Thursday, May 21, 2009

NARRATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT

I thought it might be fun to share a little of the work Sam did recently. I don't think he considers it work. On Fridays he does writing assignments for his grammar curriculum. He started out with expository paragraphs and has gradually moved to essays and other types of writing like narrative and descriptive. A couple of weeks ago, he was supposed to do a narrative essay on the topic, "My Narrow Escape." This is what he came up with:

I was very excited about visiting my dad's mine. He'd owned it for about three and half years and we've prospered ever since. But better than hearing about the mine that day I got to see it. My dad arranged for September 13th. Being in Texas, it was HOT and it became hotter as we descended on the elevator to the first level of the Rocks get HARD knocks ore/granite mine. I was fascinated by the huge machines that chopped, cracked, and hardened the stones of the mine.

We had come to a place where there was a dead end, when some dust fell and I heard a faint cracking sound (my father had been having ear trouble and didn't hear it). I asumed he had heard it and nothing was wrong. We were turning when an enormous boulder came down followed by most of the roof. After much coughing we discovered that we were totally trapped!

Dad was concerned. He is a good dad and never fully panicks. So he clicked on a speelunker's flashlight and shone it around. No possible escape route could be seen so we sat down and told me storys of his boyhood. Several hours passed, and I was sweating the life out of me, when we heard shouts, and a boulder fell in. A ray of sunshine entered. It is a memorable thing to think about.

It has some problems and I decided to leave the spelling and grammar just as he had it. But overall, I enjoyed reading it and thought his writing is coming along well. Sam greatly enjoys writing and composing stories. Next to science, it might be his favorite school thing to do. In the most recent things he's been writing he likes to spend several days working on it. I don't mind because I certainly want to encourage his love of writing!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice work Samuel. I love writing too and wish I had saved my early stories. I will look forward to reading more of your work on the blog. Keep on writing.

Mom, thanks for leaving it just as is. That was so important.

Anonymous said...

Just had a thought to pass along. Every year in Jonesboro, Tennessee there is a storytelling festival. Some year, perhaps when your family is a bit older, you might enjoy going. It just sounds like something you would enjoy and not too far away from you. I wish I could go every year.

Kathy

Lora said...

Hi Julie,

I thought I would respond to your post on YOUR blog as I'm not sure if you would see it if I posted it on mine. Kind of confusing sometimes trying to write back and forth via blogs...

Anyway, it is a little more work to take Ryan on an outting. But, mostly it's just hard to find out door places that his chair can actually drive on. For instance, Tumalo park is pretty good because it does have a small paved path for part of the walking area anyway. And it is a little more difficult for Ryan driving his chair in the grass because of how bumpy it gets. He has to drive a bit slower. etc.. Actually, to tell you the truth, this wasn't the most fun outting for Ryan to go on. We sort of had to talk him into it. There just isn't much for him to do there other than visit with us and watch his siblings play. When he was a lot younger and smaller, an outting like this would have been more fun for him as we might have attempted to let him get in the water or sit and play in the dirt at the shore. But, he is no longer able to sit up out of his wheelchair anymore.

I actually remember going to this park with you and your family when we were about 13 yrs old or so?? I think we went on inner-tubes too. Do you remember that?

Peter Jones said...

Lora,
Thanks for the response. I wondered how it was for him.

Hmm...I think I kind of remember that. We used to go there and "raft" down the river so much that it's hard to remember a specific time. You remember that, huh?
Julie