Picturing Transitions: Narrating Scene Shifts
Purpose: This activity will help students create effective transitions between paragraphs and topics in their writing. It should also get them to think about how transitions help to guide the reader through their work.
Description: This activity forces students to think outside of the box and consider the function of transitions in their writing.
Suggested Time: 40-60 minutes
Procedure: Divide your class into groups of 4-5 and bring in enough magazines for each group to have at least two (check the magazine racks around campus if you need extra copies). Also, bring in scissors so that they can cut pictures from the magazines. If you are working in a CWC, you might also select a range of images from Creative Commons and create a file they can access on the LMS Course Library.
This is a four part collaborative exercise: 1) cutting images out, 2) writing descriptions, 3) creating transitions, 4) sharing and discussing the work.
Explain that they will be working on developing effective transitions by connecting different scenes that possess no direct relationship with one another. They will cut out pictures from a magazine, generate short descriptions of the scenes, and then link them with one another by constructing effective conclusions and introductions that weave the scenes together. However, instead of one group doing all three processes, groups will pass the work they do for one part of the assignment to a neighboring group so that a different group is engaged in each phase of the process. The fact that other groups will be completing the work should encourage students to come up with out of the box images and/or descriptions, fueling creativity and a sense of competition. Inform them that what they create will be shared with their peers.
Have students cut out four pictures. Tell them to try and find the most unrelated, crazy images possible (10 minutes). Note: Reduce the images to three if you are under significant time constraints.
Have them pass their images to the right and then ask each group to create a short narrative of the scene (what is going on, etc.). However, also ask them to take a specific, unified rhetorical approach. For example, they might take a narrative approach and write from a single character's perspective or write from a specific analytical perspective and treat it like a research paper or expository piece (e.g. famous vacation spots or best spots around town). Tell them not to spend too much time on writing for one image and to write only three-four sentences for each. (10-15 minutes)
Have them pass the images and descriptions to the right and ask each group to create introductory and conclusion sentences that weave together each scene. Be sure to tell them not to become too clichéd in their process and to avoid redundancy (e.g. simply writing next I went to the mall and now I'm at the mall when someone is traveling from a beach scene is not acceptable). Encourage creativity and critical writing. (10-15 minutes)
Share what students have written. Everyone should enjoy seeing how the scenes they picked out were described and how their descriptions were linked to each other. After each reading, discuss what was strong and weak about each piece (in a constructive, positive manner, of course). If necessary, this last part can be delayed until the following class, giving you time to look over the responses. (10-20 Minutes).
End the class with a discussion that aligns this to writing. How might we re-envision our writing as a series of scenes? What does a strong transition do in this context? What job do transitions do in our writing and when in the process do we add them?