Seventh-graders Get Historical Writing Lesson

September 24, 1995|By MARK DI VINCENZO Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS — In Shirley Daniels' 7th-grade language arts class at Hampton Roads Academy, sometimes a bottle of soda pop can really screw up a good sentence.

During a recent class, 12-year-old Noah Palmer read this sentence he composed aloud: ``Suddenly, Noah stopped and slowly stuttered to the clearing, stooped down by a tree and guzzled down a bottle of soda pop.''

Daniels' 7th-grade language arts class is writing a book of fiction based on the lives of Mennonite farmers who moved to Newport News in the late 19th century. Although the students are writing fiction, Daniels wouldn't let Palmer get away with the soda pop reference.

``We need to watch details for authenticity,'' she told the class. ``What would he be drinking? Was there soda pop back then?''

After a few suggestions from his classmates, Palmer changed ``soda pop'' to ``water'' and continued reading his rough draft.

Students in this class are learning there is more to writing historical fiction than just making things up.

``I want them to understand what a fiction writer goes through,'' Daniels said.

The students say they like writing historic fiction about the Mennonites, the first of whom came to the Peninsula in 1897 and began farming land near the Warwick River in what now is the Denbigh section of Newport News.

``When you write fiction, you look at the facts so it all makes sense,'' said 12-year-old Jonathan Shaw, ``but you also get to make up your own stuff.''

Much of the stuff they make up, they say, is about the characters they create. They can make them look, walk, talk and act how they want.

Twelve-year-old Issel Lim has a character named Sarah and Lim explained, ``When I picture Sarah, I see someone who's chubby with blonde curls. In my mind, she couldn't look any different than that.''

Palmer said he develops his characters by ``thinking of people you know and using different parts of their looks and personalities.''

The students say it helped a great deal to talk with local Mennonites who grew up decades ago when much of Newport News was rural and to tour the Yoder Farm, a dairy farm operated by Mennonites.

``They told us some of the stuff they would do,'' Lim said, ``and we get to include that in our stories.''


A 7th-grade language arts class at Hampton Roads Academy is writing a book of historic fiction based on the Mennonites who came to the Peninsula to farm in the late 19th century. The chapters are about their:

previous homesteads;

* preparation for the journey to Virginia;

* journey to Virginia;

* arrival;

* temporary home;

* permanent home;

* first year in Virginia;

* business operations;

* lives until World War I;

* lives from World War I to World War II.

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