The end of the school year finds my students writing journalism-style profiles of their peers. In the past, this has been a very successful assignment, partially because most kids like talking to each other, especially about... themselves. Just last week one student told me that me he felt like laughing and crying at the same time because he loved this project so much. Okay, he might be an extreme case, but the kids do like this work.
Many human interest profiles begin with a lead anecdote, one or two paragraphs describing the subject in action, doing something essential to the angle of the piece. It's sound practice to give students examples as models of what they're trying to achieve, and so today I shared the lead anecdote that a student wrote last year in a profile of me:
Tracey walks straight into her kitchen after a day of work. She preheats the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and then pops in the part of her meal that takes the longest: the potatoes. Then she turns to make the rest of her meal: kale salad fresh from a farmer’s market, roasted portobello mushrooms, tiny roasted grape tomatoes, and toasted almonds. Once the mushrooms are brushed with a sprinkle of olive oil, soy sauce, and pepper, she slides them past a blast of heat that welcomes her as she opens the oven, and onto the oven rack. She chops the tomatoes and adds them to the oven. When the mushrooms and tomatoes are done, she sets them to cool as the potatoes finish baking. Ms. S. then whips up some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and mustard dressing and adds it to the kale salad. When the potatoes have reached their finest, she removes them from the oven and adds some quickly-melting butter, then combines all the oven-cooked delicacies together. She crumbles blue cheese on her salad and is finished with her typical dinner.
Pretty impressive for a sixth grader, eh? And I'll tell you what else; after hearing that passage read out loud four times today, you can bet what I made for dinner.
Many human interest profiles begin with a lead anecdote, one or two paragraphs describing the subject in action, doing something essential to the angle of the piece. It's sound practice to give students examples as models of what they're trying to achieve, and so today I shared the lead anecdote that a student wrote last year in a profile of me:
Tracey walks straight into her kitchen after a day of work. She preheats the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and then pops in the part of her meal that takes the longest: the potatoes. Then she turns to make the rest of her meal: kale salad fresh from a farmer’s market, roasted portobello mushrooms, tiny roasted grape tomatoes, and toasted almonds. Once the mushrooms are brushed with a sprinkle of olive oil, soy sauce, and pepper, she slides them past a blast of heat that welcomes her as she opens the oven, and onto the oven rack. She chops the tomatoes and adds them to the oven. When the mushrooms and tomatoes are done, she sets them to cool as the potatoes finish baking. Ms. S. then whips up some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and mustard dressing and adds it to the kale salad. When the potatoes have reached their finest, she removes them from the oven and adds some quickly-melting butter, then combines all the oven-cooked delicacies together. She crumbles blue cheese on her salad and is finished with her typical dinner.
Pretty impressive for a sixth grader, eh? And I'll tell you what else; after hearing that passage read out loud four times today, you can bet what I made for dinner.
