Poiswood Bible on a Plate: Writing Kingsolver's Recipe

I recently joined a CSA (community supported agriculture). Every Monday, at the Kindergarten drop off my family picks up a big box of fresh, organic produce from Ma'o farms. Because we never know exactly what'll be in the box, we've had to adapt our cooking and eating habits. Every Monday, it's a planning exercise that involves: seeing what's in the box; using the internet and our network of fellow CSA members to figure out how to cook and prepare these particular veggies, herbs, and roots; and, combining the produce with the food we already have in the fridge and cabinets.

You might be wondering, at this point, what my box-o'-veggies has to do with English class? Everything! Remember, we're at the point in the year when we purposefully shift our attention as readers, writers, and thinkers to the connections between the parts and the whole. Inside of those connections are the observations, inferences, and assumptions that we all make and carry around. The more we exercise them, the better we'll be at thinking critically and creatively. And, you guessed it, the Quality Project will demand this kind of flexible, connective, adaptive thinking.

So today, you're going to write a recipe for PWB:

-take a look back at the ingredients you have already in the Poisonwood bible;
-you're going to consider the personal connections/questions/reactions/ideas (what's already in the cupboards);
-and combine them in ways that you think creates a healthy and tasty dish (a good story)

Think about this as you work on your recipe:
"What would you have to do to create a story that has these features?"


Ingredients need to include:

* characters
* events
* symbols
* quotes

Steps need to include:

* connections
* ideas
* elements of storytelling

Process needs to include

* accurate and precise language about how the ingredients and steps come together

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