…Descriptive Details…

“My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn” by Sandra Cisneros

• Nixtamal is the treated corn that is used to make masa and hominy. First the corn is cooked and soaked in lime, rinsed and then the hulls may or may not be removed. This task may seem daunting and the ingredients may seem unusual, but they are easily found and you will have fresher tasting Posole, Tamales and Tortillas.

• Frito Bandito mascot 1967-1971

• Mercurochrome = antiseptic for cuts/scrapes

• chrones = underwear!

Journal WriteFill in the blanks to complete the telling sentence below…(if it helps, you can use more than one word in each blank…)

__________ was the ____________ time I ever had.

Keep your journal out PLEASE!

ElaborationElaborationElaborationElaboration

Telling vs. ShowingTelling vs. Showing

The first person to list all 6 expository

elaboration strategies on their mini white board gets 3 Ram

Bucks!

Elaboration: the support or development of an

idea with…

• Anecdotes (stories/incidents)

• Examples • Definitions• Facts & Statistics• Quotes & Dialogue• Descriptive details

Developing Showing Sentences and Paragraphs

What is the difference between these two

sentences?

a) The room was a mess.b) Rumpled bedspread, piled-up

clothes, and jumbled dresser greeted me as I pushed my way into the room.

Which Elaboration

strategy is used in Example B???

Descriptive Details!

Definition of Telling and Showing

• Telling is the use of broad generalizations.

• In contrast, showing is the use of details, facts, statistics, examples, anecdotes, quotations, dialogue—elaboration—to persuade, explain, or to enliven a story.

Telling

Although it smelled horrible, the apothecary shop was fascinating.

Showing

Then they visited the apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling…

Showing (continued)

…Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and miniscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (New York, Scholastic Inc., 1997), p.81.

Which Elabora

tion strateg

y is this?

Descriptive

Details!

Telling

In the 1930’s the dust storms were horrible.

ShowingEvery morning the house had to be cleaned. Everett Buckland of Waynocka said, “If you didn’t sweep the dust out right quick between the storms, you’d end up scooping it out with a shovel.” And every morning someone had to go check the animals. . . . . . .

What Elaboration strategy do

you see?

Showing (continued)

. . .The fierce gales buried chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, and occasionally cattle. Children were assigned the task of cleaning the nostrils of cows two or three times a day.

Jerry Stanley, Children of the Dust Bowl (New York, Crown Publishers Inc., 1992), p. 7.

Telling

The Metrodome has the worst rug in baseball.

ShowingThe Metrodome has the worst rug in baseball, excluding Joe Pepitone’s. “There are wet spots on the turf you can slip on,” says Twins centerfielder Torli Hunter, giving a tour of the Metrodome and sounding like the world’s worst real estate agent. . . . . . . .

. . . . .“I lost five balls in the roof today. I was scared out there. There are seams in the turf, and if the ball hits one of those, you’re done. It can take a big hop or a dead hop. There are poles behind the wall”—the pillars that support the drapery in right field— “and you don’t know where they are. So a ball can hit the wall and just drop, or it can hit the wall (pole) and take off. You don’t know.”

Steve Rushin, “Dome Sweet Dome,” Sports Illustrated (October 14, 2002), p.25

Showing (continued)

What Elaboration strategies do you

see?

Back to your journal write…