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EXERCISE: It's in the comics
Jan. 21st, 2010 04:02 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
mbarker.livejournal.comOriginal posting 14 Dec 2009
The other day there was a TV bit about a juku -- the intensive schools that many Japanese children attend. This particular one focuses on first to third year elementary school students, and apparently has been shown to have a reasonably effective program. Interestingly, the organizer of the school explained that they really only teach two things. Or maybe three, given their approach. The first one is reading, and the second one is writing. He said that he feels the focus on communication skills translates into other fields, such as mathematics.
The third one is kind of subtle. Each session at the school is 90 minutes long, and during that time the students are only doing one thing. For example, during the reading session, the students read for 90 minutes. They do nothing else but read. Sit and read. According to the organizer, he thinks that many students need to learn to focus on doing one thing for a period of time. TV and other influences teach distraction -- this class teaches focus.
The writing sessions are also 90 minutes of writing. However, they did indicate that there are several exercises that the students can choose between for their writing practice. If I understood correctly, once you start one, you do that for ninety minutes, but they do have several different ones. And... that's where I picked up something that sounded worthwhile for our list.
See, one of the exercises that they do is to take one of the books of comics -- four panel comics? -- and write it out. Describe the setting, characters, action and dialogue in the first panel, and then do the same for the second panel, and so on. If you finish one four-panel chunk, move on to the next. And...
It's kind of interesting because comics don't actually show action, they just imply it. But they certainly do show setting, and converting that into writing is good exercise in description. Deciding what the action really is, figuring out how to make the punchline punch... I think it's a good exercise.
So, go ahead and laugh. Then write!
(psst. http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/ says they have 14,900 comics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcomic also provides links
or you can ask your friends what they like... huh, there's even comics in the bookstores in those funny little paper things...)
The other day there was a TV bit about a juku -- the intensive schools that many Japanese children attend. This particular one focuses on first to third year elementary school students, and apparently has been shown to have a reasonably effective program. Interestingly, the organizer of the school explained that they really only teach two things. Or maybe three, given their approach. The first one is reading, and the second one is writing. He said that he feels the focus on communication skills translates into other fields, such as mathematics.
The third one is kind of subtle. Each session at the school is 90 minutes long, and during that time the students are only doing one thing. For example, during the reading session, the students read for 90 minutes. They do nothing else but read. Sit and read. According to the organizer, he thinks that many students need to learn to focus on doing one thing for a period of time. TV and other influences teach distraction -- this class teaches focus.
The writing sessions are also 90 minutes of writing. However, they did indicate that there are several exercises that the students can choose between for their writing practice. If I understood correctly, once you start one, you do that for ninety minutes, but they do have several different ones. And... that's where I picked up something that sounded worthwhile for our list.
See, one of the exercises that they do is to take one of the books of comics -- four panel comics? -- and write it out. Describe the setting, characters, action and dialogue in the first panel, and then do the same for the second panel, and so on. If you finish one four-panel chunk, move on to the next. And...
It's kind of interesting because comics don't actually show action, they just imply it. But they certainly do show setting, and converting that into writing is good exercise in description. Deciding what the action really is, figuring out how to make the punchline punch... I think it's a good exercise.
So, go ahead and laugh. Then write!
(psst. http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/ says they have 14,900 comics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcomic also provides links
or you can ask your friends what they like... huh, there's even comics in the bookstores in those funny little paper things...)
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