Ms.

Shubitz – Writing Workshop Minilesson

Teaching Point: Writers thread their memoirs with strong verbs to add power their
sentences.

Connection: My car will be 13 years old next month. It’s still pretty nice, but it
definitely doesn’t look new. For one thing, it has a bunch of dings in it from being
bumped into in parking lots. There is some paint missing from the bumper. The leather
seats are a little cracked on the driver’s side because it’s been driven so much.
However, the car still runs. And it runs well because it has a powerful engine inside of it.
In fact, the engine allows me to merge nicely onto 95 every day on my way to and from
school. The engine is strong and therefore makes me feel confident that even though
my car doesn’t look like it’s perfect, it runs really well.

The most important part of a car is the engine. If the engine doesn’t work, then the car
doesn’t run. When you’re writing, verbs serve the same function inside of a sentence as
an engine serves inside of a car. If your verbs are weak, then your writing seems a bit
like a worn-out car that’s on its last few miles. If your verbs are strong, then your writing
is usually more powerful, just like my car when it zips onto Route 95 every day.

Writers, today I want to teach you a strategy to help you make your sentences be as
powerful as your thesis statements. Therefore, today I want to teach you that writers
thread their memoirs with strong verbs to add power to their sentences.

Teaching: Just like a car needs an engine to run, strong sentences cannot rely on just
specific nouns to make them run properly. That would be like running a car with gas, but
no engine. It is just not possible.
CONSIDER SHARING THIS: So what are verbs? There are several types of verbs. First, there
are “helping verbs,” which are words like be, am, were, and did. Helping verbs are very
important because they work with the main verb in the sentence help readers understand
when an action takes place. Then, there are “action verbs,” which are words that show what
a person or thing can do. Action verbs are words like chewing, vomiting, coughing, or
smiling. However, there are lots and lots of tenses of action verbs. For instance, the word
chewing can also be written as chew, chewed, or chewsdepending on who is chewing
something and when it’s being chewed.

Confused? Don’t be. Let’s just focus on action verbs today and making sure that we’re
using them in our writing. Reason-being, strong verbs add power to your writing… more
than extra adjectives, or describing, words do.

Watch me as I show you how I replace a ho-hum verb with a powerful one.

Demonstration: Here’s my sentence. “I sat next to my Grandpa on the couch.”

First, I’m going to make a list of all of the possible words that could replace went.
(Do this in front of the children with the document camera.)
 Ms. Shubitz – Writing Workshop Minilesson

I _____________ next to my Grandpa on the couch.

Watch me as I show you how I can make my sentence stronger with one of
these verbs. (Show about three examples of this.)

Did you notice how my sentence became stronger when I replaced the word sat
with the word (relaxed/rested/plopped down/)? That’s exactly what good writers do
when they want to add power to their sentences: they use strong verbs to drive their
sentences and move them forward with power.

Active Engagement: Now it’s your turn to try it. I’m going to give two sentencesand I’d
like you to fill in the blank with the most powerful verbs you know that would fit or make
sense here. Hand out the sheets. Provide students with 2 minutes to do this.
Debrief/share out.

Link: Writers, today and everyday you’re trying to add power to your sentences, I want
you to remember that you can replace weak verbs with strong verbs in order to drive
your sentence forward more powerfully. Tomorrow will be the time for you to publish your
memoirs on to appropriate paper so they’re ready to go out into the world. But, in order
to get your memoir ready today, it’s important that we oil-up the engines of our
sentences so that they run quickly and efficiently.

Before you leave the rug, I’d like you to go into your memoir and highlight the verbs.
Then, once you return to your seat, you should brainstorm or look in the thesaurus for
alternative verbs (for as many of the underlined verbs as you can) and see if you can
make the engine of your writing more powerful. Finally,do whatever work you need to
do today to write a stronger memoir. I’m going to give you a checklist of items that you
want to make sure your memoir includes. If your memoir doesn’t include these things
(i.e., a strong lead that makes answers “So what,” precise words, an emotional ending,
or specific nouns), then it’s up to you today to make sure you work on those things in
your writing.

Additional Notes:

• This lesson was inspired by Georgia Heard’s The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques That Work,
pgs. 24-25.
• Web Resources on Verbs
○ http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/verb.htm
○ http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/schools/brisas/sunda/verb/1help.htm
○ http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/List-of-Action-Verbs.html
○ http://www.geocities.com/fifth_grade_tpes/helping_verbs.html