Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tuesday Trait: Sentence Fluency

We follow deer tracks in the mud, pretending that we too are wild beasts.
and so it begins! What happens when you prejudge a book recommendation from a colleague simply because of its name or its audience? For me, that's pretty rare, yet it happened with Guyku. Because I trust the educators of my PLN (Professional Learning Network), I changed my mind, I read Guyku. It's great, so I say, "Go with it!" With that in mind, I've decided to review this highly recommended book with a specific audience. I'm wondering if children who read Guyku will really care that the title makes it sound like it's a book for boys, yet I think most young ones will enjoy this book. I just read GUYKU, because of this trust within my Professional Learning Network. This book would be a satisfying read for boys or girls. While, the story of Haiku for guys sounded like a book that only a boy could love, I was impressed that the story would probably be well received by boys or girls. As I have written on many Tuesdays, I'm giving GUYKU the Six Traits of Writing treatment. While this book could be used to teach many traits, especially WORD CHOICE and SENTENCE FLUENCY. I selected SENTENCE FLUENCY because I think the Haiku message can be taught within the context of the fluency trait. In Guyku, each sentence is written in the poetic form of Haiku, yet the style and meter of each sentence is NOT repetitious. Quite the opposite. With sentences like
Hey, who turned off all the crickets? I'm not ready for summer to end....
and
With baseball cards and clothespins, we make our bikes sound like motorcycles....
it appears to me that this is a great opportunity to show your students how cool varying sentences in a similar (Haiku) format can be. Join me. Review this book.
Other educators who have spoken high praise for GUYKU: IMAGE: "Join the Guyku Club" by Peter H. Reynolds taken from the Guyku website.

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