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Last Friday, we had a writer celebration.

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And I was completely proud and

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impressed of the way that you
were telling your stories.

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The way that you zoomed in and
a use your true exact details and

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you started with a good lead and
you wrapped it up.

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And I also really enjoyed what you chose
to write about because I really felt like

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I got to know each of you
a little bit better, right.

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The things you hope for,
the things you're worried about.

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>> The things we like.

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>> The things you like and are interested
in, the way you spend your free time.

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Even like,
Jack who tries to create an adventure, so

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you have something to write about,
and you wrote about it so beautifully.

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And all of your stories,
each of your stories.

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Isabel's potato gun, where her dad
comes to ask her to shoot a potato gun,

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and she's scared of it, but
it's totally awesome so, she does it.

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But we're gonna be looking at now,
we started talking about this yesterday,

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writing personal narratives
that are a little deeper.

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They go a little deeper into ourselves
where the readers can learn about us,

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and I think even when we write a deep
personal narrative we learn about

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ourselves a little bit more sometimes.

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And we looked at a couple yesterday.

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So today I'm teaching you about
generating some ideas for

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these kinds of personal narratives.

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Let's do this, to find the first
blank page in your writer's notebook,

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I'm gonna try some of these out.

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>> Do we write the date on it?

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>> Yeah, if it makes you happy, right?

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A lot of times when we look at a story
about ourselves, that is when we learned

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something deep about ourselves, it happens
at some turning point in our life.

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And one of those can be like the very
first time that you did something.

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Like in Owl Moon,
the first time she went owling.

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And she learns about owling,

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she learns to be like her dad,
she grows up a little bit.

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So on your first page, try this,

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just put down a heading right down
the first time I tried something.

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This could be first time you try
something hard like a sport or

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climbing or swimming and
diving into a pool.

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It could also be like the first time you
did something that you now do every day.

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>> Ride your bike.

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>> The first time you rode a bike and
you can say those things out loud,

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you could tell me those.

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>> Okay.

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>> Okay.

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>> Okay.
>> All right.

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Like the first time you read a book
>> At eight.

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>> Give me a thumbs up now
if you got at least one or

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two ideas on your page
>> Okay good, good, good.

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Next we could try is, I'm gonna put
up here to like something hard,

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or something you do everyday.

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The next thing you could try is.

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Think of the last time you did something.

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Last year, Meg wrote this wonderful story
about her last day at her old school.

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And how she kind of learned about
herself that she could feel sad

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about something and
excited about something at the same time.

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Think of like the last time.

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The last time you tried something or
you did something.

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Could be like the last time that you saw
a pet that you had that died or ran away.

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Or the last time you saw
somebody before you moved?

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If you've got some first time
ones as the last time things.

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Think of a time when you learned something
about someone or about yourself.

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Last year, Anna wrote this

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amazing piece when she learned that
she has this huge capacity for guilt.

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Like she went to a birthday party in
Atlanta when she was four or something and

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she stole a bracelet.

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And when she came back, like for
years, she couldn't sleep at night

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because she thought about it
every time she went to bed.

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She felt guilty.

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She couldn't go in her closet because
that's where she was hiding it.

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And she felt guilty.

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And so she learned that she not only
that she cares about people and so

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she feels guilt when she
does something like that.

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But then she also felt that found that
when she called the person up and

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returned the bracelet.

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And told them what they've done and

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they that she has this
ability to feel normal again.

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Simply go to sleep is
felt good about herself.

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You're finishing up putting
down some of your bullets.

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I see some of you have
a whole page of ideas.

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You have just generated
a whole years worth of ideas.

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Okay some of you have.

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Remember that when you sit down to write
that one of the most important things you

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have at the beginning of
the writing process is an idea.

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And now you've got several
ways to think of ideas, right?

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If you remember when you come in,
if you have an idea and

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you want to write about it.

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That's what you write about.

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You're in charge of your writing.

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If you don't have an idea,
remember the writers write.

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Writers or I just heard an interview
on the radio with the writer and

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the interviewer says do you write
every day and she says I do.

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But it's hard.

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Because I'm a mom, I have a regular job,
that every day I write at least for

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an hour Even if I'm just writing
down ideas, I write every day.

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And so you could write down a person,
a place, or thing and

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small moments with those places you could
think of the first time you did something,

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the last time you did something,
when you learn something about yourself or

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when something changed your life.

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Write down those small
moments that time went on.

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Put those ideas down, and then you can
get right into the writing process right?

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You are already knee-deep in the writing
process if you're putting down an idea.

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So here's what I want you to do right now,
as you are writing this morning,

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I want you to pick one of these ideas,
okay?

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That's you're going to write about and
you and

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when we as you organize
your writing today.

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Remember that timeline we did where you
took your small moment and you did like

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a little bolted timeline with three or
four or five small moments together?

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And each of those bullets was a paragraph.

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That really worked for a lot of you for
organizing your writing.

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I would encourage you that
as you pick an idea today,

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sketch out a very quick timeline,
and then start writing.

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Remember starting with a, pardon me?

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>> Does it have to be on the subject
the first time I try something?

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>> It could be on any of
the ideas that you chose.

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The first time, the last time.

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>> What if you still wanna
do is small moments story.

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Not like notes.

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What if you still want to
do stories that's not about

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>> That's a good question,

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and first I want to just say that these
are gonna be small moment stories.

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Personal narratives
are gonna use small moments.

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>> Why don't you, let's do it.

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Write something different.

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>> Yeah, I would like you to

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talk with me about that in a second
here just to see what that might be.

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But what I want you to try,
and like I've said before.

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You are in charge of your writing.

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But I do want you to
explore today a little bit.

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The trying to write something that
has a moment of significance for you.

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And what I know about you or

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is that in your writing you
pretty much do that anyway.

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Like the story that you
wrote the other day.

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Was really the one that you did for
the writer celebration was really

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a last time I'm gonna ever do
that is how you ended it, right?

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He said I'm never gonna do that again.

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And that was a wonderful
personal narrative that

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brought us into that thing and actually
a lot of you that writer celebration last

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time read stories that we're like this
the first time I tried to wait for.

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First time I shot a potato.

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Last time I ding dong ditch, right?

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Most of you did this.

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And this is just a strategy award for
coming up with ideas for

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those kinds of stories a little faster,
okay.

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>> Okay, now I get it.

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>> You got it?

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Excellent.

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So pick a story that
you’re gonna do today.

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Try sketching out a timeline cuz that
really worked for a lot of you in

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organizing your writing and bringing
the reader through that experience.

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What's that?
>> I just did my timeline.

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>> You just did your timeline?

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>> Yes.
>> And once you finished your timeline,

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write, okay?

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So find a place you're comfortable and
go write.

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>> Could we [INAUDIBLE]
>> A series of small moments if-

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>> That would be perfect.

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So that's what that timeline would be
really good for, like [SOUND] But yes,

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it can definitely be
a series of small moments.

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That was one of the things that printed on
our chart yesterday that good writers do.

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Jack had a brilliant question.

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Is it okay if we do it like
the Lucy Comes Home story

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where we write a series of small moments.

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And yes that's what we look at that for
because that's a great idea.