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Six
Traits Writing Ideas for
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
Prepared by Annie Weissman
Ideas:
Jack Gantos, the author, writes many times in the book about how Joey feels when he’s “wired.” Look on pages 11, 19, 38, and 62 to reread these and find some on your own.
Describe a time when you felt intense emotion: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, frustration, etc. Write who, what, when, where, and why of the incident as well as trying to capture the feeling.
Organization:
Joey Pigza’s story took place in the course of a few months. Make a timeline for the story that shows the major things that happened in the story.
Voice:
Joey, his mother, Mrs. Maxy, and Special Ed have distinct voices. Write a letter from one of them about something that happens in the book. It could be a letter from Joey to his Mom about his friend Charlie from the Special Ed Center; one from Mrs. Maxy about how trying to get him to follow the rules; one from Joey’s Mom to him, telling him about the trip to Pittsburgh from her point of view; a good bye letter from Special Ed when Joey leaves the Special Ed Center; or a character and situation you’ve chosen. Stay in the voice of the person writing the letter.
Word Choice:
Emotions run high in this book. Metaphors (comparing two things that are different to paint a picture) and similes (doing the same thing as a metaphor but using “like” or “as”) can be effective tools to describe intense emotions. Jack Gantos uses an interesting simile on p. 55 to describe Mrs. Deebs’ head. “Every time her head moved left or right I thought it was about to roll down her sloping shoulders like a boulder down a hill.”
Think outside the box of clichés. Instead of writing “Joey (or I) was as mad as a hornet,” try to think of your own metaphors and similes to describe the people and emotions in the book. Example: “Joey’s Mom’s eyes filled with an ocean of waves, salty, and uncontrollable.”
Sentence Fluency:
Write a description of one of the main characters in the book by writing three sentences. Make the first one a simple sentence, the second one a compound sentence, and the third one a very long and complex sentence. Try to make the ideas in the sentences match the structures.
Example: Joey’s Mom
Simple sentence: Joey’s Mom abandoned Joey.
Complex sentence: Joey’s Mom got herself together and came back to take care of Joey.
Long and complex sentence: Joey’s Mom loved Joey but felt guilty about his problems: having to live with his abusive grandmother, having a dad who was alcoholic, her own absence when she needed him, his medical problems of paying attention, and his behavioral problems of making good decisions.
Conventions:
Edit the above writing assignments using a grade appropriate check list.
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