The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite texts to use for teaching a craft lesson in writing workshop. A short synopsis: In a rainbow-colored station wagon that smelled like a real car, the relatives came. When they arrived, they hugged and hugged from the kitchen to the front room. All summer they tended the garden and ate up all the strawberries and melons. They plucked banjos and strummed guitars. When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer.
I use Rylant’s book in multiple lessons. In writing workshop I often teach that a story can take one of several shapes. The Relatives Came is a good text to use for modeling a with a circular shape.
A family leaves from one point to travel to a second point. Then at the end the family returns to the first point completing a circle. After the mini lesson I give the invitation to try writing a circular story soon. A second way to use her book The Relatives Came, is to model how an author uses words to make a long story short: The Relatives Came : pg 13
“So they they drank up all their pop and ate up all their crackers and traveled up all those miles until finally they pulled into our yard.”
In one sentence, Rylant has packed a whole lot of events to make it short. I then invite my writers to have-a-go at this technique. We celebrate when a young writer succeeds! It is an excellent mentor text to use for rich language and lyrical phrases as well.
I used this form with my class for their recent speeches. It worked really well! It is ...