Week 3

In the writing class this week we studied and discussed the tricks about writing in the descriptive mode. We took a close look at some of the essays in the text that featured description starting with Momaday's fabulous piece "The Way To Rainy Mountain." I loved watching the students figure out how he presented the simple narrative of visiting his grandmother's grave by folding it into word pictures of the Kiowa landscape. His ancestors were defined by the land that nourished them and he was wildly successful helping the reader "see" Rainy Mountain at the end of the merciless desert. The acceptance of the struggle to get through the heat and harshness of the land is something we white people don't really understand. When the students undid all the layers of the details in the story to discover how another ethnic group defines itself was a joy.
But the real joy of the week came when my four year old grandaughter really and truly read a story called "Ted and Peg." This thinly plotted bookette only had one or two descriptive words in the whole thing. Sentences featured the short e sound and I won't give anything away by letting you know that after Ted and Peg met, he wanted to paint his hen red. LiLi read every word sounding them out carefully with only a little help from me. It was a miracle. I was one of the very first people on earth to experience one of her very first reading experiences. It happened during our "nest rest" time covered up with our favorite blankets while the sun and a little autumn breeze whispered through the open window above us.
Magic for college students was, I have to admit, outshone by the reading of "Ted and Peg" by the proud and delighted LiLi.