The Marrow Thieves Lesson Plan

Writing Suspense Like Dimaline

Kind of Activity:

Creative Writing

Objective:

Students will analyze how Dimaline creates suspense in her writing and imitate that technique in their own writing to better understand how and why it works.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.3

Structure:

Consider this passage from the text:

The man didn’t answer at first. His eyes had become glassy and his lips were too thick for clear speech. He reminded me of Wab that day back at the Four Winds: distorted somehow. Travis squeezed his grip on the man and smiled real tight until he answered....