Show, Don't Tell Exercises
The purpose of a Show, Don't Tell exercise (SDT) is to help students develop their descriptive writing skills. This exercise was gleaned from Rebekah Caplan's book Writers In Training; however, I teach Show, Don't Tell's a little differently. I assign one SDT topic per week. The assignment is given on Monday and is due on Wednesday. Students are given a few minutes in class on Monday to pre-write. I encourage the use of simile, metaphor, sound effects, dialogue, and descriptive language (strong verbs, adverbs, and adjectives). I also encourage students to use either a cluster or "T-chart" before they begin writing.Throughout the year, I challenge students to find SDT's in their independent reading. I begin the year by reading samples of SDT's I've accumulated from my own reading. These SDT's are taken from works such as Roald Dahl's The BFG and E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. In addition, Caplan's book has several Sample SDT's. If you are struggling with this assignment, I have also written a few helpful hints along with a sample SDT for you to read/use.
