Keen observation
How to cultivate students' observation ability
I often hear some middle school students say, "I'm afraid of writing. When I start writing, I have a headache. I always feel that I have nothing to write. " Some simply said, "I really don't know what to write and where to start." Some students handed in their compositions, but when they read them carefully, they just perfunctory a few words at the beginning and then ended hastily. The content is vague and general, and I don't know what to say. In view of these situations, I often encourage students to write with a pen and write when they can speak. If you want to have something to say, you should pay attention to the people and things around you and avoid making things up behind closed doors. Due to the lack of observation and analysis of things around me, I feel that I have nothing to say and can't write.
What is observation? The so-called observation is to see with your eyes. We should "observe from a distance" and "observe from a distance", pay attention to everything, always pay attention to it, and form a habit. Mo Bosang, a French writer who is known as the king of short stories in the world, once worshipped Flaubert, a famous writer at that time. One day, he sat in his room and told Flaubert his own story. Flaubert said, "I advise you not to be busy writing these empty things." You ride a bike outside every day and record everything you see on the road accurately and carefully. " So Mo Bosang realized that Flaubert had taught him the basic skills of observing life with his eyes, knowing life and practicing observation. From then on, he spent a year or so, went out to observe every day, and finally wrote the novel "Point to Heart" and became a world-famous novelist. Later, when summing up his own creative experience, Mo Bosang said, "Observe what you want to express for a long time, so as to find the features that others have not found and written. In everything, there are undiscovered things ... "Mr. Lu Xun once said:" We should pay attention to all kinds of things, read more books, and write without seeing anything. " This is a summary of Lu Xun's long-term creative experience. It can be seen that if you want to write a good article, you must pay attention to observing things and improve your observation ability. But how can we attract students' attention to the things around them? Here I want to talk about two points:
Stimulate students' interest in observation
Psychologists believe that there is no learning without motivation, and motivation is the premise of learning. For composition teaching, teachers should be good at stimulating students' writing desire, mobilizing students' writing enthusiasm and changing passivity into initiative. High school students have a strong ability to distinguish right from wrong, and they often have a strong desire to express themselves. Teachers should firmly grasp this desire and guide them to write excellent articles.
The syllabus has clear provisions on the composition teaching of all grades, which requires a planned and step-by-step implementation in the classroom. Classroom composition, specifically, students are constrained by various aspects, which often appears passive, but it is essential. To this end, I have always adopted a "two-pronged" approach in composition teaching: on the one hand, I arrange necessary compositions in class, on the other hand, I arrange a certain amount of extracurricular writing exercises. Last year, for example, I took over two classes in Grade One. In addition to the two-week big composition, I require each student to write at least one short article every week, make random checks every other week and make comments.
Writing a composition is to give students full freedom: freedom of material selection, freedom of proposition, freedom of style and freedom of words. Only write about the people or things you are most familiar with, interested in and impressed by. It can be discussed, lyrical, narrative and arbitrary. It is not an exaggeration to spread thousands of words; It's not too few to drop dozens of words: long words, short words, write as much as you want, and stop at will. This unconsciously cultivates students' interest and ability to observe things. The content they wrote was relatively simple at first, and gradually, their observation horizons were constantly expanding, and they were far away from the trivial things around them, writing about society and writing about life. The content is getting richer and richer: class life and turmoil, family joys and sorrows, social experiences, etc., really big to the universe, small to the self. A student often observes the campus carefully, from scenery to people, from people to things, and writes one, two or three articles on campus life in succession ... In the composition, I see the students' writing desire and get the students' observation interest caused by their creative enthusiasm. Not only is there something to write, but it is also more real and closer to life. Over the past year or so, remarkable results have been achieved. Many students talked about the experience of writing a composition and agreed that the requirement of writing a composition prompted them to observe and think. Some said, "I have to keep my eyes open every day and look for it all my life." Some said, "Because of the need to write a composition, I have been observing and listening at home, in the car and at school ..." Students in both classes have completed the task of writing three compositions a week, and because of their interest in things around them, many people consciously write more and develop the habit of keeping a diary.
At the same time, in the classroom composition teaching, I also consciously stimulate students' interest in observation. For example, I arranged an essay "Remembering one of the most familiar classmates in this class", asking everyone to take a classmate in the class as the description object, grasp its appearance characteristics to describe and portray it, and see who observes it carefully and writes like it. Moreover, most students can grasp the characteristics of the characters written in the residence. For another example, after making cloisonne, I arranged a composition, making XX dishes, which aroused students' interest in observation. As a result, students' interest was mobilized and their creative enthusiasm was stimulated, and they wrote one practical excellent work after another. In short, in order for students to write good articles, we must first practice the basic skills of observation.
Methods of guiding students' observation
While stimulating students' interest in observation, we should also guide students how to observe and how to observe.
I once told a story to my students: a jeweler in ancient Persia was good at doing business. When he sells gold and silver jewelry, he often stares at customers and his business is very prosperous. Others wanted to explore the mystery, but he kept his mouth shut until his death. He taught this trick to his only son: "Stare at each other's eyes, no, to be precise, stare at each other's pupils, which will not lie." If the sparkle of a diamond ring expands the pupil of the other party, you can boldly increase the original price by 30% or more; If a necklace can't make the other person's pupil wide open, you can change it immediately ... In short, stare at the other person's pupil! "
Of course, the business class taught by this jeweler is not for us to learn, but this method of grasping the external expression of buyers and inferring their psychological changes is worth learning from.
In observation, I pay attention to guiding students to grasp the essence and characteristics of things, not just "seeing". Lu Xun, a famous modern literary star, deserves to be an excellent observer. Especially in observing characters, he is really insightful and meticulous. He once said: "To draw a person's characteristics in a very frugal way, it is best to draw his eyes." Not long ago, when I was teaching his short story Blessing, I focused on Lu Xun's three descriptions of Xianglinsao's eyes. When I first arrived at Lu's home, I always followed my eyes and looked docile and kind. When she went to Lujia for the second time, although she still followed her orders, she "had tears in her eyes and her eyes were not as energetic as before", indicating that she was greatly stimulated mentally and extremely sad. After becoming a beggar, Sister Xianglin is completely different from before: her face is "like a woodcut" and "only her eyes can occasionally see that she is a living thing". Explain that at this time, she is on the verge of death, mentally numb, and her heart is greatly devastated. Lu Xun caught the eye of the protagonist Xianglinsao, and through comparison, wrote the tragic experience of the characters and the changes in their inner world. Then, I arranged a composition for the students to observe through their own eyes and remember a retired worker in our school, Lao Yuan. Although the worker retired a few years ago, he has been in charge of sending and receiving newspapers. Send each letter to each class at 6: 30 every morning, and send newspapers and magazines to each teaching and research group at 8: 00 every morning. It never stops except Sunday. As a result, some students focused on his "glasses"; Some people grasp the unstable posture of Lao Yuan because there is something wrong with his left leg. Sometimes I make a fuss about his clothes. Thus, from every student's pen, from different sides and different angles, an ordinary and great ordinary person jumped out. In this way, students gradually learn to "observe" all kinds of things around them, not just "look".
Of course, while emphasizing that students should pay attention to observation, we should also guide them to observe with correct and healthy thoughts. For example, some students see all kinds of corruption and unhealthy tendencies in our social reality, and they think that combining composition with practice is to expose the dark side and make them complain. This is actually a misunderstanding. I have analyzed with my students that there are indeed ignorance and backwardness, intrigue and frustration in life, which are unacceptable. But we must pay attention to: What is the mainstream of our life? From your birth to becoming a senior three student in a key middle school, have you experienced more sunshine and rain, or more ups and downs? Are there many positive factors or negative factors around you? Furthermore, unhealthy trends in life are really hated by people today and should be exposed and lashed, but we must not lose confidence in life because of this, let ugly things occupy our hearts, and let our lives be full of sunshine everywhere. After my guidance, many students realized that what they wrote through observation was true and heartfelt; On the other hand, it should be healthy and positive.
Because I pay attention to cultivating students' observation ability, many students' writing level has gradually improved, especially many good works that express their true feelings have emerged. A student wrote an essay "Beaten" about a neighbor, a young man who failed in the college entrance examination and was famous on the list. The young man dropped out of the list by two points last year. Looking at his father's "rickety body", his mother's "wrinkled face" and his little brother in Grade Two, he really couldn't bear to review any more. Although his father said he wanted to borrow money, he went to work in the south with a bitter heart and a lot of college entrance examination review materials. This year, he worked during the day and studied hard under the account at night. A year passed quickly, and he came back to take part in this year's college entrance examination. As a result, the notice from the Provincial Institute of Finance and Trade came. The student wrote, "He left again, but this time the whole village gave him a present. When the train started, he saw his father's rickety body and his mother's wrinkled face again, so his eyes blurred ... "What a touching scene, what a real shot! Later, I asked the student if what he wrote was true. He said, "I saw it with my own eyes. This young man is a cousin of mine. On the day of seeing him off, I specially asked for leave to go home and say goodbye to him. What I wrote is true. I just want to write down what I see. "
Yes, as long as we pay attention, many things in daily life will make us discover something. Isn't it? It is normal for apples to fall to the ground, but Newton discovered the law of gravity from it and opened a new era of science. Boiling water is a common thing, but Watt invented the steam turbine, which led to the industrial revolution. As Chekhov once said to a young author: "Look at this wall, it seems that there is nothing interesting, but if you look at it with your heart, you will find something in it, something that others have not noticed before, so you can write it down ..." In other words, you should observe and think, you should observe with your own eyes and think with your own mind.
Pay attention to the daily things around you, which will enable you to gain knowledge and discover the true meaning of life.
Composition should learn to accumulate.
The ancient summaries of "Reading thousands of books, writing like a god" and "A clever woman can't cook without rice" illustrate the importance of "accumulation" in writing from both positive and negative aspects. "Usually rely on accumulation, the examination room depends on play", which is the same experience of the students in the examination room.
(A) language to establish a "vocabulary". Vocabulary is the cell of an article. Vocabulary in a broad sense refers not only to the collection of words and phrases, but also to sentences and sentence groups. There are two ways to establish "vocabulary": the first is reading. Usually, you should read books, newspapers and periodicals extensively, take reading notes, extract some beautiful words, sentences and paragraphs from a specific notebook, or make reading cards. The second is life. At ordinary times, we should capture the fresh language in the popular spoken language and write it down in a small notebook or card that we carry with us. Over time, we can say it chapter by chapter and write it beautifully.
(2) Strengthen the accumulation of materials. Materials are the flesh and blood of the article. Because many students usually don't pay attention to accumulating materials, they are worried every time they write a composition, or edit or copy it. The solution to this problem is to accumulate materials. Usually, you can take a video camera and tape recorder with you, observe life deeply, actively participate in life, and record your experiences in family life, campus life and social life in time in the form of sketching, keeping a diary and writing observation notes. When recording, we should grasp the details and the characteristics of people, things, things and scenery. The article written in this way is flesh and blood.
(3) We should strengthen ideological accumulation. Opinion is the soul of an article. The center of the article is not clear, or the thought is not profound, which often shows that the author's thought is superficial. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a "think tank". There are two ways: first, be thoughtful. "One more miss, one more gain." Think deeply at ordinary times and ask "why", "what" and "how" when something happens. So you can see the essence through the phenomenon. It is also necessary to record the "sparks" of thinking and the conclusions of thinking at any time. The second is compilation, that is, extracting famous sayings and aphorisms.
In short, the composition should be accumulated, and the three writing warehouses of vocabulary, material and thought should be regularly counted, sorted and classified to continuously enrich and expand.
Second, learn to observe before writing a good composition.
Mr. Lu Xun emphasized two points when answering the question of "how to write good articles" for young artists: one is to read more books, and the other is to practice more. Here, "seeing more" means observing more. This shows that in order to write a good article and master skillful writing skills, it is necessary to observe more and learn to observe, and observation is the necessary premise and foundation of writing.
Russian novelist Chekhov earnestly warned beginners: "A writer must train himself to be a keen observer and never give up! -It is a habit to exercise your own observation, as if it were second nature. " It takes time to hone observation into habit and second nature, which is very useful and remarkable.
Pay attention to the people, events, sights and things around you, and hunt for the materials needed in the composition: be interested in some seemingly insignificant but meaningful things, and pay attention to the cause, process and result of things; You should pay attention to how the plants in the campus flower beds change their colors all year round, and learn to get to the bottom of it and find out the ins and outs of these changes; You should go out, enter the society, meet more people, observe their words and deeds, think about some things, and integrate into your own thoughts at any time. This is the process of observation, and the following points should be paid attention to in the process of observation:
(a) Observation should not be limited to "eyes". Broadly speaking, more practical observation refers to mobilizing all the five senses of people: listening with ears, feeling with the body and, more importantly, thinking with the mind, so that the observation will be more delicate and profound.
(2) Pay attention to the use of "bad writing" in the observation process. As the saying goes, a good memory is better than bad writing. Many students see a lot and think a lot every day, but they are not good at writing it down at any time, which will waste the observed materials and a lot of valuable things.
(3) Pay special attention to perseverance in observation. Don't make "brain fever". Three minutes of heat is not conducive to writing a good composition. You should observe life and think about every day in your life, so that you can write wonderful articles.
Learning to observe plays a great role in laying the foundation and promoting a good composition. Without observation, you often find it difficult to write. May you learn to observe, constantly cultivate and improve your ability to observe, and make great progress in your writing practice.
Third, the meaning is high, and the text wins.
Intention is to establish the center and intention of the article. So what problems should the article pay attention to when expounding ideas?
(A) the idea should be correct
Correctness is the first meaning of the article. The so-called correctness is to ensure that the feelings and thoughts of the article are correct, in line with the nature and laws of objective things, in line with China's basic political principles, in line with people's basic moral requirements, and can give people positive inspiration.
(2) single-minded.
"The problem of composition is more expensive than being single. Specialization is fine, and dispersion is stupid. " No matter how complicated things are, the main idea cannot be dispersed. An article should explain both this problem and that point of view, and it is ambiguous to ramble. In fact, if you want to cover everything, it is definitely not in place. Moreover, an article can only have one center. Instead of "biting off more than one can chew", it is better to concentrate on expressing a center with pen and ink. Even if we express the center through several things, we should stick to the center, keep the same goal, pay attention to the combination of materials and centers, and let all the forces contained in materials point to the center.
(c) Ideas should be novel.
The article is the most taboo to echo others' opinions, and the novel angle is the core of composition innovation. The novelty of conception requires jumping out of the old box, not following the advanced thinking, habitual thinking or the original psychological formula, but examining the alternative content contained in the topic from a unique perspective to avoid what others often write and what others have not written. Even if the same writing object can always be cut in from multiple angles, as long as we break the mindset, stand at the height of the times, avoid "vulgarity" and seek "difference", think from multiple angles and sides, or associate, expand, analogize or reverse, and build your most beautiful rainbow in the colorful sky.
(4) be profound.
Profound conception means that the established theme is not the superficial truth that people are familiar with, but to look at the essence through the phenomenon and dig deeper meaning.
(5) ingenious conception.
In limited words, if you want to express profound thoughts, you can only see the world from a grain of sand, reproduce the whole picture of life from one branch and one leaf, and describe and think about society and life from one drop, one fragment, one moment and one phenomenon, that is, you should focus on the big picture and put pen to paper in a small place, but you can see great dullness from a small angle.
Fourth, how to write a good article about things.
How to write a good article? Please remember the following five points:
(1) Explain the origin
Introducing the history of the article in one or two sentences at the beginning of the article naturally leads to the following.
(2) Specific description
Through color and modeling, the shape of the article is accurately outlined, and the characteristics are written, giving people a distinct feeling. Use some appropriate rhetorical devices to develop a reasonable imagination. Give it emotion, and it will make things on paper come alive.
(C) the combination of static and dynamic
Write the static shape characteristics first, and then write its dynamics. This will add some interest and the articles written will be more vivid.
(4) Interpretation function
Each item has its own unique function. Generally speaking, this kind of article should explain the function of the article at the end, which will highlight the characteristics of the article.
(5) Integration with feelings
Between the lines, it is necessary to reveal the author's love and cherish for the things described, which will enhance the appeal of the article.
Five, to make a long story short
You must be very moved to read a good article, right? If you want to introduce the story to others simply, you can use abbreviations. This exercise is an abbreviation, which requires the main content to be complete and focused; The language is concise, with no more than 300 abbreviations.
Abbreviation is a common form in composition. Abbreviation is to compress a long article into a short article without changing the center and genre and retaining the main content of the original text. Learning abbreviations can help us better understand the content of the text, cultivate our reading ability and generalization ability, and then improve our language expression ability. So, how to abbreviate it?
(a) leave the trunk, branches and leaves. When we abbreviate the text, we should delete the minor characters, minor events, explanations and explanations, leaving the main content of the text. For example, in the article "the little scribe", we should first think about: under what circumstances did Sulio start to help his father, why did he do it in secret, how did he do it, what was the result, and draw the place that touched you the most. Then write down what he copied for his father and delete his thoughts when he was misunderstood by his father.
(2) Simplify the task language directly. In narration, direct narration should be changed into indirect narration, and the language of characters should be simplified as much as possible. This not only makes the plot coherent, but also makes the sentence concise.
(3) Keep the context of the article clear. The abbreviation of the text should keep the main context of the article clear and complete, especially the time, place, person, cause, process and result of the event, so that people can have a general understanding of the original text after reading it.
(4) Either change the original intention of the text. The most important thing of abbreviated words is that the original intention of the words will not be changed after abbreviation, so that the content is basically consistent with the original text and readers will not be confused.
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First, the composition should learn to accumulate.
The ancient summaries of "Reading thousands of books, writing like a god" and "A clever woman can't cook without rice" illustrate the importance of "accumulation" in writing from both positive and negative aspects. "Usually rely on accumulation, the examination room depends on play", which is the same experience of the students in the examination room.
(A) language to establish a "vocabulary". Vocabulary is the cell of an article. Vocabulary in a broad sense refers not only to the collection of words and phrases, but also to sentences and sentence groups. There are two ways to establish "vocabulary": the first is reading. Usually, you should read books, newspapers and periodicals extensively, take reading notes, extract some beautiful words, sentences and paragraphs from a specific notebook, or make reading cards. The second is life. At ordinary times, we should capture the fresh language in the popular spoken language and write it down in a small notebook or card that we carry with us. Over time, we can say it chapter by chapter and write it beautifully.
(2) Strengthen the accumulation of materials. Materials are the flesh and blood of the article. Because many students usually don't pay attention to accumulating materials, they are worried every time they write a composition, or edit or copy it. The solution to this problem is to accumulate materials. Usually, you can take a video camera and tape recorder with you, observe life deeply, actively participate in life, and record your experiences in family life, campus life and social life in time in the form of sketching, keeping a diary and writing observation notes. When recording, we should grasp the details and the characteristics of people, things, things and scenery. The article written in this way is flesh and blood.
(3) We should strengthen ideological accumulation. Opinion is the soul of an article. The center of the article is not clear, or the thought is not profound, which often shows that the author's thought is superficial. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a "think tank". There are two ways: first, be thoughtful. "One more miss, one more gain." Think deeply at ordinary times and ask "why", "what" and "how" when something happens. So you can see the essence through the phenomenon. It is also necessary to record the "sparks" of thinking and the conclusions of thinking at any time. The second is compilation, that is, extracting famous sayings and aphorisms.
In short, the composition should be accumulated, and the three writing warehouses of vocabulary, material and thought should be regularly counted, sorted and classified to continuously enrich and expand.
Second, learn to observe before writing a good composition.
Mr. Lu Xun emphasized two points when answering the question of "how to write good articles" for young artists: one is to read more books, and the other is to practice more. Here, "seeing more" means observing more. This shows that in order to write a good article and master skillful writing skills, it is necessary to observe more and learn to observe, and observation is the necessary premise and foundation of writing.
Russian novelist Chekhov earnestly warned beginners: "A writer must train himself to be a keen observer and never give up! -It is a habit to exercise your own observation, as if it were second nature. " It takes time to hone observation into habit and second nature, which is very useful and remarkable.
Pay attention to the people, events, sights and things around you, and hunt for the materials needed in the composition: be interested in some seemingly insignificant but meaningful things, and pay attention to the cause, process and result of things; You should pay attention to how the plants in the campus flower beds change their colors all year round, and learn to get to the bottom of it and find out the ins and outs of these changes; You should go out, enter the society, meet more people, observe their words and deeds, think about some things, and integrate into your own thoughts at any time. This is the process of observation, and the following points should be paid attention to in the process of observation:
(a) Observation should not be limited to "eyes". Broadly speaking, more practical observation refers to mobilizing all the five senses of people: listening with ears, feeling with the body and, more importantly, thinking with the mind, so that the observation will be more delicate and profound.
(2) Pay attention to the use of "bad writing" in the observation process. As the saying goes, a good memory is better than bad writing. Many students see a lot and think a lot every day, but they are not good at writing it down at any time, which will waste the observed materials and a lot of valuable things.
(3) Pay special attention to perseverance in observation. Don't make "brain fever". Three minutes of heat is not conducive to writing a good composition. You should observe life and think about every day in your life, so that you can write wonderful articles.
Learning to observe plays a great role in laying the foundation and promoting a good composition. Without observation, you often find it difficult to write. May you learn to observe, constantly cultivate and improve your ability to observe, and make great progress in your writing practice.
Third, the meaning is high, and the text wins.
Intention is to establish the center and intention of the article. So what problems should the article pay attention to when expounding ideas?
(A) the idea should be correct
Correctness is the first meaning of the article. The so-called correctness is to ensure that the feelings and thoughts of the article are correct, in line with the nature and laws of objective things, in line with China's basic political principles, in line with people's basic moral requirements, and can give people positive inspiration.
(2) single-minded.
"The problem of composition is more expensive than being single. Specialization is fine, and dispersion is stupid. " No matter how complicated things are, the main idea cannot be dispersed. An article should explain both this problem and that point of view, and it is ambiguous to ramble. In fact, if you want to cover everything, it is definitely not in place. Moreover, an article can only have one center. Instead of "biting off more than one can chew", it is better to concentrate on expressing a center with pen and ink. Even if we express the center through several things, we should stick to the center, keep the same goal, pay attention to the combination of materials and centers, and let all the forces contained in materials point to the center.
(c) Ideas should be novel.
The article is the most taboo to echo others' opinions, and the novel angle is the core of composition innovation. The novelty of conception requires jumping out of the old box, not following the advanced thinking, habitual thinking or the original psychological formula, but examining the alternative content contained in the topic from a unique perspective to avoid what others often write and what others have not written. Even if the same writing object can always be cut in from multiple angles, as long as we break the mindset, stand at the height of the times, avoid "vulgarity" and seek "difference", think from multiple angles and sides, or associate, expand, analogize or reverse, and build your most beautiful rainbow in the colorful sky.
(4) be profound.
Profound conception means that the established theme is not the superficial truth that people are familiar with, but to look at the essence through the phenomenon and dig deeper meaning.
(5) ingenious conception.
In limited words, if you want to express profound thoughts, you can only see the world from a grain of sand, reproduce the whole picture of life from one branch and one leaf, and describe and think about society and life from one drop, one fragment, one moment and one phenomenon, that is, you should focus on the big picture and put pen to paper in a small place, but you can see great dullness from a small angle.
Fourth, how to write a good article about things.
How to write a good article? Please remember the following five points:
(1) Explain the origin
Introducing the history of the article in one or two sentences at the beginning of the article naturally leads to the following.
(2) Specific description
Through color and modeling, the shape of the article is accurately outlined, and the characteristics are written, giving people a distinct feeling. Use some appropriate rhetorical devices to develop a reasonable imagination. Give it emotion, and it will make things on paper come alive.
(C) the combination of static and dynamic
Write the static shape characteristics first, and then write its dynamics. This will add some interest and the articles written will be more vivid.
(4) Interpretation function
Each item has its own unique function. Generally speaking, this kind of article should explain the function of the article at the end, which will highlight the characteristics of the article.
(5) Integration with feelings
Between the lines, it is necessary to reveal the author's love and cherish for the things described, which will enhance the appeal of the article.
Five, to make a long story short
You must be very moved to read a good article, right? If you want to introduce the story to others simply, you can use abbreviations. This exercise is an abbreviation, which requires the main content to be complete and focused; The language is concise, with no more than 300 abbreviations.
Abbreviation is a common form in composition. Abbreviation is to compress a long article into a short article without changing the center and genre and retaining the main content of the original text. Learning abbreviations can help us better understand the content of the text, cultivate our reading ability and generalization ability, and then improve our language expression ability. So, how to abbreviate it?
(a) leave the trunk, branches and leaves. When we abbreviate words, we should delete minor figures, minor events, explanations, explanations and other places, leaving words.