Tricks of the writing trade

Andrew Edwards

Young writers at College View Elementary School let their creative

sides show last week as they learned a writing style that teaches and

tricks.

Teacher Debbie Bennett challenged her third-grade reading class to

write original “trickster tales” -- stories where the author teaches

a lesson by having one character outsmart another.

Bennett’s class broke into small groups and read their stories to

one another. After each child had a chance to share an original work,

the group picked a favorite tale that each group member would adapt

as a news article.

The tricky news stories would be compiled in “The Trickster

Tribune” after the class finished the assignment.

One of the groups selected 8-year-old Dashiell Powers’ story about

two farm cats as their favorite. In his story, a feline named Buster

tries to hide treats from another cat called Bogart. Bogart finds the

food anyway, and tells Buster he will share the cat snacks only if

Buster can open a can of cat food.

But Buster has a problem common to many cats when it comes to

using a can opener.

“He didn’t have opposable thumbs, so it took awhile,” Dashiell

wrote.

Buster takes so long to open the can that Bogart has time to eat

all the treats. Buster, who tried to eat all the snacks, doesn’t get

any.

And the lesson?

“I think it’s don’t be greedy,” Dashiell said.

Not all of the students attempted to teach such philosophical

concepts in their tales. Robert Rice, an 8-year-old who said he

watches “Tom and Jerry” all the time, wrote a story that had a mouse

defending itself from a cat by hiding a bomb in a sandwich.

The lesson, Robert said, is that the “cat knows to stay away from

mice now.”

Bennett used the trickster tales, as well as other genres like

tall tales, to teach her class basic elements of literature, such as

plot, character and conflict.

She said she tries to lead her students to “find their own

experiences in the literature and get them to respond in their own

way.”

Assigning the news articles, Bennett asked her class to come up

with headlines, a catchy introduction, and to identify the “who,”

“what,” “when” and “where” of a selected tricky tale, as well as to

explain how the story’s characters solved a problem and learned a

lesson.

Bennett’s students appeared to love the chance to tell stories and

be original.

“I could write anything,” 8-year-old Anthony Anderson said.

Some in the class already have big ideas about what they can do

with their stories.

“If you write them, maybe in a few years they’ll make them into TV

shows,” 8-year-old Noah Larson said.