Mr. Arthur, my fifth grade colleague, introduced me to writer Demitri Martin who wrote This is a Book. We have done several read aloud sessions as examples of fictional humor and for story writing examples.
Our current fiction writing assignment, draft 1 due Thursday (some students completed in class), asks students to make up stories following one of four story models as presented in four of Martin's stories.
The four choices, based on stories the teacher is modeling in
class, include the following:
1. Tell a simple story from 5 points of view, as in “The Bee Sting”;
2. Tell a series of small stories that all end with the same sentence, as in “Freak Accidents With Acapella Groups”;
3. Tell a series of small stories that involve the same three very different characters, as is “Optimist, Pessimist, Contortionist”;4. Create a “F.A.Q.” guide about some topic, as in “Genie.”
This writing will be further developed in a workshop format, so we all need our stories to take advantage sharing, editing, and improvement steps. They need their short story (it could be a light page or two) by Thursday. Thank you
1. Tell a simple story from 5 points of view, as in “The Bee Sting”;
2. Tell a series of small stories that all end with the same sentence, as in “Freak Accidents With Acapella Groups”;
3. Tell a series of small stories that involve the same three very different characters, as is “Optimist, Pessimist, Contortionist”;4. Create a “F.A.Q.” guide about some topic, as in “Genie.”
This writing will be further developed in a workshop format, so we all need our stories to take advantage sharing, editing, and improvement steps. They need their short story (it could be a light page or two) by Thursday. Thank you
