Elements of a story lesson plan
TITLE:
Elements of a story
GOALS and STANDARDS:
Attached
21st CENTURY SKILLS
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Critical Thinking
- Communication
- Self-direction
COGNITIVE ESLRs:
- Students reason critically
- Students communicate effectively
- Students produce quality work
- Students collaborate effectively
- Students think creatively
AFFECTIVE ESLRs:
- Integrity and responsibility
- Adaptability in transitions
- Continuous learning
ASSESSMENT:
Short story planning
Short story narrative writing
Short story evaluation
TECHNOLOGY:
Google search
Voki characters
Plagiarism awareness
LEARNING ACTIVITIES:
(use Understanding by Design)
This unit is a two - three week unit surrounding two essential questions:
What does an author do to make characters believable and interesting?
What are the most important elements of a short story?
At the beginning of the lesson, the students are introduced to the various elements of literature (plot, setting, conflict, theme, round and flat characters). Students read and discuss short stories from Elements of Literature and discuss short story structure.
Students assess a student sample short story in The Write Source. After reading several short stories and discussing the elements in class, the students take various quizzes to check for understanding.
By the end of the unit, students should be able to identify the main genres of writing, complete a plot diagram or summary of a piece of fiction, and identify the 5W's and H question and answers in a piece.
For the final formal assessment, the students demonstrate their understanding of the elements of a short story by composing their own short story. (See attached assessments above).
The planning of the short story involves creating a virtual character online through voki.com (see link above). The students are able to visualize how they want their character to look, behave and who they want them to become throughout the story. This process allows for creativity with the parameters set on the short story assignment. After several drafts are created and proofread by the student, peers and the teacher, they submit a final copy to turnitin.com (see link above). The submission is not intended to find many examples of plagiarism since it should be an original short story, but instead is designed to raise awareness of plagiarism with future assignments.
RESOURCES:
Elements of Literature short stories: "Duffy's Jacket", "Rikki Tikki Tavi", "Three Skeleton Key", "The Gift of the Magi", "Tell-Tale Heart"
Write Source, pages 344-349
Various worksheets