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Showing and Telling:
The “Outburst Writing” Activity

Subjects

• Language Arts

Grades

• 6-8
• 9-12

Brief Description

This vivid demonstration will challenge students to describe (show) the action of an event rather than telling what happened.

Objectives

Students will

• understand the difference between "telling" and "showing" the action, and learn how to do more of the latter.
• see some first-hand examples of "showing" the action.
• apply what they have experienced to their own writing.

Keywords

showing, telling, writing, action

Materials Needed

• none

The Lesson

This lesson might be used in one of two ways…

• You might use it as a self-contained lesson in a single class period.
  
• This activity can be used effectively in conjunction with a big writing assignment. If your students are in the process of drafting a piece of writing, do this activity a day or two before that draft is due. (Be sure students have their drafts with them in class that day.) You will see why this is an opportune time to use the activity as I explain it in detail below.

Before the Lesson
In the day or two before you do this activity, pull aside a student you think will be able to carry out the task you are about to assign: ask that student to help you out by doing little annoying things in class as you are trying to teach. Explain to the student that you will get visibly and verbally upset because of the things s/he does, but make sure s/he is willing to keep up the bad behavior and, in fact, to escalate it… until, finally, you explode and flip a table!

If that's too over-the-top for you, you could kick over a trashcan or just clear the papers off of your desk in one big swoop.

Since that kind of behavior isn't what students generally expect from you, flipping a table is bound to freeze them. After you've done that, pretend to catch yourself and gradually calm down. As you calm down, casually ask a student (other than the one who was being "bad") what emotion you just displayed. The student will likely reply, "You were angry." So, write on the board,

[Your name goes here, e.g., Mr. Bridgewater] was angry.

At this point you might explain that you need a moment to collect your thoughts. Hand out writing paper and tell students you would like them to write about what happened -- as they saw it. After 10 minutes or so of writing, ask some students to share what they have written. Chances are their descriptions will be pretty straightforward and "boring descriptive" of what went on.

At that point you might say to students, "Okay, I was angry, but how did you know I was angry? Can anyone give me some examples of how they knew?"

As students share their thoughts, write them on a board or chart paper. The list should grow as students share what they observed. Here are some samples of student observations that I've heard over the years…

pacing back and forth
face going red
fists clenching open and shut
voice getting louder
short, sharp enunciation
eyes narrowing
forehead creased
loud sighs
wringing hands
cracking of knuckles
repeated verbal warnings to student
veins popping out in forehead
evil eye
rolled up sleeves of shirt with quick jerky movements
flipping of table - papers go flying

Can you tell that I really put on quite a show?!

By the time I write the second or third comment on the board, students are usually beginning to catch on to the fact that this was all a ruse. Then they start to marvel at the whole experience and congratulate the student who was the "bad kid." When the subterfuge is revealed, quickly congratulate the student for being such a good "bad" kid, and then get students back onto the task at hand -- while the details are still fresh in their minds.

Then (and you don't need to have said anything about showing or telling yet), ask them which paints a more vivid image…

"Mr. Bridgewater was angry."

or (and you don't need to write this part on the board... I just quickly throw the details together and recite some potential sentences aloud to the class) something like…

"Pacing back and forth, Mr. Bridgewater cracked his knuckles as he growled at Josh to stop talking. His face turned the color of an apple, his voice grew louder, and veins began to pop in his head as he continued to reprimand the obnoxious student…"

Write the word "telling" over the lone single sentence ("Mr. Bridgewater was angry"). Write "showing" over the list of descriptions.

Talk about the differences between telling about an event and "showing" it.