Story Crafting

Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Fiction Writing Skills in the High School Grades

By (author) Arlene F. Marks

Not available to order

Publication date:

04 March 2014

Length of book:

240 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781475807349

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

The “Literacy: Made for All” series is a classroom-ready, teacher-friendly resource for English and Writing teachers of Grades 9 through 12. Organized buffet style, it is designed to complement an existing English curriculum by providing a tested repertoire of strategies for teaching both writing skills and literary analysis techniques. STORY CRAFTING focuses on the creation, editing, polishing and sharing of short stories and longer prose fiction.

Benefits and Features:

tested and proven effective at all learning levels, from Remedial to Pre-AP
provides complete lesson plans including reproducible materials
can be implemented as is or modified to suit individual teaching styles and/or students' needs
each skill, assignment or project begins by 'teaching the teacher', giving an inexperienced teacher the knowledge to provide effective instruction first time out and the confidence to modify and experiment thereafter
comprised of reading, writing, literary criticism and language-study components
moves students from writing effectively to reading analytically (approaching text from the authoring point of view), a proven, highly successful methodology
can turn any English course into a Literacy course
extremely versatile and cost-effective
can deepen an existing English course or complete the framework for a new one

Introduction
Implementing Literacy: Made to Order
Aims and Objectives of Literacy: Made to Order

How to implement Story Crafting

PART I: GETTING STARTED

Introduction/Aims and Objectives

Skill 1: Establishing an Ideas File
Students learn how to develop and use an Ideas File as a source of writing inspiration.

Skill 2: What Happened Before and What Happens Next
Students explore the causes and effects of a variety of story-triggering incidents or situations and practice turning them into story ideas.

Skill 3: Establishing the Theme of Your Story
Students practice growing underlying themes that can help their fictional tales deliver important and powerful messages to readers.

Skill 4: Creating the Illusion of Reality
Students learn how to make characters, settings and plot events behave or transpire in realistic ways.

Skill 5: Understanding Dramatic Conflict
Student authors practice putting multiple conflicts into a story to make it interesting and exciting for the reader.

Skill 6: Understanding Story/Scene Structure
Young authors learn how to construct a fictional scene and practice putting scenes in the best order to create an interesting story.

Skill 7: Writing Descriptively: Wake Up Your Senses
Young authors reawaken their senses and establish a vocabulary of sensory words and phrases to enhance their descriptive writing.

Skill 8: Writing Descriptively: Use Figurative Language
Student authors practice using similes and metaphors to make their descriptive writing more evocative.

Skill 9: Writing Descriptively: Use Descriptive language
Students learn to recognize and use words with specific connotations in order to make their writing more effective.

Skill 10: Putting Everything Together (Writing Assignment)
Students take a story through the entire process from outlining to Final Draft.

PART II: WRITING THE SHORT STORY

Introduction/Aims and Objectives

Skill 1: Building a Strong Main Character
Students practice the techniques that authors use to bring fictional personalities to life on the page.

Skill 2: Constructing a Solid Dramatic Conflict
Dramatic conflict is the backbone of any story. Student authors practice building and developing the strongest possible level of dramatic conflict in their stories.

Skill 3: Creating an Interesting Setting
Students practice developing and using realistic, well-written settings to strengthen and deepen every element of their stories.

Skill 4: Structuring a Story Effectively in Scenes
Students learn how to make their stories flow interestingly from beginning to end.

Skill 5: Setting Up the Story
Student authors practice writing opening scenes that will lay a strong foundation for the rest of their story.

Skill 6: Hooking the Reader
Students practice creating story openings that will 'hook' the reader's attention from the very beginning of a tale.

Skill 7: Major Writing Assignment
Students are now ready to put together all the writing skills they have learned in a story-writing assignment which will be revised, edited and polished and handed in for evaluation.

PART III: WRITING LONGER FICTION

Introduction/Story Lengths

Skill 1: Adding Minor Characters to the Cast
Young authors learn and practice how to put minor characters to work in their stories, ensuring that every character pulls his/her weight.

Skill 2: Giving Characters More Depth
Students practice building more realistic characters that readers will identify with and care about.

Skill 3: Adding a Subplot
Student authors learn how to deepen and enrich their stories by adding well-integrated subplots.

Skill 4: Working with Settings
Young authors practice putting their story settings to work in various ways, making their stories more engaging for the reader.

Skill 5: Step-building Dramatic Tension
In longer fiction, dramatic tension keeps readers turning pages. Students learn and practice how to build tension using a tested story structure.

Skill 6: Major Writing Assignment
Students are now ready to put together all the longer fiction writing skills they have learned in a story-writing assignment which will be revised, edited and polished and handed in for evaluation.

PART IV: THE WRITING PROCESS: A SUPPLEMENTARY LIBRARY OF FICTION WRITING TOOLS

Introduction: How to Use the Fiction Writing Toolkit

Tools 1-23