The goal of literary work (of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of text (Barthes 1975, cited by Rosen 1985, p.385)
This article is written with the intention to inform and provide reflection. With the Book Trust’s ‘The Write Book‘ research summary coming out in March – we were excited to see what it concluded.
We have entitled our article after the saying that: you give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day – teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. That is what we have tried to achieve through our own approach to the idea of traditional ‘Book Planning’ or ‘Novel Study’.
Ever since reading The Reader In The Writer, we have always advocated for children using books of their choice to inform their writing. There is no greater joy than showing children that through literature we can take and find signs from our own lives – either real or imagined. This is exactly what our favourite writers do – so why not teach children to do it too?
Perhaps, what we as teachers shouldn’t do is do this important work on behalf of our pupils. To feel those kind of relationships with books means to be deeply and personally involved in a text you have struck a connection with. This is different from being required to get involved in a text that your teacher has chosen.
For in most classrooms the chief and privileged story-teller (stories of any kind) is the teacher – Harold Rosen
If our students are to take lessons from literature, they need to be doing more of the legwork, having more of the fun, reaping more of the rewards – Shelley Harwayne
The real author of the narrative is not only he who tells it, but also, at times even more, he who hears it – Gérard Genette
This year, we have taught all the children in our class how a writer will use the books they’ve read to generating an original idea. This has included teaching them how real authors use their favourite texts to influence their own short-stories, poetry, ‘faction’ and non-fiction pieces. We haven’t asked them to use a single book on which they must hang their writing.
We taught them to consider the following when reading:
- Ask: does this book remind me of anything from my life?
- Ask: does this book remind me of anything else I’ve seen or read?
- Ask: what do I have in common with this book?
- Ask: why did I pick up this book?
- Collect: plot ideas, characters, favourite lines, settings and put them in their personal writing project books.
- Say: Cor, I would love to nick that…
- Say: I could have a go at writing something like that…
Because writing is a social act, we model how to do it as a class with the ultimate aim being that children begin to do it on their own – with their own texts.
We believe this approach is enabling. It takes children off what Donald Graves articulates perfectly as ‘writers’ welfare.’ Children, for once (maybe in a long time), have been shown and then encouraged to develop their own writing voice on a book or theme of their own choosing (the benefits of which can be seen in the research references below) and is a strategy they can use throughout their time at school and beyond.
It’s ironic that, when children are younger they are actively encouraged to write/mark-make about any text that may have inspired them, yet once they enter infant and primary school, this privilege is largely taken away.
In ‘Teachers As Readers: Building Communities Of Readers,’ it talks about teachers who undertake ‘novel study’ literacy units with their classes. It describes how read aloud sessions are usually followed by literacy work focused on developing word, sentence or text level skills linked to the reading. It states that this type of writing-teaching has serious potential consequences. The children in the study explain that whilst their teacher read aloud they often didn’t like it. This is because, in part, they knew it would involve subsequent written work. Teachers are inadvertently tethering writing tasks onto reading aloud and children don’t like it.
‘This process of [novel-study] can sap central enjoyment and satisfaction away from the act of reading and responding. There is widespread and self-defeating refusal to see that literature cannot be taught by a direct approach, and that the teacher who weighs in with talk or lecture [on a text of their choice] is more likely to kill a personal response than to support and develop it. (Dixon, 1967)
If we teach writing in this way, it could become all too easy for children to feel that their own responses to a book they would have chosen to be inspired by is unimportant.
Some may of course recognise this as sounding incredibly similar to the failed Literacy Strategy and the dreaded ‘Literacy Hour’. The dryness of schematic and systematic analysis of imagery, symbols, linguistic and grammatical features as well as structural relations killed any potential enthusiasm children would have had to respond, in writing, to the texts they were reading. It is personal written response to literature and not literary criticism which we should be looking to teach during writing lessons. Or as Parry & Taylor (2018) call it: ‘‘leisure reading equalling volitional writing’.
Incidentally, we too have spoken on the subject of the over use of writing-stimuli having negative effects on children’s writing potentials here; how it is dangerous to believe children are too ‘culturally deprived’ to choose an appropriate book topic of their own here and the importance of providing authentic and meaningful writing projects here.
Bodies of knowledge – about life, about books, about words – are among the products of [children’s] work. It is possible to regard these bodies of knowledge as the ‘content’ for a writing lesson (John Dixon, 1967 p.74)
You may find the following, taken from our article here, interesting reading too:
Book Planning / Novel Study
This approach is some people’s response to the skills approach. It looks to fill the vacuum left by the skills model. The concept is that teachers can be the gate-keepers of what is best in terms of literature and hand this down to a generation. In a happy way, they believe that the great writers can offer a variety of models on which pupils’ writing can be hung. However, this turns language into a one-way process: pupils are receivers of the master’s voice. How does an activity like novel study relate to the ways in which professional writers write every day? Novel study is misleading many teachers into focusing on the teaching of the stimuli itself at the expense of showing children how writers are informed and inspired by their reading and how they can do this too. This misconception of how writers work has very far-reaching consequences. By concentrating on the stimuli (the book), the teacher controls both the book and the relevance that is to be taken from the book. The question of relevance for the children rarely enters their head.
Limitations Of Such An Approach
- The main limitation of course concerns ‘culture’. This model stresses culture as a given and one that is chosen by the teacher(s). Therefore, there is the constant and systematic ignoring of ‘culture’ as the pupils in the class may know it. A network of attitudes, experiences and personal reflections that children bring to the classroom are largely ignored.
- It perpetuates the concept that literature itself is a given, a ready made structure which children are simply asked to imitate. The content is chosen as noble and rich enough as being worthy of study.
- This approach denies children exposure to compositional processes which are used by writers. For example: generating and publishing original thoughts, ideas and concepts, reflecting on lived experiences, reactions to one’s own reading material, wanting to share something we know a lot about and wanting to make changes to the world. In other words, strategies which could show children how writing can and will relate to their own life and experiences are hugely underdeveloped.
- It therefore neglects the most fundamental aim of writing teaching – to promote interaction with one’s self (through reflection) and between people.
- As a result, writing has been interpreted as the study of texts and ‘imitating’ it out by order of the teacher. It deals largely in pre-formatted activities and writing-tasks which are solely there for assessment purposes.
When we, as teachers, mine our favourite texts for potential ideas for writing, we get excited about sharing what we’ve liked or noticed with the children. We also learn a great deal about the book. Therefore shouldn’t we be teaching children the strategies we are employing when we plan novel study so that they can undertake such strategies on their own chosen texts instead? Can they be allowed to enjoy what we enjoy?
This year, we have taught the children in our class how they can successfully use any book in their writing that has had an impact on them. We have done this in a number of ways:
- Provided the children with a class library full of high-quality texts including poetry, classics and non-fiction.
- Afforded children the opportunity to bring books in from home into the class library or bring books in from the local library to share.
- Shown them how they can write ‘inspired by poems‘ and created regular time for them to engage in that kind of writing.
- Shown them how to dabble in their writer’s notebook as they are reading.
- Shown them how to appreciate certain character development, setting descriptions or beautifully crafted sentences in their reading, how to make a note of it in their ‘Writing Tricks Books’ and then use those jottings to inform their own story, flash-fiction, poetry, ‘faction’ or non-fiction writing.
- Shown them how to ‘hybrid’ two or more of their favourite books to look for themes that they could exploit for their own writing.
- Shown them how to ‘hybrid’ genres in new and unexpected ways using themes from their reading.
- Shared many exemplar texts written by children and ourselves that model how this has been done successfully and made these available to read in the class library.
- Shown them how to write ‘fan-fiction’.
- Having a book that is read as a ‘class-read’ which the children can be inspired by.
We have done this because the research on effective writing teaching points this way. Create a class of producers instead of consumers (or at best imitators) and writing outcomes and attitudes will improve dramatically. Let children be participants in class writing projects as opposed to recipients. We are fortunate in being able to see the research and theory come together in practice and succeed.
‘When published authors give advice about becoming writers they invariably tell their audience to read as much as possible. Ofsted’s survey of 12 outstanding schools revealed that visits to libraries, plentiful reading aloud by teachers and the provision of good-quality up-to-date texts stimulated pupils to read more and inspired them with ideas for their own writing (Ofsted, 2011).
Children who read more, write more and write better. Since the 1980s, research evidence has shown that reading and being read to help children to develop models for writing: children who read particular genres, such as stories using metafictive devices, can be inspired to create something of their own in that genre (Pantaleo, 2007b).
Stories they have read may also suggest events or predicaments for children to include in their own texts. Indeed for children as well as adults, all writing is intertextual.’ (Dombey/UKLA 2013, p.23)
Each new text written reflects, in some measure, the shadows of texts experienced in the past. (Cairney, 1990, p.484)
The goal of education in general, and any writing program in particular, is to help students gain independence. (Ted DeMille, p.145)
Children are ‘always in a high state of readiness to transform into story not only what [they] experience directly but also what they hear and read. (Rosen, 1985)
The increased attention placed on novel study or book planning as a single writing approach has led to the elimination of other approaches and for no good reason. Glenn (2007) & Rosen (2018) argue that, when we allow students to write fiction that’s unrelated to a specific text, their commitment to and resulting understanding of texts more generally is enhanced and encourages children to be more motivated writers.
Gay Su Pinnell (1989) reports on a successful programme with ‘at risk’ children. It showed how children were encouraged to make connections between their reading and writing as a way of boosting their academic achievement. The tasks were not a matter of imitating a book extract or completing a writing task related to a class novel – but instead the children were immersed in a community of rich texts. In response to having read something they felt was great, they had an eye on how they could write like their heroes and as a result learnt how to be better writers.
Imitating the masters is universal in all art and is often the first stage in any creative process. This is why our Genre-Booklets are proving to be so popular. They share with children: the patterns, the approach writers take and the linguistic features that can be deployed in story writing. Some people have recently asked, how do you get children to write their own unique stories without using a whole-class mentor text or any other kind of writing stimulus? We’ll look to explain how below.
No one should be in any doubt that it’s important to show children how other accomplished authors do what they do. It’s also important that children have time to enjoy, appreciate, discuss, understand and try imitating aspects of the books they are reading. And most importantly – we need to show children how they can do this for themselves.
Our Flash-Fiction Genre-Booklet is essentially a writing project designed to help children identify story patterns, use ‘author voice’ and create stories independently. The stories that are exemplars within the Genre-Booklet are deliberately short and show children that this type of writing is well within their grasp.
The exemplar texts showcase how a short story can be constructed using only 250/300 words. We try to keep this limit in the children’s minds as they write too, so as to avoid the inevitable ‘and then…‘ syndrome. Educator Nancie Atwell makes the point that even the children in her middle-school (12+) can find anything longer than 300 words difficult to handle and in our experience, working with children from 5-11, this can often be said about them too.
Our exemplar texts are there to showcase how the linguistic features of story telling can be used effectively. These include:
- How they can use the typical themes of literature,
- A clear and memorable telling of an event (including different types of openings and endings),
- Using inviting language,
- Thought provoking descriptions of characters, settings or special objects.
Once these features have been made explicit to the children, we encourage them to generate their very own writing ideas. This includes strategies like:
- Using the books they have read during DEAR time.
At this point, we should say that this approach is most effective if you adopt an approach to reading that is very similar to ours. To read about how our children are reading during DEAR time, follow this link. Essentially though, you need to be reading high-quality literature and poetry aloud, encouraging children to read independently and giving them plenty of time to do so.
- Using their ‘linguistic collections’ from their Writing-Tricks Books.
Again, these collections come from the children’s reading during DEAR time. To read about ‘Writing-Tricks Books’ click here. Essentially though, this is a book which lives in their trays, encourages children to write down things they notice their favourite authors doing and the sentences and themes they like the most. Children are encouraged to dip into these collections when they are generating ideas for writing.
- Our 10 strategies for idea-generating, which can be found here.
These are strategies that encourage children to write stories from personal interests, recounts, loves, hates, idiosyncrasies, hobbies and obsessions. These 10 strategies unearth a whole bouquet of potential topics for stories.
If a child is using a book or a ‘collection of great phrases’ as a means for a story idea, we ask them to try and integrate a personal experiences into their stories. We do this because children often find writing stories easier as a result. In our class, we call these types of stories ‘Inspired by…‘ stories, after the poem ‘My Yellow Dog’ in the book ‘Love That Dog‘. We’ve noticed that what begins as imitation or impersonation soon moves beyond that by the time the children have finished their writing.
And so we were pleased to read in the Book Trust’s ‘The Write Book‘ research summary that we are indeed on the right lines:
- Children enjoy writing more, and write better, when they’re inspired by a high quality book they’ve loved.
- Book choice is key in encouraging children’s creative response. (and who better to choose than the child themselves).
- Using high quality books to inspire and emulate writing encourages children to think of themselves as writers (even more so if you have taught them an idea generating strategy that is genuinely used by published authors).
- Improved the technical elements of their writing such as vocabulary, descriptive writing skills and sentence structure.
- Developed more interest in and enthusiasm for books and writing.
- Wrote voluntarily at home and in free time at school, often when they had never done so before.
And so, in many ways, we are inviting you to combine the best of educational research. Use what ‘The Write Book,’ The Reader & The Writer and what the meta-analysis (here) says about the teaching of writing to create a truly effective, memorable and life-long writing curriculum.
If you’d like to read more about how the children writing independently in our class, you can go here.
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The word derives from the Latin verb narrare , "to tell", which is derived from the adjective gnarus , "knowing" or "skilled". Narrative can be organized in a number of thematic or formal categories: Narrative is found in all forms of human creativity, art, and entertainment, including speech , literature , theatre , music and song , comics , journalism , film , television and video , video games , radio , gameplay , unstructured recreation , and performance in general, as well as some painting , sculpture , drawing , photography , and other visual arts , as long as a sequence of events is presented.
Several art movements, such as modern art , refuse the narrative in favor of the abstract and conceptual. Oral storytelling is the earliest method for sharing narratives. Narratives may also be nested within other narratives, such as narratives told by an unreliable narrator a character typically found in noir fiction genre.
An important part of narration is the narrative mode , the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process narration see also "Narrative Aesthetics" below.
Along with exposition , argumentation , and description , narration, broadly defined, is one of four rhetorical modes of discourse. More narrowly defined, it is the fiction-writing mode in which the narrator communicates directly to the reader. A narrative is a telling of some true or fictitious event or connected sequence of events, recounted by a narrator to a narratee although there may be more than one of each. Narratives are to be distinguished from descriptions of qualities, states, or situations, and also from dramatic enactments of events although a dramatic work may also include narrative speeches.
A narrative consists of a set of events the story recounted in a process of narration or discourse , in which the events are selected and arranged in a particular order the plot. The category of narratives includes both the shortest accounts of events for example, the cat sat on the mat , or a brief news item and the longest historical or biographical works, diaries, travelogues, and so forth, as well as novels, ballads, epics, short stories, and other fictional forms.
In the study of fiction, it is usual to divide novels and shorter stories into first-person narratives and third-person narratives. As an adjective, "narrative" means "characterized by or relating to storytelling": Some theorists of narratology have attempted to isolate the quality or set of properties that distinguishes narrative from non-narrative writings: Owen Flanagan of Duke University, a leading consciousness researcher, writes, "Evidence strongly suggests that humans in all cultures come to cast their own identity in some sort of narrative form.
We are inveterate storytellers. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories; indeed, most of the humanities involve stories. Stories are also a ubiquitous component of human communication, used as parables and examples to illustrate points. Storytelling was probably one of the earliest forms of entertainment. As noted by Owen Flanagan, narrative may also refer to psychological processes in self-identity, memory and meaning-making.
Semiotics begins with the individual building blocks of meaning called signs ; and semantics , the way in which signs are combined into codes to transmit messages. This is part of a general communication system using both verbal and non-verbal elements, and creating a discourse with different modalities and forms. He and many other semioticians prefer the view that all texts, whether spoken or written, are the same, except that some authors encode their texts with distinctive literary qualities that distinguish them from other forms of discourse.
Nevertheless, there is a clear trend to address literary narrative forms as separable from other forms. This is first seen in Russian Formalism through Victor Shklovsky 's analysis of the relationship between composition and style, and in the work of Vladimir Propp , who analysed the plots used in traditional folk-tales and identified 31 distinct functional components.
It leads to a structural analysis of narrative and an increasingly influential body of modern work that raises important theoretical questions:. In literary theoretic approach, narrative is being narrowly defined as fiction-writing mode in which the narrator is communicating directly to the reader.
Until the late 19th century, literary criticism as an academic exercise dealt solely with poetry including epic poems like the Iliad and Paradise Lost , and poetic drama like Shakespeare. Most poems did not have a narrator distinct from the author. But novels , lending a number of voices to several characters in addition to narrator's, created a possibility of narrator's views differing significantly from the author's views. With the rise of the novel in the 18th century , the concept of the narrator as opposed to "author" made the question of narrator a prominent one for literary theory.
It has been proposed that perspective and interpretive knowledge are the essential characteristics, while focalization and structure are lateral characteristics of the narrator.
A writer's choice in the narrator is crucial for the way a work of fiction is perceived by the reader. Intradiagetic narrators are of two types: Such a narrator cannot know more about other characters than what their actions reveal. A heterodiegetic narrator, in contrast, describes the experiences of the characters that appear in the story in which he or she does not participate. Most narrators present their story from one of the following perspectives called narrative modes: Generally, a first-person narrator brings greater focus on the feelings, opinions, and perceptions of a particular character in a story, and on how the character views the world and the views of other characters.
If the writer's intention is to get inside the world of a character, then it is a good choice, although a third-person limited narrator is an alternative that does not require the writer to reveal all that a first-person character would know. By contrast, a third-person omniscient narrator gives a panoramic view of the world of the story, looking into many characters and into the broader background of a story.
A third-person omniscient narrator can be an animal or an object, or it can be a more abstract instance that does not refer to itself. For stories in which the context and the views of many characters are important, a third-person narrator is a better choice. However, a third-person narrator does not need to be an omnipresent guide, but instead may merely be the protagonist referring to himself in the third person also known as third person limited narrator.
A writer may choose to let several narrators tell the story from different points of view. Then it is up to the reader to decide which narrator seems most reliable for each part of the story. See for instance the works of Louise Erdrich.
Faulkner employs stream of consciousness to narrate the story from various perspectives. In Indigenous American communities, narratives and storytelling are often told by a number of elders in the community.
In this way, the stories are never static because they are shaped by the relationship between narrator and audience. Thus, each individual story may have countless variations. Narrators often incorporate minor changes in the story in order to tailor the story to different audiences. Narrative is a highly aesthetic art.
Thoughtfully composed stories have a number of aesthetic elements. Within philosophy of mind , the social sciences and various clinical fields including medicine, narrative can refer to aspects of human psychology. Illness narratives are a way for a person affected by an illness to make sense of his or her experiences. In the restitution narrative, the person sees the illness as a temporary detour. The primary goal is to return permanently to normal life and normal health.
Some were too shy to grant permission to post them, which makes sense if you think that, in its heyday, WritingFix was receiving over 20, hits a day from teachers across the globe looking for good writing lessons. That kind of traffic can be intimidating. Being Director allowed me to seek out new grant monies, and it was so helpful to already have a tried-and-tested "make and take" model of inservice ready to share with the potential grantors I met with.
Our NNWP was pursuing some pretty innovative ideas for new, research-driven inservice courses back then. With a promise to the grantors that a brand new webpage of teacher-built lessons and resources would be one of the outcomes of the class if they helped us pay for it, we impressed a lot of people, and we did some pretty great stuff with the grants we then earned.
In a very short period of time, we doubled and then tripled the number of lessons and resources posted at WritingFix, and we kept being discovered more and more teacher followers who eventually saw us as one of the best places to go if you wanted an innovative idea for teaching writing.
One of my favorite grants we earned bought all class participants a classroom iPod; in exchange for this small piece of technology, participants simply had to design and implement a writing lesson based on the lyrics of a song. We hired some of our best K NNWP teacher-presenters to write "model lessons" that used songs as their "mentor texts," we paid those presenters stipends to come share their lessons with our classes' participants, we selected the very best lessons written by those same class participants, and--with permission--we posted those lessons alongside our presenters' lessons at our " iPods and Song Lyrics Lesson Page " at WritingFix.
It was a pretty creative way to enhance an already-established website, and our writing project's reputation as a professional development provider soared to new heights both locally and nationally. At the local level, we had never been asked to provide so many courses and workshops as we were during these years; at the national level, we were admired as writing project site that had used the Internet to create a well-respected national presence.
In , the National Writing Project--despite its amazing reputation as an effective provider of professional development that changes teachers' practices--had its budget horribly slashed.
With just barely enough money to keep its basic functions going, our local Northern Nevada Writing Project had to stop providing sponsorship to WritingFix.
It was too bad too. We had some great new directions planned for the website, but there was no money available to implement those plans. With our NNWP's economic "crash," all planned growth for WritingFix went directly to the back-burner, and it has now remained there for so long that I am convinced the WritingFix website is a "completed" project.
WritingFix, however, should NOT go away; Dena and I decided that we would take over paying the bill for all annual fees that keep the website online and free-to-use. The lessons that were created and posted between and were very good and deserve to be housed on the Internet for all teachers to find and use; we know there are brand new teachers out there just discovering WritingFix for the first time, and they deserve to have access to these resources.
Perhaps some day, a grantor will read this page and send Dena and me a sizeable check so that we can organize and give WritingFix another chance at another heyday, but we doubt that will happen. We are ultimately happy with what the website became during the ten years that we had support and funding to keep it alive and strong.
While in its heyday, WritingFix was truly one of the most exciting projects I've ever been involved with. I ultimately watched hundreds and hundreds of our local K teachers collaborate and implement research-based strategies in new lessons we asked them to create in exchange for recertification credit.
Face to face in class, they inspired each other while sharing these lessons, and then the lessons we chose to post at the website went on to be used by tens of thousands of WritingFix's national and international followers. Dena and I are both still creating new lessons and posting them online at our own websites.
You can find our newest, Common Core-friendly resources for writing instruction at Corbett's Always Write website and Dena's Write in the Middle website. Both of us are still WritingFix users. Corbett, who is currently teaching gifted and talented 6thth graders, shares his four favorite WritingFix resources below; Dena, who is a K-8 Writing Specialist, shares her four favorite resources below.
We hope you find time to explore them! Back to the top of page. We happily celebrate our teachers' post-WritingFix work here in this space. The National Writing Project is all about empowering teachers and inspiring them to become teacher leaders and innovators of positive change.
If you are an active Teacher Consultant for the National Writing Project, write me and let me know what website or teaching resources you have created. The odd stolen hour of peace and tranquillity there, rejuvenated me more than I would have thought possible.
Then one night I actually slept there! I told Kevin I had a night shift at the hospital. I felt like a rat for my deception, but once I closed the apartment door behind me it was like being on holiday! I sat out on the balcony sipping the wine, savouring the food and the evening. Wrapping myself in a blanket, I sat there until the sun went down and the street lights went on, watching the river flow and feeling the tensions of the recent past release and flow away into the night.
I fell into bed and slept for ten hours straight. The next morning I felt so guilty that when I got back to the house, I launched into a cooking marathon. For afters I made a boozy Tiramisu, with Irish cream liquor mixed with the espresso and blended into the mascarpone.
Jason, who has the most bazaar taste-buds of anyone I know, would get his favourite, a corned-beef and blackberry jam doorstopper sandwich and a banana milkshake! I decorated the table with colourful napkins made into animal shapes and big bunches of flowers from the garden.
I had some Salsa music playing loudly when they arrived home. The apartment was my sanctuary. I believe Dad bought it sometime in the Noughties as a financial investment, when property prices were relatively low and the banks not trustworthy. Mam needed to have plenty of life around her, so the house was always full of people visiting or staying for dinner whereas Dad loved a quiet space to read and listen to music.
So I think he created a little haven for himself in Wakefield Street. No doubt someday it will all come to light. As Mam said, Dad and I are so alike. My actions echo his … the apple has not fallen far from the tree! There are times when, above the crunch of the pebbles beneath her feet and the crash of waves breaking along the shoreline, she thinks she can hear the roar and thunder of the guns. There are times when the raucous mewing of the gulls turns into a cry for help from a million soldiers trapped in a war of attrition in the trenches of Belgium and Northern France.
There are times when the horrifying noises of war seem to echo off the cliffs lining the beach and reverberate through her head until she wants to scream and scream and scream. She, and the women around her, are not supposed to know about these things; about the pain and suffering of the soldiers in the war, about the slaughter, the terror, the relentless noise.
By common consent the boys hide the horrors when they are home on leave; they joke and laugh and talk of finishing off the Hun in short order. But she has read their letters and learned about their lives. She knows enough to see the numbness behind their smiles.
Like countless other sweethearts, sisters, wives and mothers across the country she plays the game as she is meant to play it. Today, the first day of July , there are no crashing waves and there is no noise; the sea is flat calm and the air still.
It is not often like this and indeed she prefers it when the wind blows fiercely from the west, sending spray spiralling into the moist air. She likes to feel the power of the sea and she likes the way that, on some days, the thrill of battling against the wind and rain as she makes her way along the beach, can drive all other thoughts from her mind. Today there is no chance of such respite. Today the echoes are silent; ever-present but silent. Today, as she sits on the pebbles and stares out at the horizon, her mind is full of Harry and their future together.
And then, because those thoughts make her fearful, she pushes them away and determinedly pulls out instead the memories of how it all began. It began here on this very beach. A fitting place; for the beach has always been her refuge, the place she escapes to when everyday life becomes too dull or too frustrating. The village had done him proud, had turned out in its entirety, but the sadness had been unbearable and she had crept away as soon as she could to seek refuge under the lee of the cliff.
And there she had been struck by an overwhelming desire to play a bigger part in this terrible war, to do something to assuage the suffering of the soldiers, to provide some comfort for those who, like her brothers and childhood friends, had given up the lives they had always known, to face untold horrors on the battlefields of France and Belgium and Mesopotamia. Like so many other women throughout the land, she already knitted socks, rolled bandages, worked hard to grow extra vegetables in her garden.
And she contributed eggs from her hens to the National Egg Collection. She liked to think of her wonderful fresh eggs providing nourishment for wounded soldiers in the hospitals in France. It was a good scheme to be part of.
But what she did was not special enough. She needed to do more. But more than that. I want to be doing something useful, something to help us through this horrible war. Not just staying at home waiting for it to finish. Mother needs me here.
And so does he, now that all three boys have gone to fight. We just need to work it out. Make them a bit special. What do you think? Madge smiled to herself, knowing that she would need to say no more. Chrissie was normally a very positive person, only very rarely resorting to the sort of grumbling she had given way to today.
Once she had decided on something, she would move heaven and earth to make it happen. So the idea took hold and within a week a batch of eggs had been sent off with her name and address on each one. And that was just the beginning.
On some of the eggs, she painted intricate little pictures — flags, sprigs of heather, black cats. Anything she could think of which represented good luck or patriotism. Sometimes she added encouraging messages, sending her best wishes, urging the soldiers to take care, to look after themselves. As she got better at writing clearly and squeezing more words on to the egg shells, she even wrote short poems. Little by little, her life began to have purpose.
She worked hard at the daily chores on the farm and in the house, supported her parents as well as she could, wrote long letters to her three brothers who were all serving overseas, did everything else the villagers asked of her to aid the war effort. But all of it was done with the ultimate aim of finding some time every day to concentrate on the eggs. And find it she did. The first thank you letters from wounded soldiers who had been lucky enough to receive her eggs arrived in the post within a matter of weeks.
And they just kept coming. Some of the sentences stuck in her mind, replaying themselves again and again until she felt she would never forget them as long as she lived. Am doing very well now and they expect to save my leg. I hope they do too. I have seen them come back. Many of the soldiers asked if she would reply to them.
They were lonely, they said, and far from home. Some of them indeed came from Canada or Australia and rarely received letters, or so they told her. Many asked for a photograph. Some hoped for more. She wrote back to him and told him that she was just a year younger. She tried to write back to as many of them as she could and certainly to all those who said they were lonely or who told her that no-one else wrote to them. She kept her letters as cheerful as possible, telling the soldiers about her life in Dorset, her work on the farm, humdrum little details which she hoped would amuse them.
And she tried not to dwell on the hardships they were facing, for surely, she thought to herself, they knew far more about that than she did and she could not presume to understand what they were going through. But she did at last feel she was doing something useful, that bringing comfort to even a few of the wounded men was better than doing nothing at all.
Above all, it made her feel closer to her three brothers. She told herself that perhaps someone was showing them kindness as she was trying to do to others. And it filled her days in a way that working on the farm, or helping her mother, was never able to do. It was fun — though perhaps saying so or even thinking it, was a bit disrespectful to those poor wounded men. But then the day came when it stopped being fun and became a much more serious matter.
That was the day — towards the end of — when she received her first letter from Harry. He had been given one of her eggs, he told her, and he had adored the little painting of a black cat on one side of the egg, the good wishes for a speedy recovery on the other.
He was not seriously wounded, just a bad bout of dysentery and he felt himself to be rather a fraud when there were so many more worthy candidates than him for one of her lovely eggs. But he had been the lucky one and he wanted her to know how much her kindness meant to him. Intrigued, and touched by his words, she wrote back straightaway and then he did too, and before she knew it they were corresponding regularly, exchanging thoughts and worries and longings for the future, and feeling as if they had known each other for ever.
They arranged to meet on his next leave and he planned to make his way down to her Dorset village by the sea, assuring her that he had no family or friends who had a greater claim on him than she did. She persuaded her parents to allow him to stay in their house as a guest and she talked endlessly to a patient Madge about where she was going to take him, what she would say to him.
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Part 1: THINK HABITAT (about 1 hour) is conducted outdoors. Activities include walking, storytelling, noticing eco-regions, and looking under logs and coverboards.
Announcement prior to gathering: Insect repellent may be used but participants must wash their hands prior to departing. Repellent could harm the animals. Once the group gathers, introductions are made and the program is described prior to departure. Participants are invited to carry the snake bags or snake hooks.
Let participants know the expectations before embarking on the walk: the group will stay together while walking, everyone will tell a snake story, and everyone should have access to a field guide. Our participants are required to wear name tags and leaders are encouraged to call participants by name.
Participants sharing stories of snake experiences.
- snake bags
- hand wipes
- field guides to local reptiles and amphibians
- a snake hook (rarely used)
- hoes or sturdy rakes to turn coverboards
Everyone has a snake story they want to tell, so we begin our program taking turns telling stories as we walk the grounds checking coverboards. If a participant can’t think of a snake story, suggest they tell about their favorite snake or most-feared snake or a snake fact they find fascinating. Although most of the stories end badly for the snake, the Project Leader listens carefully, shows interest in the individual student, and is nonjudgmental. Storytelling provides a chance for the students to talk, to be heard, and to reveal a little about themselves. Most participants enjoy talking about themselves and learning about others in this way and thus this activity is a great ice-breaker.
Questions you might ask along the way: Why are coverboards attractive for animals? Do you think coverboards in sunshine or shade would be most attractive for snakes? Do you think two different kinds of snakes will use the same coverboard at the same time? What are snakes eating in this area? Do any snakes eat plants? What do you think the ancestors of snakes looked like? What would you call this type of habitat?
This can be done solo, but having a group means we can designate two people as “catchers” and two people as “lifters.” Catchers are agreeable to catching reptiles or amphibians found under the boards. It is not unusual in our areas for all of the coverboards to be checked during summer, when our programs are held, and no snakes found (spring and fall are much better times for finding snakes under these types of cover). Lifters lift the coverboards, preferably using a tool such as a hoe, (reaching across the board to lift the side farthest away so that the animal underneath will not see the lifters. The catchers are ready to spring into action, but stand perfectly still as the board is being lifted. If a lizard or snake is uncovered, the catchers quickly gather it. Even if surprised, the lifters DO NOT drop the coverboard as it could harm the creature below.
Scrape around under the coverboard if leaves and other debris are present. Several animals of different or the same species may be present. Don’t forget to look for animals of all types, especially invertebrates. Try to decide if the invertebrates are herbivores or carnivores. Invertebrates can serve as food for various reptiles. When done looking, gently place the coverboard back on the ground.
Although our programs do not include snake watching outdoors (unless a special opportunity presents itself), you should let participants know that observing snakes from a comfortable distance is a worthwhile and enjoyable activity. One can learn a lot about snakes such as their behaviors, fears, and needs if you watch them long enough, though some stay perfectly still for hours. Observing snakes in nature or in captivity will allow you to begin thinking like a snake and to understand the motivations driving their behaviors. Not frightening the snake is important for both watching and catching. Of course, in order to watch snakes, one needs a suitable place where they are likely to find snakes moving about, basking, feeding, or swimming. Ask your local park ranger about good spots to find wildlife. Roads and platforms overlooking swamps are particularly suitable for this type of activity.
Using binoculars can be a great help, and you can let your birding friends know that binoculars are for more than watching birds! Insects, frogs, turtles, and other herps are exciting subjects too.
Part 2. THINKING LIKE A SNAKE is our indoor activity. This section includes Materials, Preparations, Empathy for Snakes, Snake Biology, Snake Senses, Snake Identification, Handling Guidelines, Shed Skin Study, and Measuring Snakes. Feel free to experiment with the order of these activities.
- 5-7 snakes (non-venomous, local, wild-caught and a few captive bred snakes)
- Cages with covers and DO NOT REMOVE COVER signs on each (where the snakes are kept)
- Snake identification books
- 5-20 shed snake skins, some from venomous species if available
- Hand-made squeeze box, string, and measuring tape or wooden meter stick
- Snake and mammal skulls (if available)
- Models of local venomous snakes (a good source is Morgan Reptile Replicas)
This section includes background material related to the numbers and types of snakes used in our program. We house 18-20 native wild-caught snakes so that 5-7 of them will be available each day for our 5-day program with 5-7 participants per group. Our snakes are caught specifically for this purpose and are released exactly where captured when the sessions are completed. This seems to be a successful strategy since we have caught some of the same snakes in successive years in the same locations.
Please note that caring for wild-caught snakes takes more experience than caring for captive bred snakes. Consult your state zoo or herpetological society for advice and use the considerable online resources that are now available. Sometimes local nature centers do not have someone on staff with the requisite expertise to advise you so seek experienced help.
Why so many snakes?
We house about three times as many snakes as we will use in any one day. The reasons are:
- Our programs are offered every day for five days. Programs offered less often would not need as many snakes.
- As a rule, we don’t handle individual snakes two days in a row. Snakes tire easily and the teaching sessions are more stressful for some species than others. Fatigued snakes are irritable and may strike at cage walls more readily.
- We don’t handle snakes that are in-shed (preparing to shed skin as evidenced by opaque eye coverings), but we use them to show students how to recognize snakes in-shed, sometimes called “in the blue.”
So in our program, it takes about 19-20 snakes to be able to have 6-7 ready for a daily session when programs are held daily. We also use 1-2 captive bred snakes for level-one snakes (see Levels of Engagement). Programs utilizing more captive bred snakes (pet snakes) may be able to house fewer captured snakes.
What kinds of snakes are used?
We want students to become familiar with local snakes so we use small, medium, and large species of non-venomous snakes that are common in our area. For example we use Eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis), black racers (Coluber constrictor), black rat snakes (Elpahe [Pantherophis] obsoleta), worm snakes (Carphophis amoenus), brown snakes (Storeria dekayi), mole kingsnakes (Lamporpeltis calligaster), and the like. A high-quality model of the venomous copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) is used for identification and comparison with other blotched snakes.
Captive snakes can also be used along with local snakes, but using primarily local wildlife supports our goals of engaging participants with the local fauna, ecology and ecosystems. We use a few long-term captive snakes (captive bred) temporarily loaned by friends of the project or staff members.
Empathy for Snakes
Biology is very important, but to truly understand and appreciate snakes it is important to learn what is important to them, how they manage living successfully, and why it is important for humans to understand them. It is also important to know what scares snakes. Observing snake body language while they are in the cages is an important first step to empathizing with them.
Actively engage participants in every way possible. This student was recording responses to How do snakes respond when they are afraid?
Begin by asking participants what they think the word empathy means and describe what it means to you. Use the sample questions below or come up with others. Ask the question, then give time for responses. Be affirming and positive when students respond (even with wrong answers) and don’t give the correct answers right away. How can you tell when a snake is afraid? or How do snakes respond to threats? These questions are particularly important so make time to discuss this subject in some depth. Have a student write the responses of the participants on board. Let the students call out ideas. Note that no one type of snake will exhibit all the responses mentioned.
Discuss and elaborate as this is one of the best exercises to help students develop empathy for snakes. Answers should include at least all the following: flight, increased respiration, kinking body (muscle contractions), jerking movements, striking, biting, musking, twisting if you are holding them, flattening head, some species hiss and spread neck (e.g. hognose snake), thrashing, dropping from limbs in an attempt to escape, playing dead, coiling, shaking tail, increased alertness, etc. Additional questions related to the same concept are:
Nails on either side of vent in pythons and boas are vestigial structures, which provide support for lots of other evidence that snake ancestors once had legs. Photo by M. Baumeister.
What does it mean when the muscles of the snake tense up? When a snake strikes at a person, what is it trying to accomplish?
Describe some of the other body language of snakes not related to fear. Tongue flicking, ambush position, coiled in hiding, actively moving about.
What is important to a snake? Food, mates, water, privacy, safety, dens or rookeries for some species, ability to control temperature, etc.
Why are snakes important? Are snakes predators or prey? Snakes are important as both prey and as predators. Discuss the food chain and the importance of predators to the health of the ecosystem and to the species that they prey on (population control).
Why are they important to humans? Snakes consume animals that we consider pests and protect our food stores by consuming rodents. Snake venom is very important in the production and development of many medicines. Since snakes are important to their ecosystems they are also important to us – stress that humans are a part of the surrounding ecosystems.
Why is it important for people to understand snakes? Snakes are important elements in the landscape and the biological communities in which they are found. Many, many times snakes are brutally killed because people needlessly fear them or their intentions – mostly out of ignorance or instilled fears. Most children do not naturally fear snakes; it is normally a taught attitude. It can be said that the level of environmental awareness, education and compassion is revealed by one’s attitudes towards snakes.
What is the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates? Which kind of animal is a snake? Vertebrate, reptile.
Which kind of animal are we? Vertebrate, mammal.
What do you think a snake ancestor looked like and behaved like? Just so you know, dinosaurs are not ancestors to snakes. Hint: This type of animal is still around today. Evidence suggests that snake ancestors were a type of burrowing lizard of the early Cretaceous. Snakes lost their legs by growing them more slowly or for a shorter period of time, resulting in shorter and shorter legs, until the legs eventually disappeared. Not having legs gave pre-snakes an advantage in life underground. Those with slower growing legs or shorter legs lived longer and had more offspring (babies) thereby increasing the numbers of leg-less individuals in the population until its legs were lost altogether. However, a few snakes still have remnants of leg bones and nails, like boas and pythons.
Tongue. What do snakes use their tongues for and why are they forked? Have students observe snakes tongue flicking. Show the students the books in the room that have diagrams of the head of the snake.
The tongue is a sensory organ used to sample the air for important information. Air is full of molecules that are invisible to the eye. Tips of tongues grab samples of air. The two tips of the tongue insert air into two openings in the roof of the mouth where an organ is located. Anyone know the name of that organ? It is Jacobson’s organ, which reads scent and sends messages to the brain. The scent molecules in the air may reveal there is food available nearby or water or mates. Neonate rattlesnakes read scent trails to find their way to the wintering den. The tongue is forked to increase the amount of molecules that are received and also to provide a directional component, comparable to our two ears. If the right fork of the tongue grabs air that has a more powerful signal than the left fork, this tells the snake that the source of the scent is to the right and vice versa. Thus the snake may follow a scent without opening its mouth. This allows a stealthy way for snakes to know what is going on in the world without drawing attention to themselves.
Ears. Do snakes have ears? They don’t have external ear openings but are very sensitive to vibration. Serpents evolved from a type of ancestral lizard and lizards have ear openings, but external ear openings may have been a disadvantage for them. Perhaps they were prone to infection from debris entering the openings, so the ancestor burrowing lizards with small ear openings or no ear openings may have lived longer. Living longer allowed them more years to lay clutches of eggs and they produced more offspring, thereby increasing the number of individuals in the population with small ear openings. Over time, snakes lost ear openings altogether. When they emerged from a sub-terrestrial existence and began living above ground, they came up without external ears.
The snake (left) has no ear opening is compared with lizard (right) with ear opening. Photos by Wayne VanDevender
Touch. Snakes are very sensitive to touch. Along with their sense of smell, touch plays a very important role in their ability to survive and respond to threats. Snakes depend heavily on information that comes through their skins and are, at times, able to detect the size of prey and predators based on their vibrations. They are able to feel the slightest changes in their environments and are able to quickly respond to these changes.
Teeth. Preparation: Randomly place skulls on the table. Without explanation ask two students to separate the skulls into those with heterodont dentition and those with homodont dentition. Students can often figure this out themselves and then you can ask them what the words heterodont and homodont mean.
What do snakes eat? All snakes eat meat.
Why are their teeth curved? How would you describe the teeth? Show a snake skull. Mammals, like us, have different kinds of teeth, some sharp, like our incisors, to bite into food, and some flat, like our molars, to grind food. Our teeth are not all the same, and this is called heterodont dentition. Snakes’ teeth are all similar so we would describe snakes as having homodont dentition.
Which animals eat snakes? Who are their predators? Why is predation so important to life? Are you a predator?
How do you tell where the tail of the snake starts? At the vent.
How do you tell if a snake is male or female? It is hard to tell without one of each sex. Look at the first part of the tail, just posterior to the vent; in males the first part of the tail will be thicker and does not taper immediately. In a female the tail will start to taper immediately posterior to the vent. This characteristic is highly variable and the best way to tell is to see snakes mating, because they certainly know which are males and which are females! Another way to tell is by using specialized probes to insert into the cloaca, but we don’t use them and don’t recommend their use as it is very easy to harm a snake unintentionally using probes.
How do snakes reproduce? Do all snakes lay eggs? Many of our local snakes do not lay eggs but are actually livebearers. Live little snakes called neonates emerge from the female’s vent.
What is unusual about a snake’s penis? There are two of them, called hemipenes! Snakes can be identified to species from the morphology of the hemipenes. When mating, male snakes will insert only one into the cloaca of the female. Also see: http://www.sjonhauser.nl/hemipenes-amazing-copulatory-organs-of-snakes.html
How would you describe a snake to someone who had never seen one? Let the students call out ideas. Have a student write responses on the board.
Prior to having students identify snakes, have them look at characteristics of the skin using shed skins. Distribute shed skins among the participants and talk about the shedding process and why snakes shed their skin.
Do we shed our skin? Yes, but not all at once, we are continually shedding skin cells.
If an opaque snake (about to shed) is available, it can be shown to the participants but should not be handled much. Ask students to find a shed skin with strongly keeled scales, one with weakly keeled scales, and one with smooth scales. Keeled scales have ridges, weakly keeled scales have small ridges and smooth scales have no ridges at all.
Are the ventral tail scales divided or not divided? Can this tell you anything about what kind of snake shed this skin? Is the vent scale divided or not divided? How do the dorsal scales differ from the ventral scales?
How often do snakes shed their skins? It depends on how much they are eating and growing. Some fast growing snakes with a good food supply, especially young snakes, may shed several times a year.
Giving each student a shedded snake skin will help them see the difference between the types of scales.
Looking carefully at live snakes. Snake cages are covered when participants enter the room so they won’t become alarmed. Snakes should always be in cages by themselves. Lightweight display cages with clear bottoms (such as deli containers) will enable participants to see the ventral colors and patterns. Once the participants settle down, the covers are removed and students may move quietly around the room.
Participants work alone or in pairs to identify the snakes. Announcement to participants: Working with a partner or by yourself, use a field guide to determine the species of the snake. Focus on the coloration of dorsal (back) and ventral (belly) sides, anterior and posterior, shape of head, rough/keeled or smooth scales, typical species behaviors and the range of occurrence as indicated by the range map in the identification book. It is recommended to have at least three identifying characteristics before confidently stating which species you have.
Using the copperhead model, students are asked to give an elevator speech (a very short and to the point speech given in the amount of time it would take to ascend in an elevator) describing the difference between a copperhead and another blotched snake such as the mole kingsnake.
At least three characteristics are needed to support a species identification in our program. In this case, the participant used the ring around the neck, the ventral coloration, and dorsal coloration to support the identification as a ringneck snake.
Handling Snakes. The absolute best part of the program for all of us and the most fun is getting to handle the snakes. We have developed a system that motivates students to rapidly overcome fears and to try to engage with the various serpents in challenging ways. At the beginning of our program students are asked to use Levels of Engaging with Snakes poster (see below) to identify the level of engagement they are presently comfortable with in regards to snakes. They are then given the opportunity to see others handling snakes and to touch them if they wish, and, without exception, they all touch a snake before the program is over.
It is useful here to emphasize that this experience is much unlike a visit to a nature center where visitors may use two fingers to touch a captive-reared docile snake or possibly even hold one. Our program allows participants to engage with nonvenomous serpents in the way that herpetologists do. They may, if they wish, pick up a snake from the cage or the floor or catch one outdoors.
Video Picking Up a Snake for the First Time:
Video Picking Up a Snake from a Box:
Video Picking Up an Adult Snake from an Aquarium:
They may engage with challenging snakes, ones that are nervous, ones that react suddenly, or ones that may strike or bite. Each person decides if he or she wants to climb the ladder of engagement and has calm, professional support from the Project Leader and/or Assistant Leader.
As the session progresses, students tend to become more and more engaged and seek to climb the ladder of engagement. Each day we have a new group in the snakes unit, but word gets out about the snakes and the engagement levels. By the end of the week-long program, new participants are primed for advancement by the gossip as well as the other programs they have experienced in the HRE where they have become accustomed to handling reptiles and amphibians. On the last 2 days, most of the students reach the highest level of engagement and joyfully proclaim such during lunchtime reports. None of our snakes has ever been harmed in this program, nor has any participant been hurt. Only rarely does a student get bitten, but when they do they are quite proud of the marks left on their skin, if they are lucky enough to have something to show off.
Before you engage participants in this way, please review the information on catching and handling snakes at the beginning of this material.
Ask students to think of three different ways one might measure the length of a snake. (Have a student write these on board) Some possible responses include “stretch the snake”, “let it crawl along a wall”, “put it into a tube”…
A person could try to stretch a snake but, if you do, you could damage the vertebrae because the muscles will tense in response to your stretching. Snakes will squeeze up and loosen up, shortening and lengthening the spinal column, making it impossible to get an accurate reading.
Dead snakes measure considerably longer than live snakes because there are no muscle contractions to compress the spaces between the vertebrae. Snakes have over 200 synovial joints (moveable joints like our knees and backbones) on their skulls and backbones, which is why live snakes can stretch and shrink depending on muscle contractions and dead snakes with no muscle contractions are so much longer than live ones. My 9-year-old neighbor was fascinated by this news and was inspired to say “That must be why snakes are so bendy!” Indeed it is Jack, indeed it is.
Since there really are no good ways to get a single accurate measurement of live snakes, we use a squeeze box because it is the least stressful method we know. A squeeze box is a home-made unit that consists of a piece of foam, a clear piece of Plexiglass the same size as the foam, and a piece of plastic or vinyl that is also the same size.
Above left : Gentle pressure on the plexiglass covering the snake allows the animal to remain calm, safe, and unharmed. Once under the glass, the spine is traced with a dry erase marker then the snake is released. Above right: The line is measured with a string, and the string is then measured with a meter stick.
The video shows how it is assembled and used and why the snakes remain calm, safe, and unharmed.
Video Snake Measuring:
A snake may be in the squeezebox for a minute or less. Simply place the snake between the Plexiglass and the covered foam and gently press down. The snake becomes immobilized without being harmed. Quickly use an erasable pen to draw a line on the Plexiglas from the head of the snake down the vertebral column to the tip of the tail. Then release the snake and return it to the cage. Take yarn or string and trace the line you just created, then measure the length of the yarn or string to get the measurement of the snake. In order to compare snake lengths, one must measure all of the snakes being compared using the same technique.
Venomous and Non-venomous
How can you tell if a snake is venomous by looking at it? (Ask a participant to write all the answers on the board). Some snakes have facial pits near the nostrils. These are the pit vipers. Other snakes, like the coral snake, have heads that look a lot like non-venomous snakes. (Dispelling myths about venomous snake “characteristics”?)
Venomous Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix and the non-venomous Northern Watersnake, Nerodia sipedon (right) are often confused.
Anyone know about what percentage of NC snakes are venomous? Of the 37 species of snakes in NC there are only 6 venomous snakes, which is about 16% meaning that 84% of our NC snake species are non-venomous. The six venomous snakes in NC include the Copperhead, Eastern Rattlesnake, Pygmy Rattlesnake, Timber Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth, and the Coral snake.
Do you die if you are bitten by a venomous snake in NC? Venomous snakes may inject some, all, or none of their venom when biting. When no venom is injected it is called a dry bite. It takes a large investment of energy to produce venom so when a snake strikes defensively rather than to acquire food, the venom is sometimes conserved. Most NC venomous snake bites are not fatal but all should be considered serious if any venom at all is injected. A bite from an Eastern Diamondback is an emergency, though the likelihood of encountering one of these snakes is extremely low. Most cottonmouth and copperhead bites are not fatal for humans.
Mole kingsnakes, corn snakes, and juvenile rat snakes are often mistaken for copperheads and killed. Look at coloration, shape of body, and shape of head to identify snakes. A good policy is to just leave them alone and admire and observe them from a distance.


Considered Poland’s best composer, Frédéric Chopin focused his efforts on the piano composition and had the high influence on the composers who followed him.
Frédéric Chopin was born on March 1, 1810. He was a virtuoso pianist and Polish composer of the Romantic era who wrote mostly for the solo piano. Chopin gained and had maintained famous worldwide as the greatest musician of his time.
Frédéric’s “poetic genius depended on a professional technique which was without equal in his own generation.” This great composer was born in what was then known as Duchy of Warsaw and grew up in the Warsaw that in 1815 became part of the Congress Poland.
As child prodigy, he finished his musical education and did compose his earlier works in the Warsaw before he left Poland at the age of 20, less than a month before an outbreak of the Nov. 1830 Uprising.
It’s clear that Chopin’s love for music started at an extremely young age since his father was a musician of various instruments and his mother a piano teacher and player. Nonetheless, his decision to become a musician was on account of his sister Ludwika who taught him basic tunes and how to play the piano. Many scholars give thanks, Ludwika as a first piano teacher of Chopin.
All of the Frédéric’s compositions include the piano. Many are for solo piano, even though he also wrote a few chamber pieces, two piano concertos, and a number of songs to Polish lyrics.
Chopin’s Musical Styles
The music of Frederic Chopin is world-famous for its captivating moods and delicate gracefulness. He wrote music which was to be understood in musical terms only and didn’t depend on evoking pictorial or literary elements from the past. Pretty much all of the songs Chopin wrote is for solo piano.
His most popular works, on which his reputation is established, are his Preludes and Nocturnes. His Mazurkas and Polonaises are also famous. Each of these special styles had a tradition before Frédéric, but his experimental talent and nature transcended what had been carried out with each form of the music.
Frédéric endowed his Nocturnes, short-lyrical pieces whereby a simple melody expresses a broad range of emotions, into what’s possibly his most seminal works. The Preludes, written while he lived in the Majorca with George Sand, are at once melancholic and ecstatic.
1. Raindrop Prelude in D-flat Major, Opus 28. No. 15
2. Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2
The mazurkas and the polonaises are Polish dance forms which Frédéric used to express his love and the longing for his home country.
1. Mazurka Op. 17 No. 4
2. Fantasie Impromptu in C-sharp Minor Op. 66
The unique sound of the Chopin’s music is because of a number of things.
First of all, his style of playing was light, delicate, and had flexibility to it which developed lots of different emotion layers. These qualities are all shared by the songs he wrote.
Frédéric was (apparently) much more suited to playing in a drawing room or any other intimate settings rather than a concert hall.
Perhaps, it makes sense because most of his pieces have a lot more power when they are performed in a cozy setting. The melodies in his pieces are either exciting and grand, or reflective and touching. The harmonies develop subtle shades of color and provide the music a fragile feeling.
In fact, there are very many ways to describe Chopin’s music, here is a short list of words:
Frédéric music is also important since it benefits a lot from a rhythmic technique known as rubato (that he mainly used when he played). This is basically speeding down or slowing up the melody based on the flow of the piece. The nocturnes particularly sound excellent with the rubato!
He also used characteristic chromaticism (Greek word for “colored,” means using notes not part of the existing scale) to develop inky and thoughtful moods. Chopin always puts these little chromatic runs throughout the place. They are tricky to play but very funny!
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Johannes Brahms was one of the most important composers at the end of the 19th century, writer of four symphonies. He was known for his keeping with the classical traditions of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, in contrast with Wagner, and the Romantic school of his time.
Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833, the son of an innkeeper/musician named Johann Jakob. He started composing music at a tender age, and when he was a teenager, he gave lessons and played in the bars and dance halls to help out his family. His first more professional work was conducting a small male choir, for which he wrote some of his first vocal music. In 1850, he met, Eduard Remeny, a Jewish Hungarian violist, who introduced to Brahms the world of gypsy music, which would later inspire his Hungarian dances.
In 1853, Brahms’ career took a positive turn when he met Joseph Joachim, a young violin virtuoso, who noticed his talent, introducing him to Franz Liszt, and Robert Schumann, who helped Brahms become recognized in the musical world. Later on, he would become great friends with Schumann, and when Schumann became ill, he helped to take care of his large family.
In 1859, Brahms was appointed conductor of a women’s choir in Hamburg, where he gained valuable experience, at the same time continuing composing two Serenades for orchestra, and his first String Sextet, as well as his first Piano Concerto, which at the time was only well received in Hamburg.
In 1863, after giving concerts in Vienna, Brahms became the conductor of the Singakademie there. He became more and more famous, able to earn an income through his composition. When his mother died in 1865, he began to work on the German Requiem, one of his most famous works, with texts from the German Luther Bible. At this time he also wrote two volumes of Hungarian Dances, which were a great success. He also wrote his Waltzes for vocal quartet and four-hand piano. In this time he also wrote some of his greatest songs.
In the 1870’s, Brahms wrote more and more chamber music and felt ready to begin his first symphony. Because he had been compared with Beethoven, he felt compelled to make this symphony perfect, so it was a very tedious process. He soon after published the second symphony. Later one, he would write two more symphonies.
In 1879, by which time, his popularity had spread into Switzerland, the Netherlands, and to Poland, Brahms was given an honorary degree from the University of Breslau. In thanks, Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture, which is based on some German student songs. In this period he also wrote his Violin Concerto in D major, and his second Piano Concerto in B-flat major. He remained in Vienna for the rest of his life, continuing to compose many great works.
In his final years, he continued dedicating himself to composition, particularly to music for the clarinet. After this, he felt his creativity had come to an end, although he was able to write Four Serious Songs, which came about as his dear friend, Clara Schumann’s, health was declining. They are about the vanity of life and welcoming death. She died in 1896, and it would not be long before Brahms too would pass on. He appeared in concert for the last time in March 1897, and the next month, on April 3, the great composer died of liver cancer. Upon his death, he was greatly honored by the musical world. Max Kalbeck published a multiple volume biographies about him in 1906, and about 20 years later, a collection of all of his work took up 26 volumes.
In contrast to the music of Wagner and Liszt, who were extremely progressive, Brahms stayed somewhat conservative, hoping to create music which would endure. Although he was greatly criticized for going against the tide, the generations to come would greatly appreciate his music, identifying the unique intensity and compositional mastery that characterizes so much of his work.
Some of his notable quotes:
Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.
„I would prefer to be inspired by a beautiful melody than to receive the order of Leopold.” This was an Austrian award given by the emperor in the early 19th century.
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Born on 27th of January, 1756, Salzburg , Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart commonly referred to as Mozart shaped the growth and future of classical music by his wonderful talents as a song composer, pianist and a player of many other instruments. He had learned playing piano when he was just three years of age and by the time he was 6 he began to play in public. The iconic artist and Austrian music composer was able to create a string of operas, sonatas, symphonies, concertos and many others that played a huge role in shaping what would later be called Classical music. He composed 600 classical works and up to date he is esteemed as one of the greatest composers of all time. His versatility and diversity in all musical creations and platforms associated with Classical music has brought him great honor even unto this day.
Classical music is an artistic kind of a music that is produced or created from the traditions of Western music, whether religious or secular. Mozart’s steps towards growing in classical music dated back in the 1760s and that is why he is seen to be one of the main artists who developed classical music because classical music saw foundation and growth from the 1750s to 1820s. Classical music has been recognized for its ability to appreciate highly sophisticated instrumental music such as the concerto, symphonies, sonata and a mixture of vocals and instrumental styles such as opera of which when these kind of music is written down can reach very high complexity levels. Classical music is written using musical language of notations and leads to creation of a musical part that informs about the rhythm, pitch, and the coordination acceptable where many singers are performing together. It’s one of the most orderly music genres ever.
His music was marked with vivid emotions and complicated and sophisticated textures after aligning himself with various European venues and patrons. Mozart took to the steps of his parents who were also musical and greatly gifted in the art of music. Mozart being the only surviving child to his parents, Leopold and Maria, he learned music from his father. Leopold was a great music composer, violinist and assistant concert master at the Salzburg court. Mozart showcased his excellency in the understanding of music as he was able to compose as early as five years old. Wolfgang was taken for a long journey to Italy by Leopold his father who had accepted and was proud of his wonderful artistic abilities and aimed to showcase his son’s amazingly excellent performances to as many people as he could arrange for. He continued to grow in music and at 21, he had been appointed as assistant concert master in the church they were worshiping which gave him an avenue to interact with some instrumentals that he was not familiar with. Up to date, Mozart’s compositions and instrumentals are termed as one of the best classical music ever. Though Wolfgang died an early death, at 35, he and his father had touched the world with music that would build a legacy for them to be remembered and honored many years, many decades and several centuries after their departure from the face of the world.
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Born in December 1770 in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven was a great composer and pianist. Considered to be one of the most influential composers in Western Classical Music, he wrote nine symphonies, nine concerti and a variety of orchestral work, overtures and incidental music and other occasional work.
Beethoven started learning music at a very young age from renowned musicians of those times. With his extraordinary talent, he captured the attention of several famous musicians and made his first public appearance at Vienna in 1795 where he was to play his own work. This was followed by a tour to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. He had debuted with a piano concerto in the same year in Budapest. Till then he had established himself as a piano virtuoso.
Beethoven Piano Concertos
Beethoven Piano Concertos were admired throughout the world and are still known as masterwork. He wrote several concertos out of which seven are very famous. These include Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1796-97, Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1795, Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1800-01, Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano in 1805, Piano Concerto No.4 in 1805-06, Piano Concerto No. 5 in 1809-10 and an unpublished Piano Concerto in 1815. The last one was performing version and was incomplete. It was later on completed by Nicholas Cook. Along with this, he had also written Violin Concerto in 1806 and Romance in E minor for three soloists and orchestra.
Beethoven Sonatas constitute a great treasure that have been researched and studied by numerous pianists and musicologists. He had written thirty-two piano sonatas creating a new and impressive form of art. He played an important role in transforming and evolving of the sonata form. He had imposed his personality and joys and sorrows of his own life on the sonatas.
Beethoven had also composed nine symphonies including Symphony No. 1 in 1799-1800, Symphony No. 2 in 1801-02, Symphony No. 3 in 1803-04, Symphony No. 4 in 1806, Symphony No. 5 in 1804-08, Symphony No. 6 in 1804-08, Symphony No. 7 in 1811-12, Symphony No. 8 in 1812 and Symphony No.9 in 1817-24. He also intended to write the tenth symphony but because of his ill health, he could not do so.
His other works include five orchestral works, around ten overtures and incidental music composition, chamber music including string trios, piano trios, sonatas for violin, works with wind instruments and cello with piano. String quarters, string quintets and trio for piano, flute and Bassoon, and so on are some other noticeable works of Beethoven.
In 1801, Beethoven confessed to his worry of becoming deaf but he carried on with his music compositions and explored many other musical domains. His handicap was getting worse day by day and in later years he stopped talking to people. It was during this time that he wrote exceptional sonatas and symphonies for piano music, his greatest work. He also wrote one opera, Fidelio.
In conclusion, Even though we tune in to music and enjoy it in various ways under distinct conditions and circumstances, there’s no single definition for music. To some, music might be a voice or sound which makes them feel soothing and harmonious while for others it might be something to encourage, excite and relieve the moods through high bass. The history of music expands between prehistoric to recent times. It’s enriched with big names of excellent musicians.
Beethoven was bedridden during last of months of his life and died on March 26, 1827 during a thunderstorm.
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Bach Music Style (Baroque)
Johann Sebastian Bach contributions to the baroque music era are patently amongst the most significant contributions in the music history. He is considered as a genius of baroque music. This music genre is undoubtedly dramatic and very complex style of music that peaked in the early 1700’s.
Baroque is a style of the classical music and its divided into three. The early baroque which lasted until the mid-17th century, the middle baroque that lasted until the late 17th century and the late baroque which ended with the deaths of G.F Handel and J.S Bach in 1759.
Baroque music is easily recognizable; it is the fantastic and expressive music incorporated in many historical films. The high projection of emotion and a sense of underlying spirituality are the particular characteristics which underpin baroque music performance. In other words, it is a unique style that makes the deliberate use of strong contrast to heighten dramatic effect. For instance putting different sections of a piece against each other.
It has been accepted that three composers symbolize the main achievements of the Baroque. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), George Fredrick Handel (1685-1759) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and
Johann Sebastian Bach Biography
Born on 21st March 1685, in Eisenach, Bach was the youngest child of Elizabeth Lammerhirt Bach and Johan Ambrosius Bach. His father was a church organist, and many of his family members were also musicians.
The members of his family were talented and skilled at playing many musical instruments such as organ, clavichord, harpsichord, and violin. Bach was capable of training in all these areas during his early years of music training.
His parents passed on when he was only nine years, and at the age of 10yrs, Bach moved on to live with his elder brother Johan Christoph who became his music teacher.
In 1700, he was awarded a singing scholarship through an opening at St Michael School in Luneburg. He tremendously improved on his singing skills and started playing the violin. Later in 1702, Bach graduated.
In 1703 he was hired as a church organist in Armstead Germany. This opportunity provided him with the chance to practice his favorite instrument. In 1707, he became a church organist for a church in Muehlhauser, Germany. He later married his Cousin Maria Barbara Bach later the same year. Also Cantata no. 71 God is My King was composed the same year.
Bach later moved to Weimar where he became a court musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst. He was able to write many original organ musics during 1708 to 1710.
His wife died in 1720 and remarried again in 1721 to Anna Magdalena Wulken. In 1723 he was named the choir leader of Leipzig where he provided choral music to the churches St. Nicholas and St. Thomas. During this period he also gave private singing lessons and taught music classes. The majority of his choral music was composed during this time.
Sadly, he lost his eyesight during his final years and went blind during his last year of his life and on 28th July 1759 Bach died due to complications from high fever and stroke.
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Hi everyone, welcome! I’ll be posting a lot about classical music, musicians, and all things in the wonderful world of classical music. While I’m getting everything set up, please enjoy this compilation of Bach melodies. It’s the best collection I’ve found to date. Check back soon as I’ll be adding lots more!