Writing Processes -- 8th grade

Jimi & Me by Jaime Adoff

Keith is a young biracial boy whose father is killed in a violent shooting in Brooklyn, NY. He and his mother move to a small town in Ohio to try to pick up the pieces, but his whole life is changed. There are no other kids in his new 8th grade class like him -- none with an afro, who dress straight out of the 60's, and who love Jimi Hendrix and his music. Keith learns a lot about his father and learns to live again in this gripping story.

Winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award!

About the Author

Jaime Adoff was born in New York City, the son of award winning author Virginia Hamilton and renowned poet Arnold Adoff. He is a musician, a poet, and an author, and has written books for kindergartners through young adults. He thought writing was his "parents' gig" and he wanted to do something different, so he moved back to New York and started a band. He played there for about 10 years until he decided that wasn't what he wanted. Jaime began writing as most young people do, as a way to get his feelings down on paper, with a journal. While working with an exceptional publisher, he started writing books and realized his true calling. He now lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with his family, and he continues to write books for all ages. He likes realistic fiction and his focus is on books for young adult.

Content Standards

Writing Processes -- Grade 8

D. Use revision strategies to improve the overall organization, the clarity and consistency of ideas within and among paragraphs and the logic and effectiveness of word choices.

Activity

The writing processes that we'll study in 8th grade using this book will be drafting, revising, and editing. Jaime Adoff set the words of this book in a poetry format, with bold-printed words as the heading for each new section. The lines are double spaced, and it is broken up into chapters. All of this makes Jimi & Me an easy read for students with learning disabilities. We will read the first chapter of the book together in class, and I'll ask the students to pay close attention to the format of the pages. I'll ask questions to draw from the students why they think the author layed it out like this and what impact it has on them as readers. Why are some lines one word each, and others longer? Why does Jaime not capitalize the section headings?

We'll talk about how they, as authors, can use stratgies such as Jaime's to organize their writing and bring out the best meaning in their stories; how they can arrange paragraphs to have the most impact on the reader; and how they can use word choice to get their message across. After our discussion, students will draft a short story--at least three paragraphs--and take that story through the revising and editing process, using Jaime Adoff's format from Jimi & Me.

Resource

You can watch an interview with Jaime at his website: http://www.jaimeadoff.com/. He tells about his life as a musician and a writer and he gives some good advice for writers. You'll also find links for teachers of young writers and a discussion guide for Jimi & Me.