Outlines for narrative, essay-style or descriptive texts.
The website
www.ercolebonjean.com
is rich with writing material for elementary schools and the relative
working structures. This consists of over 200 essays to read, save
and print if needed, which could be useful as starting point for
classroom work. Here are some examples:
Writing a description of a person
My teacher
He is so funny he is like a clown. Yes, I am talking about my
teacher, Ercole Bonjean.
My teacher is of strong build; his hair is grey and white, and his
eyes are bright blue, full of joy. He has an aquiline nose, very
funny, a thin and narrow mouth, which is often smiling, all contained
in a plump face.
My teacher behaves and acts just like a teacher. Ercole is very, very
generous, vivacious, and cheerful with us; sometimes when we disobey
he is very strict, but also calm. Ercole is at ease in his
environment and in any situation. My teacher makes me feel happy and
cheerful.
At the beginning of the year, the teacher began to explain planets to
us: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, and he told us that
they corresponded to days of the week: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday.
To sum up, my teacher is amazing!
My mother
“What did you do today at school”: these are the first words that
my mum says to me when I come home from school. My mum is called
Paola.
She has a slim figure and is of above-average height. She has dark
chestnut hair with red highlights which curl at the end, her eyes are
brown and so expressive that by looking at her you understand her
mood; her nose is regular, but towards her nostrils it looks like a
button nose. Her mouth is big, her upper lip is thin while the lower
lip is fuller.
She is fun because she likes to joke. Sometimes she is strict and
when she is angry she is like an erupting volcano. She is very
affectionate because before we go to sleep she gives me so many
kisses. She is upbeat because when we are in the car she starts
singing.
One day I had forgotten to do my homework and I had already gone to
catechism school. After a while my mum realised that I still hadn’t
finished my math homework, so she told me to go and finish it, but
since it was already time for dinner she wrote the calculations on a
piece of paper. I then transcribed them on my notebook.
Since that day my mum showed me that she was also a good friend.
Essay taken from the book Il
Maestro Sembra un Clown, (1996,
CEI) published with the sponsorship of the Comune di Imperia.
Learning how to narrate an experience
I hadn’t done my homework and I was afraid that…
Alberto forgot to study a nursery rhyme by heart as he was assigned
to do. On the day of the interrogation Alberto is afraid, but he
finds the courage to tell Mr Bonjean right away. He understands and
forgives him, and asks him to learn the nursery rhyme for the next
day.
Back home, Alberto studies as hard as he can; and the next day he
recites the nursery rhyme perfectly.
His smile returns, especially after writing down on his diary his
great new mark for recitation.
SCHEME
Characters: Alberto, Mr Bonjean.
Environment: classroom 3B
Problem: Alberto hasn’t studied the nursery rhyme assigned.
Conclusion: Alberto gets a great mark for reciting the nursery rhyme
and is praised by both teacher and classmates.
In the woods in autumn
SCHEME
Visual details: the colours of nature: the bare trees, the green,
yellow and red leaves, and their shape. Sunrays filtering through the
woods. Some birds jumping from branch to branch.
Auditory details: birds tweeting, leaves being shaken by the wind.
Sensations: pleasure of being in contact with nature in this
particular time of year, my emotions while watching nature approach
winter.
It’s autumn. In the woods the trees are shedding red leaves which
are being led to the ground by the wind, like death, forming a carpet
on the wet soil. I am looking at some sort of multicolour butterfly
rain and I feel like taking some to remind me of the colourful autumn
which is about to end. But my attention gets caught by a quiet
squeaking: it’s a small brown squirrel taking an acorn to its hole
on the tree. It’s so endearing. After a while a cool breeze lifts
some leaves and makes them spin in the air. In the woods, silence
falls. It’s a magical silence topped by a few sunrays filtering
through the small tree leaves. It’s relaxing. But now it’s
getting dark, and although I feel a great sadness while I leave the
woods, I will never forget this day.
Textual analysis: King Smoke-eater
Once upon a time in a big ancient castle…
… there was a King called Smoke-eater who smoked too much.
One day, while the king was walking in the garden, his maid, without
him knowing, replaced the good cigars with others which made whoever
smoked them cough until death.
Smoke-eater came back from his walk, sat on his chair, lit up a
cigar, and he hadn’t even finished the first drag when he started
coughing.
The maid, seeing that the King was sick, told him:
“Your Majesty, I will give you cough medicine if you promise me
you’ll stop smoking.”
The King accepted the medicine, and he never smoked again because he
understood that smoking is bad, and he married the maid who helped
him.
Constructing an essay-like text
Respecting nature
SCHEME
Introduction: nature is precious.
Arguments in favour: nature nourishes us, it gives us water, it gives
us oxygen.
Arguments against: there are none.
Conclusion: I reaffirm what I said in the introduction.
Essay:
Respecting nature.
Nature is a precious good and should not be exploited for useless
activities like hunting. By exploiting it we damage ourselves because
nature nourishes us, it gives us water and oxygen.
I hate men who hunt for entertainment or those horrible furs that
people wear to be fashionable. We should not kill animals especially
those at risk of extinction because in a few years they will not be
there anymore.
Air is the most indispensible part of nature, because without air we
would die as we would be unable to breathe. Unfortunately factories
are severely polluting our air, and even cars are worsening air
quality with the smoke coming out of their exhaust pipes. The air’s
worst enemy is smog resulting from smoke pollution.
Water is the part of nature which helps us survive because without
water we would die of dehydration.
Our waters are very polluted because factories, with their drainage
pipes, throw away their waste in rivers and consequently, in seas.
Our waters have lost their transparency and are now of a greenish
colour because of the following reasons: factories, oil tanker, and
ships. In fact, if we looked at the river Po we would be horrified at
how polluted it is.
Trees are fundamental for human survival because they produce oxygen
and they give us fruit rich in vitamins that make our bodies strong
and healthy.
Unfortunately many forests are being eradicated in order to build
motorways, buildings, skyscrapers and big squares.
In the summer trees are even more useful because they protect us from
sunrays and create shade. I repeat what I said in the beginning:
nature is a precious good, and without realizing it we are destroying
the planet.
Recounting your own experience
SCHEME
Characters: Lucrezia, Mr Bonjean, his wife Franca.
Environment: the teacher’s house.
Problem: Lucrezia is hungry and Mr Bonjean is asleep.
Solution: the cat understands she has to wake him up, and she
succeeds.
Conclusion: the teacher feeds the cat.
Essay: A scary night
It’s the middle of the night. Only the passage of a few cars
briefly breaks the silence of the house; Mr Bonjean sleeps soundly.
Lucrezia, comfortably resting on an armchair, can’t fall asleep,
she feels her stomach protesting its hunger: she wants to be fed.
Slowly she goes into the bedroom and loudly meows. Mr Bonjean
continues with his dreams as if nothing was happening, and indeed he
covers his face with a blanket. The cat is now very hungry, so she
jumps on the bedside table, gets ready… and jumps on the teacher’s
head giving her very best meows. Mr Bonjean and his wife Franca shout
at the top of their lungs: “Help! We are being robbed!” Having
recovered from the sudden scare, they turn the lights on and
understand what is happening. The little rascal is now smiling on the
floor. “Ercole, you forgot to feed her… poor thing! Hurry up and
give her the shrimp with salmon.”
Lucrezia is now satisfied, so she softly strokes her head against her
“master’s” leg and finally lies on the couch as if nothing had
happened.
Structuring an essay (working structure)
Topic: is homework really necessary?
SCHEME
Introduction: I introduce my argument with my opinion.
Arguments in favour:
It’s
an exercise which helps us improve our understanding of the work we
have done at school
It
helps us go deeper into the topics covered at school.
By
doing homework we realize what we didn’t understand during class.
Studying
a lesson helps us understand what was explained by the teachers.
Arguments against:
Homework
should not take up most of our free time.
Homework
should be interesting.
According
to us, punishment homework is not necessary.
Even
if useful, sometimes it is a struggle for us.
Main body of the essay:
Conclusion: I conclude with a comment that summarises what I said in
the essay.
Essay:
Teachers give us homework to make us memorize, expand on and study
the topics we have covered during the day; sometimes teachers help us
by giving us information that isn’t written on our books.
When we do our homework we realise whether we have made mistakes or
if we haven’t really understood what the teacher explained.
Doing homework and studying our lessons help us memorize the concepts
learnt in class, and it also helps us learn how to work
independently, without the teacher’s or the classmates’ help.
It is important to have a homework schedule for the week so as to not
leave tons of homework for the very last day, since that would take
up the entire afternoon. Homework should not take up too much of our
time because we also need time to play games or sports.
I can usually do my homework quickly, but if I find the subject too
boring it takes me a lot longer. This year I have enjoyed doing
research for History class because I can look up information on the
internet with my mum and dad, which allows us to find a lot of trivia
which is not written on books.
I don’t like punishment homework very much even if sometimes we
deserve them, especially in Ms Loredana’s class.
Homework is undoubtedly necessary but sometimes it is a struggle for
us: I have often had to stay home on a Sunday afternoon to study when
I would have preferred to go out and play!
Translation by Chiara Amoretti
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