a sketch using the most promising material you've developed so far. It should have about 300-400 words.  Write it very fast, without crafting and revising. You are trying to explain, in a few words, your personal narrative from beginning to end.  It may not yet have a clear purpose or theme, because you may discover it through writing the sketch.  It should have a sense of audience (others will be reading it) and it should include  many of the rich sensory details  describing person and place you developed for your homework.

RESPONDING TO A CLASSMATE"S SKETCH:

1. What does the writer seem to want to say but isn't quite yet saying in the sketch?

2. What line appears most important to the meaning of the sketch, as you understand it?

3. What was most surprising about what the writer said or showed?

4. What part of the story seems most important? What part might need to be told and isn't?