Naming

I am sorry about last night but I could not find time to post about our day.

Today we worked on naming things. Giving something a name is important. Once it is named you can recognize it. Naming the device also allows you and others to know what you are talking about when you use the name. You also feel like you have some ownership over what you have named. Today I wanted to take some time to name some of the things we have been noticing in Cynthia Rylant's writing.

One of my favorite things that we have noticed is that Cynthia Rylant loves to use "ands." In many of her sentences she will have a list of three or more items. We know that usually a sentence like this would have commas and end with one and before the last item. Rylant does not always follow this rule. She loves to create lists of colors or descriptive details that go on and on and on without a comma.

Today we looked at a few of these "and" sentences from Rylant. I asked the class what she was doing. They were able to tell me she was using lots of ands instead of using commas in a list. Then I asked why she might be using this technique. The class told me they thought she was doing it to exaggerate. By using all the ands the list seems longer. It just keeps going and going and going and going. You start to realize this is a long list. Finally I asked the class what they might name this strategy.

Both classes came up with some great names. We had The Andanator 3000, 5 Miles of Ands, On and On and On, and so many other names. My homeroom finally settled on the name 5 Miles of Ands and Mrs. Sanford's homeroom settled on The Andanator 3000. Now in class we have a name for this technique. Students can run up to me and say Mr. Tarr I found The Andanator 3000 in the book I am reading or even better Mr. Tarr I just used a 5 Miles of Ands in my writing.

You can find the sheet we used to name this technique in our writing folder. We also named another Rylant technique that we have been noticing in her writing. You might want to know these names so when you are asked if you have ever written or found The Andanator 3000, you will know exactly what is going on.

Hope you are all having a great week.