Mentor Text Wednesday: like a paper cut

Mentor Text: like a paper cut by Lindsay Soberano Wilson

Techniques:

• imagery
• simile

Background –

It’s one of those weeks when the business of the school year, and life, makes you think you should be saying no to something, letting something go.

It’s in those times when the stuff you’ve set aside for later, the notes in the notebook, or in your Notes app have their greatest use.

I had a grand plan for this week’s piece last week, tying it into what I was doing soon in one of my courses, thinking myself quite clever. I knew what the techniques were, I just needed to pull out that single mentor text I had for it.

And then I remembered it wasn’t a single mentor text. I don’t have a single mentor text for this thing yet, though it does draw on a handful of mentor texts, there’s not an easy share.

So, I popped into the Notes app, and pulled a poem I put aside for a rainy day to share with you.

How we might use this text:

Imagery – I think what I most appreciate about the image that this poem leans on is that it’s simultaneously universal and unsettling. If we haven’t had a paper cut, we still live in fear of one, mostly because how we’ve seen others react to them. I think that’s what drew me to this poem initially, the shiver the image elicited.

I’ve shared before that I have an affinity for brevity. That’s the other thing that drew me to this poem – how so much is expressed in so few words. Instead of a drawn out description of a paper cut, Wilson uses clipped lines, simple statements to communicate the image. This is very much and IYKYK description, which might be at the core of our lesson. What is essential to communicate about the image we want to evoke for our reader? How can we most efficiently, and effectively, communicate the idea? “invisible/yet/visible” and “painless and yet painful” are so evocative, using the duality of the paper cut to remind us of that experience.

Simlie – Again, the brevity of the poem models a way to express an idea with clarity. Wilson, however, does something interesting here, in the way she presents us with the image (the paper cut), connects it to a bigger idea (an emotional hurt) and then clearly states the simile. It’s a clever presentation of the idea. It works wonderfully as a little poem with emotional resonance, but it might be interesting to consider this exercise a rough draft of sorts in writing an introduction to a prose piece exploring the idea at the core of the simile.

As I reflect, wrapping up this piece for you, I wonder how many of us have pulled together something really good out of duty, under pressure. I feel like I’m often focused on the big things I need to be doing, but find moments of inspiration and energy in a side quest, such as meeting this deadline. In fact, in writing this to share with you, I’ve actually come back around to that original big thing that was going to inspire what I shared in this post, and I’m considering how this piece might bear fruit there.

What pieces do you have for students where brevity is a focus? What are your best mentor texts that concisely and concretely communicate imagery? What have you brought to your classroom from a “side quest” lately?

Leave a comment below or find me on Twitter @doodlinmunkyboy!