As a kid, I always loved reading because books can take you places you’ll never be able to go yourself. They can pull you into a world entirely separate from your own, which is exactly what Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall did. The child in me enjoyed this read because I was able to fight the Spanish alongside Calzito to protect the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, and battle dehydration and exhaustion with Sitali as she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. The educator in me also knows how books hold the immense power to help our students navigate the world, explore new worlds, and explore their own identities and experiences.
The teacher in me saw the beautiful language and the rich potential of this story to inspire future writers. With this belief in mind, and the joy that came from reading Secret of the Moon Conch, I created two writing prompts using the book as a mentor text to help students write.
The first prompt asks students to explore familial relationships and the second prompt asks them to think intentionally about how to to describe setting.
Processing Familial Relationships Through Writing
The first writing prompt centers around the quote: “My mother died because the wrong man touched her. She turned into a little red bird and flew to heaven. But I am not my mother. I won’t let a man’s hand send me into a fright.” This quote is relatively short, but packed with conviction, metaphor, and symbolism. It also goes well with one of the themes of the book, the breaking of generational patterns and the desire Sitali and Calzito have to be better people than their parents. The quote also has a distinct structure, which lends itself to easy replication for students. Using all this information, I created the following prompt for students to explore their own relationships with family and follow the structure of the quote to inspire the first stanza of a poem they could expand upon later.
Writing Prompt
Navigating family relationships while trying to figure out your own identity can be difficult for everyone, especially teenagers. When you spend enough time with your family, it can be hard to act differently from them even though you may want to. Look at the following passage and notice how the character talks about her parents, and how her relationship with them has affected her own identity. Write a poem about how someone in your family has affected your identity, using the same structure as this passage to create your first stanza.
Passage:
“My mother died because the wrong man touched her. She turned into a little red bird and flew to heaven. But I am not my mother. I won’t let a man’s hand send me into a fright.”
Structure:
My (family member) (verb) because ______.
They (metaphor or simile) and (verb).
But I am not my (family member).
I won’t _________.
Describing Setting While Thinking About Tone:
The second prompt focuses on developing writing skills around setting. It can be particularly difficult for students to describe settings using senses other than sight, as well as varying their vocabulary choices. David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall make many distinct vocabulary choices throughout the book, choices which help convey tone as well as describing setting. This is exemplified in the following passage: “Looking down at the parched earth under my feet, I wonder if my blood and organs will slip into the crevices of this desolate land. Will the best parts of me give birth to red-and-orange cactus blossoms? Will my restless spirit fade and blow away with time, sending seedlings of my soul adrift, like the feathered dandelions?”
This prompt consists of two parts. For the first part, students draw the setting described in the passage, with evidence from the passage to back up their artistic choices. This allows students to engage in multimodal forms of literacy, as well as showing them why and how descriptions of setting impact the story from the reader’s perspective.
Multi-modal Prompt
Setting is so important to understanding a story. Writers have to carefully choose their words, using strong adjectives and adverbs to help the reader envision the setting in their head. Read the following passage and draw a picture that represents the setting using clues and evidence gathered from the text.
Passage:
“Looking down at the parched earth under my feet, I wonder if my blood and organs will slip into the crevices of this desolate land. Will the best parts of me give birth to red-and-orange cactus blossoms? Will my restless spirit fade and blow away with time, sending seedlings of my soul adrift, like the feathered dandelions?”
For the second part of the prompt, students look at a photo of their school to write about as a setting. By having all the students write about the same image it is easier to see how tone impacts descriptions of setting. One student might see the school through an optimistic lens, showcasing it as a place of learning and opportunity. Another student might see the school through a critical lens, showcasing the monotony and lack of autonomy they experience. Students are provided the photo of the school and a template to complete their writing.
The teacher in me saw the beautiful language and the rich potential of this story to inspire future writers. With this belief in mind, and the joy that came from reading Secret of the Moon Conch, I created two writing prompts using the book as a mentor text to help students write.
The first prompt asks students to explore familial relationships and the second prompt asks them to think intentionally about how to to describe setting.
Processing Familial Relationships Through Writing
The first writing prompt centers around the quote: “My mother died because the wrong man touched her. She turned into a little red bird and flew to heaven. But I am not my mother. I won’t let a man’s hand send me into a fright.” This quote is relatively short, but packed with conviction, metaphor, and symbolism. It also goes well with one of the themes of the book, the breaking of generational patterns and the desire Sitali and Calzito have to be better people than their parents. The quote also has a distinct structure, which lends itself to easy replication for students. Using all this information, I created the following prompt for students to explore their own relationships with family and follow the structure of the quote to inspire the first stanza of a poem they could expand upon later.
Writing Prompt
Navigating family relationships while trying to figure out your own identity can be difficult for everyone, especially teenagers. When you spend enough time with your family, it can be hard to act differently from them even though you may want to. Look at the following passage and notice how the character talks about her parents, and how her relationship with them has affected her own identity. Write a poem about how someone in your family has affected your identity, using the same structure as this passage to create your first stanza.
Passage:
“My mother died because the wrong man touched her. She turned into a little red bird and flew to heaven. But I am not my mother. I won’t let a man’s hand send me into a fright.”
Structure:
My (family member) (verb) because ______.
They (metaphor or simile) and (verb).
But I am not my (family member).
I won’t _________.
Describing Setting While Thinking About Tone:
The second prompt focuses on developing writing skills around setting. It can be particularly difficult for students to describe settings using senses other than sight, as well as varying their vocabulary choices. David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall make many distinct vocabulary choices throughout the book, choices which help convey tone as well as describing setting. This is exemplified in the following passage: “Looking down at the parched earth under my feet, I wonder if my blood and organs will slip into the crevices of this desolate land. Will the best parts of me give birth to red-and-orange cactus blossoms? Will my restless spirit fade and blow away with time, sending seedlings of my soul adrift, like the feathered dandelions?”
This prompt consists of two parts. For the first part, students draw the setting described in the passage, with evidence from the passage to back up their artistic choices. This allows students to engage in multimodal forms of literacy, as well as showing them why and how descriptions of setting impact the story from the reader’s perspective.
Multi-modal Prompt
Setting is so important to understanding a story. Writers have to carefully choose their words, using strong adjectives and adverbs to help the reader envision the setting in their head. Read the following passage and draw a picture that represents the setting using clues and evidence gathered from the text.
Passage:
“Looking down at the parched earth under my feet, I wonder if my blood and organs will slip into the crevices of this desolate land. Will the best parts of me give birth to red-and-orange cactus blossoms? Will my restless spirit fade and blow away with time, sending seedlings of my soul adrift, like the feathered dandelions?”
For the second part of the prompt, students look at a photo of their school to write about as a setting. By having all the students write about the same image it is easier to see how tone impacts descriptions of setting. One student might see the school through an optimistic lens, showcasing it as a place of learning and opportunity. Another student might see the school through a critical lens, showcasing the monotony and lack of autonomy they experience. Students are provided the photo of the school and a template to complete their writing.
The second part of the writing prompt requires students to bring in their own image to describe using the same tools they used for the picture of their school. The goal is to provide students the chance to bring in a picture of a place that is important or significant to them, while continuing to practice the skills they just learned. Students can use the same template to write about their image or write with no template, which provides an opportunity for differentiation. For a fun additional activity, if time allows, students could share their writing with the class and have them draw a picture like they did in part one, then reveal the picture once everyone is finished. My example photo and writing template is below.
Creating these prompts was a really fun way to engage with Secret of the Moon Conch by David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall. The text also has really good Latinx representation and historical information about the Aztec empire as well as the infusion of Spanish and Nahuatl language into the story and dialogue. While I think these prompts could be used in grades 6-10, the book itself contains some mature writing and topics that would be best enjoyed by grades 9 and up. You can find the full PDF versions of these prompts linked below.
Processing Familial Relationships Through Writing
Describing Setting While Thinking About Tone
Elizabeth Seeker is a senior at Vanderbilt University studying Secondary Education English. She is currently student teaching, will gradaute in May, and begin a M.Ed. in Reading Education.
Processing Familial Relationships Through Writing
Describing Setting While Thinking About Tone
Elizabeth Seeker is a senior at Vanderbilt University studying Secondary Education English. She is currently student teaching, will gradaute in May, and begin a M.Ed. in Reading Education.
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