Pattern Writing from Books and Poems: Learning to Write from the Masters

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Many books, songs and poems offer wonderful patterns for moving writing beyond simple sentences and bringing it closer to children's personal lives. Below are two examples that use the same techniques as other pattern writing activities to move the kids to new levels of sophistication and provide a foundation for a better understanding of storytelling.

Activity Steps: 

Activity 1: Patterns From a Children's Book

Many of the most popular and best loved children's books rely on patterns that help kids feel comfortable and anticipate what will happen next. Below is an excerpt from Fortunately by Remy Charlip; its simplicity is what makes the story so appealing:

Fortunately Ned was invited to a surprise party.
Unfortunately the party was a thousand miles away.
Fortunately he borrowed an airplane.
Unfortunately the motor exploded.

Another great pattern, from The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, is a bit more complex:

The important thing about rain is that it is wet.
It falls out of the sky,
and it sounds like rain,
and makes things shiny,
and it does not taste like anything,
and is the color of air.
But the important thing about rain is that it is wet.

The pattern from The Important Book is especially versatile, so we'll use it in our example:

Step 1: Read the book aloud to your class and talk about the pattern.
Step 2: Ask the kids what they'd like to write a story about. Let them shout out ideas for a few seconds until they come up with an idea you like. Almost anything will work with this pattern. The example here is about airplanes.
Step 3: Do a mapping exercise to build up ideas to fill out the pattern. Write the subject in the center of the map (in this case, the subject is "airplanes"). Circle it and ask, "What do we know about airplanes?" Write the responses down outside the first circle. After a taking a handful of suggestions (you'll need six if you want to match the pattern exactly, but you don't have to), draw a circle outside those words and ask what the kids know about each of the words in the second ring. This time, take just one or two words about each so as not to drag out the process. You'll end up with a map that looks something like the one below.

Step 4:

Just follow the paths outward from the center as usual and you'll have a new story that fits the pattern. Write it on the board and have the kids read it aloud with you:

The important thing about planes is that they fly high in the sky.
They have wings to scoop the air,
and jets to zoom very fast,
and pilots to make them go where they're supposed to,
and radar to see where to land
and they make a lot of noise that hurts your ears,
But the important thing about planes is that they fly high in the sky.
Step 5: Now have kids pair up to write more verses on their own topics that follow the pattern. If you want to go further, have them draw pictures and collect them all as a Web page or multimedia show, or print it as a class book.

Activity 2: Patterns From a Song or Poem

You can do the same thing with a song like This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie:

This land is your land.
This land is my land.
From California
to the New York islands,
from the redwood forests,
to the gulf stream waters
this land was made for you and me.

Try copying the pattern to write a song about the children's neighborhood, your learning center or the town where you live. For example, to copy the pattern for Washington, DC, you again would first create a map. This time, you would write places in DC in the center, such as the White House and the Smithsonian Institution. For the outer ring, ask the kids what they think they might find at those places, such as "politics" or "tourists."

This DC is your DC.
This DC is my DC.
From the White House
to the Smithsonian,
from the political speeches,
to the museum tourists
this DC was made for you and me.

Now have the kids do their own versions. Don't worry if the meter doesn't match exactly, and fudge it a little with extra words if you want to. You can find lots of similar songs and poems that will work well for pattern writing on any kind of topic, but try to stay close to the pattern of the original. For example, if you use a song like John Henry, try to do your pattern about a person, too.

Try to make these activities fun and active. If you're using a poem as a template for substitutions, pick one that children can act out as they learn it. Physical activity and interaction make activities more engaging. Try gathering the kids around you to watch as you write out sentence transformations, or have volunteers assist you in making maps and other demonstrations. Point to things while you're reading or repeating, and when you're asking for suggestions, let the kids shout things out as a group rather than force too much discipline. When the energy's flowing and the kids are loaded with ideas, keep the momentum going.