Special Announcement: STORY FRAMES Coming October 2020!

I'm excited to announce that Brookes Publishing has offered a contract for my educational book, Story Frames: Using Narratives to Improve Reading Comprehension, Writing, Executive Function Skills and More. Publication is scheduled for October of 2020. Even more exciting, they have agreed to use the illustrations created by my very talented brother, Chris Jochens. Here's a sample of his artwork:

In Story Frames, I combine my understanding of story structure (from my perspective as a young adult author) with my years of experience using narratives with struggling students in the public schools working as a speech-language pathologist. I have been fine-tuning this approach for years. A detailed description of the twelve story elements along with examples of stories I have analyzed using this method may be found on this blog at the tab for  The Secret Language of Stories.

Free activities may be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers Page HERE.

If you want to keep up with news and other free offers, sign up for my free newsletter on my CONTACT PAGE.

Thanks to everyone who has offered support and encouragement for this project. It has been quite a labor of love. I couldn't have done it without you!

FALL, FERRIS WHEELS AND STORY FRAMES

Fall means back to school. For many places it also means state fairs and autumn carnivals. You may see Ferris wheels and bouncy ball pits popping up unexpectedly in parking lots and parks. It’s a great time to explore Mr. Ferris and His Wheel, written by Kathryn Gibbs Davis and illustrated by Gilbert Ford. This non-fiction narrative picture book tells the story of how mechanical engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., designed the first Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Although this is a picture book primarily for kids ages 6-10, the vocabulary and concepts explored make it worthy of discussion for middle school and high school students as well. High school teachers may even want to contrast Mr. Ferris and His Wheel with the non-fiction thriller, The Devil in White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson. Contrasting the two books with older students provides an opportunity to talk about how different authors may use the same event to explore a topic for very different audiences and very different purposes.

I have been using my story plot analysis called Story Frames, to explore Mr. Ferris and His Wheel for the past couple of weeks with my third, fourth, and fifth grade students. For those of you unfamiliar with Story Frames, the tool I use to talk about story structure, see the description on my blog page entitled, The Secret Language of Stories. Information in bold below represents the key ideas for each section. Young children or children with expressive language challenges may only be able to state these key ideas. Older students may be expected to add more detail as well as transitions between ideas.

Check out the 10- Page VOCABULARY FREEBIE I have created for this book at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

It is part of a comprehensive 57-Page book companion also available on TpT entitled STORY FRAMES: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE FOR MR. FERRIS AND HIS WHEEL.

                               PLOT ANALYSIS FOR MR. FERRIS AND HIS WHEEL

The information in bold is the essential information I want my students to be able to discuss in their story retells and their written summaries.

Ordinary World: When George Ferris is a boy he dreams of riding on the water wheel he sees on the Carson River where he frequently goes fishing (see the very first illustration with the quote from Daniel H. Burnham). As an adult, Mr. Ferris works as a mechanical engineer in Pittsburgh designing roads, bridges, and tunnels.

Call & Response: The newspapers announce a nationwide contest for a design for the star attraction for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The judges don’t like any of the drawings. They all look like the Eiffel Tower, the star attraction of the 1889 World’s Fair in France.

Mentors, Guides & Gifts: George's partner, William, helps him create a design for a Monster Wheel. The wheel is inspired by the water wheel of George’s youth along with many other smaller items like bicycle tires.

Crossing: Mr. Ferris takes his drawing to Chicago to show it to the construction chief of the fair.

New World: The construction chief tells Mr. Ferris that his wheel looks flimsy and will collapse. Opening day draws near and there is still no star attraction.

Problem, Prize, & Plan: Ferris finally gets permission to build his Monster Wheel (Prize) but the construction chief won’t give him any money for the materials he needs (Problem). Mr. Ferris goes from bank to bank to ask for a loan (Implied Plan), but they won’t give him money either. He finally uses his own money and the money of some rich investors.

Midpoint Attempt: When George’s crew starts digging, they face two new challenges. The ground is frozen and the shovels break. Underneath the frozen earth they find 20 feet of quicksand.

Downtime Response: Thirty-five feet down, George’s crew finally hits solid ground. They erect the two towers and the axle that serve as the foundation for the wheel.

Chase & Escape: It’s a race to the finish as thousands of parts arrive by train every day. There are 100,000 parts in all and the men work non-stop to complete the Monster Wheel.

Death & Transformation: George’s partner, William, loses hope and wants to give up. He is responsible for the many parts. They finally finish the project and George’s water wheel is transformed into a Monster Wheel that’s 265 feet high.

Climax/Final Attempt: The final test is to see if the wheel will spin. On opening day, 2,000 people watch as George, his wife, and their guests board Car Number One. It’s the size of a living room with 40 velvet seats. The wheel works and news of George’s invention, now called the Queen of the Midway, soon spreads across the country.

Final Reward: George’s wife gives him and golden whistle. The investors decide to give the invention his name and call it the Ferris Wheel. The Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the “White City,” inspires the Emerald City in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as well as Disneyland. Walt Disney’s father was a construction worker at the fair.

Themes: The book explores several important themes including Inspiration and Invention.

1. INSPIRATION: Inspiration is a thread found throughout this wonderful little story. On the first page, before the book begins, we see an illustration of young George fishing by the water wheel on the Carson River. A drawing of the water wheel is also posted on the wall in his workshop. The illustration of his workshop includes many other items of inspiration such as a bicycle tire and a pencil sharpener. I like to have fun with students searching that page for the many things that inspired the design for the Ferris Wheel. In addition, the bird cage is the inspiration for the first sky scraper. The White City is the inspiration for the Emerald City and Disneyland.
2. INVENTION: The story is primarily about mechanical inventions, but it opens up discussions around all types of inventions including electric light bulbs, also appearing for the first time at the fair, and food inventions like the hamburger and Cracker Jacks. Cracker Jacks first appeared in 1893 at the Chicago World’s fair while the hamburger made its big debut at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Kids enjoy talking about interesting food inventions. I also like to point out that both George Ferris and Walt Disney had childhood dreams that seemed crazy at the time but later changed the world. I tell students that they might have an idea right now that will one day become a reality.

NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO GO TO DISNEYLAND: HOW TO TALK TO KIDS ABOUT WHAT THEY DID OVER SUMMER VACATION

I returned from break last spring and shared with my students my exciting trip to Italy to visit my daughter who was studying abroad. I usually just stay home and organize my closets during spring break, and I had never travelled across the ocean, so this was a big deal for me.

One of my students followed up by talking about taking a family trip to Disneyland. Another shared about visiting cousins in Colorado, then a third boy who had been very quiet up until that point shared how his family had gone to Hawaii and then New York City and then Florida. I got the distinct impression that he was confabulating his tale. This was a very low income school after all, and that's a lot of traveling for a one week vacation. But who could blame him? I had set the bar pretty high by describing my Italy trip.

As I'm preparing to return to school, I'm rethinking the typical summer break conversation and reframing it through a story plotting lens in a way that I hope will celebrate every student's summer experience. For a more complete discussion of my story analysis format, visit The Secret Language of Stories page on this blog. For activities based on this structure, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Page.

The Downtime of a story occurs after the Midpoint where there is major attempt by the hero to solve a problem or attain a prize. The Midpoint is full of action but the Downtime is when the hero must face the consequences of those actions. 

Students are typically good at creating action in their original stories and identifying these high points in the stories of others, but much can be gained from exploring what happens during the quieter moments in a story. These downtimes are when planning, reflection, and internal responses occur –the evidence of higher cognitive processes.

Since we are all returning from summer vacation where we most likely experienced adventure as well as downtime, and since these experiences are fresh on our minds as well as on the minds of our students, instead of giving them the age old assignment of "What did you do over summer vacation?" try this activity: As a class brainstorm two lists: 

Adventure vs. Downtime

1. Have students talk about their summer experiences and categorize these experiences as a group.

2. Discuss what makes one experience an adventure and what makes another experience an example of downtime. Are there any experiences that could be both?

3. Not all adventures involve going on an expensive vacation. Did anyone stay in their Ordinary World and have an adventure without leaving home? 

4. Highlight the importance of quiet times for our personal development, our mental development, and our stories.

5. Be sensitive to the fact that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not have stories to tell about riding in an airplane, going to the beach, of visiting an amusement park. Be sure to honor all experiences. 

6. Talk about examples of Downtime in movies students have seen over the summer.

7. What did I leave out? What are other ways you could explore Downtime with your students?

A Crazy Summer Adventure

If you want to turn this discussion into a writing assignment do the following:

1. Add additional examples of Adventure vs. Downtime to your lists. You may even want to download images from the internet for students who are visual learners.

2. Instruct students to choose one example from the Adventure list and one from the Downtime list.

3. Outline a story that leads to the Adventure and then reflects on the adventure during the Downtime.

4. Write the story and share it with the class.