Book Review
The book review is due October 20. The requirements are on this blog post as well as an example.
Short Story
The short story will probably be due October 30th.
The classroom wiki has exactly what the students need to do for their short story. Examples can be found on this page as well. I also posted what the students have on their pages below. I am expecting students to log on to the wiki and work on their stories.
EXTRA CREDIT
The PTA Reflections Contest has a category for short story. The theme this year is The world would be a better place if.... I am offering 2 extra percentage points for students to write their short story on the PTA theme and submit their piece for the contest. Here are the rules and requirements that I will be discussing with the students soon.
Name:
Section:
I want to see your short story planned out in detail.
(See below the outline for explanations of each section.)
QUICK Short Story Planner
1. Setting (and why it matters)
2. Character 1 (main, dynamic, round)
Physical Characteristics
Has a problem/choice to make
3. Character 2 (static, flat)
Will interact with C1 to produce change
Physical Characteristics
Has his/her own issues
4. Event/Plot – situation (conflict) to affect change
Determine how C1 will change and problem acted on
5. Theme- What lesson does C1 learn?
DETAILED Short Story Planner
1. Setting (and why it matters)
2. Character 1 (main, dynamic, round)
Physical Characteristics
Has a problem/choice to make
3. Character 2 (static, flat)
Will interact with C1 to produce change
Physical Characteristics
Has his/her own issues
4. Event/Plot – situation (conflict) to affect change
Determine how C1 will change and problem acted on
5. Theme- What lesson does C1 learn?
Determine your Narrator
Explain the effect of having your narrator be each of the following:1st Person-
3rd Person Limited-
3rd Person Objective-
Can you plan enough to give your narrator a personality? What I mean is, the narrator is not YOUR Voice.
.
A good story has five very important elements.
(You will need much more space than this to write out your plans. If you are typing this, take all the space you need. Otherwise, use paper and leave lots of room for your SPECIFIC details.)
Introduction
Initial development
Provocation
Action
Resolution
I would like you to create a storyboard.
| sdhfjshdfkjh | hdksfjhksjh | kshdkahdsk | hkjhksjdhfkj | kjhfkjhksdj |
Start writing your story here:
Start typing story here:
Explanations of each of the requirements above
Topic choice: Appropriate or inappropriate?
Tips:
- When generating a short story idea, you must find one that pushes a reader’s limits, but not too far.
- It is okay to provoke your readers a little, but not so much that they won’t take you seriously.
- You also don’t want a subject that is so safe that your readers will find it boring.
- Characters in a short story must always have a good reason for doing whatever they do.
- You must set up whatever happens in a story. Nothing ever just happens.
- The main character of a short story must goes through some major change in behavior or personality as a result of the events in the story.
- It involves either a person or an even. On occasion it involves both, but rarely.
- An idea in its childhood is just like the one in its infancy, with the addition of a problem.
- To move an idea from infancy to childhood, you must ask, “What’s wrong?”
- The problem is usually something the main character is unmotivated to solve.
- To move from childhood to adolescence, you must introduce a reason to take action on the problem.
- “Why does the main character care about the problem?”
- The action the main character decides to take.
- You must fill in any gaps and answer any unanswered questions- such as setting up the events in the story.
- An idea in its adulthood is a person or even with a problem and a reason to confront it.
- It also includes the action the main character takes on the problem, even it that action is doing nothing at all.
- It also includes the answers to unanswered questions and fills in gaps.
- When you finish this idea generation, you will probably have written several pages.
- You must always plan the end of your story before you even start to write it.
Example: A U.S. Senator that has a drug problem is being blackmails by a colleague. The senator then decides to hire an assassin to kill his colleague. The assassin gets caught and turns in the senator. The senator goes to train and has to train dogs to detect drug scents (irony).
When writing a story, you must use your notes.
A good story has five very important elements.
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Initial development
- 3. Provocation
- 4. Action
- 5. Resolution
Introduction
Introduce the main character
- Give physical attributes if possible.
- Show the main character taking some action that gives a clue to who he is or what he is doing without actually saying it. (I would not open my story by saying, “There was once a man sitting in a therapist’s office.”)
- Describes the problem
- Sets up future events in the story
- As the story progressed, I had to give the main character a reason to act to at least think differently about his situation.
- The purpose of the provocation section of the story is to give the main character a reason to address his problem.
- Without the provocation, there is no point to the short story, and the main character cannot develop.
- The action part of the story is just that. The main character decides to do something about his problem.
- The purpose of the resolution is to show the results of the action the main character took.
Tips
- Writers most frequently ignore the initial development, which describes the problem in detail and sets up future events in the story.
- You can write a rough draft of a short story in an hour.
