Full Description
'Writers, like photographers, are image makers.'
We teach our students to write using words and sentences that create a desired effect. You might encourage them to zoom in on a small moment, focus on a specific detail, or experiment with a new point of view. The language of writing has a natural link with photography.
In Focus Lessons, Ralph Fletcher makes this connection clear. He offers new ideas about how this link can enhance your instruction.
Using a camera as a writer's notebook
Taking pictures to spark creativity
Learning to 'read' images as mentor texts
Helping students develop writing from photos
Ralph also shares fifteen craft lessons that draw on the photographic world. Each lesson highlights a different technique like creating tension, using arresting details, or setting a mood. Then he shows how to achieve each one - in both photography and writing.
Samples Preview sample pages from Focus Lessons
Contents
Part One: The Journey
1) Getting Close: A Personal Note
2) Steep End of the Learning Curve
3) The Camera as Writer's Notebook
4) Upon Reflection
Part Two: The Classroom
5) Craft Lessons
One: Beware the So-What? Pretty Picture
Two: Consider the Point of View
Three: Capture Arresting Detail
Four: Bring Something Strong
Five: Create Tension
Six: Play with Foreground and Background
Seven: Take a Wide Perspective
Eight: Zoom in Close
Nine: Create the Right Mood
Ten: Include an Extra Element
Eleven: Embrace Surprise
Twelve: Show Motion
Thirteen: Draw in the Viewer
Fourteen: Use Gesture to Reveal Character
Fifteen: Tell the Truth
6) What's Happening in This Photograph?
7) Photographing to Learn
8) How Photographs Spark Writing (or Do They?)
9) Double Exposure: Ralph Talks to Ralph
