It was a passage I have used dozens of times over the years to teach young writers how to craft an engaging lead.
Taken from writing teacher guru Nancie Atwell's text Lessons that Change Writers, the paragraph is a short anecdote about a family going to their lake house and finding a car in the water at the end of their dock. The lesson calls for reading the overview and then showing students how this writer tried three leads for his piece, using action, dialogue, and reaction.
This morning when I read the first passage to my class a student's hand shot up. "Rangeley Lake?" he asked in astonishment. "What state is this in?"
"Probably Maine," I guessed. "That's where this 7th grade writer is from."
"Oh my gosh!" he responded. "We have a cabin on the next lake over! It's called Loon Lake, because, y'know? Loons. But I've been to Rangeley Lake a million times!"
"That's pretty amazing," I agreed.
"I never did see a car in there, though," he finished.
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