Unit of Study Overview

The Genre

Middle school students and teachers often approach fiction writing with skepticism. For many students, reading and writing stories are simply chores: readings seem irrelevant and writing assignments overly prescribed. For some teachers, creative writing isn’t “real” in the same way that research reports and persuasive essays are. So why bother teaching our students to write short fiction? What can be gained?

When studying this genre in the classroom, students use their creative energy to transform events from their personal lives into a short “realistic” fictional piece: one that is uniquely their own yet worth reading by others. Student writers reflect on characters with whom they can identify and carefully consider how they might react to plausible challenges by asking “what if” – an intense and complex higher-order thinking exercise appropriate for youngsters just beginning to explore their relationships with others and this world. While they are free to imagine a storyline, at the same time students must harness their thinking to stay within the boundaries of “real life” if their stories are to have an internal logic that is compelling to readers. For youngsters, this is a tall order that requires them to contemplate what they know about themselves and others, about human interaction and about life in general. In the end, a work of fiction emerges that is both enlightening and satisfying. It takes writers (and readers) on an unforgettable journey while being based on believable thoughts, emotions and situations.

A teacher’s job is not only to guide students in developing and crafting stories but also to help them understand and feel compassion for the people and challenges they are addressing (Lattimer, Thinking through Genre, p. 159). Writing Short Fiction provides a roadmap and resources that facilitate this exciting process.

The Author

Dr. Heather Lattimer is an assistant professor in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. Formerly a high school teacher and literacy coach, Dr. Lattimer has taught English, history and mathematics in a diverse range of high school and middle school classrooms in both Northern and Southern California. Her expertise is in supporting struggling readers and writers and challenging chronic underachievers. Dr. Lattimer has consulted for schools and school districts throughout the country. She is the author of a professional text for teachers, Thinking through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops, 4-12, published by Stenhouse in 2003. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University, received her M.A. in Education from Stanford University and completed her doctorate in education at the University of California, San Diego, where her research focuses on educational access and equity for low-income students, teaching excellence in literacy and the social sciences and the professional growth of teachers working in urban secondary schools.

Lessons at a Glance

The unit offers six weeks of instruction (organized into six steps) and is suitable for a wide range of middle school classrooms. Each step contains four lessons aligned to New York City and State learning standards in English Language Arts.
Step 1: Create a Character

In Step 1, students develop main characters as the springboard for creating compelling and realistic short stories. With teacher guidance, students imagine believable and memorable characters and then sharpen their personalities by defining their experiences and relationships. Having created central figures that are multidimensional and unique, students are ready to invent the conflicts upon which to build their fictional pieces.

Lesson 1.1: Analyze a Character

After being introduced to the unit of study, students analyze the main character in Paul Fleischman’s short story “Gonzalo” from the book Seedfolks in preparation for creating their own fictional characters. Students identify the unique traits of the character in the mentor text as well as traits of other fictional characters that are familiar to them.

Lesson 1.2: Imagine Your Character

After constructing a fictional character as a class, students create their own memorable and believable characters, scaffolded by a short list of guiding questions. By the end of the lesson, students will have developed character sketches for the central figures of their realistic short stories.

Lesson 1.3: Develop Your Character’s Network

This lesson has two parts. In the first part, students create relationship webs that include a variety of people in their characters’ world such as friends, family and acquaintances. Students extend their thinking about each of these relationships by writing about potential problems the main character may have with some of the people in the web. In the second part, students use Your Character Sketch (Handout 1.2a) and Develop Your Character’s Network (Handout 1.3a) to begin posting character profiles on an electronic page that they will later share with classmates.

Lesson 1.4: Sharpen Your Character’s Identity 

This lesson has two parts. In the first part, students sharpen their characters by “interviewing” them. Students ask questions about their characters’ strengths, weaknesses, fears and secrets in order to gain additional insight into their personalities. In the second part, students update online character profiles and share them with classmates. Peers provide constructive feedback to further character development. (Checkpoint)

Step 2: Plan Your Plot

In Step 2, students develop plots for their stories. They build on characters and a manageable conflict to create clear and thoughtful story maps for their short fiction pieces. Developing an organized story map is necessary before students begin writing to ensure that stories focus on a conflict, build toward an engaging climax, offer a thoughtful resolution and adequately reveal the character’s personality.

Lesson 2.1: Brainstorm Conflicts

Students identify potential conflicts involving their main characters in order to develop a compelling central focus for their stories. After developing a list of stressful areas or points affecting their characters’ lives, students explore the hypothetical situations (“what could happen if” scenarios) that could result. These situations serve as story possibilities. (Checkpoint)

Lesson 2.2: Generate the Plot

Students try out several possible plotlines in order to determine the best possible direction for their realistic short stories. They then select one and pitch their idea to a classmate in order to receive constructive feedback.

Lesson 2.3: Map the Outside Story

Students plan for writing by breaking their stories into discrete scenes. They first identify the climax and use it as the hub from which they build rising action and falling action scenes. At the end of the lesson, students have a creative and logical sequence of actions and events recorded on an organizer that will serve as a guide when they begin drafting.

Lesson 2.4: Map the Inside Story

Using maps of the action in their stories, students determine the thoughts and emotions related to each particular scene as well as their progression leading up to and after the climax. (Checkpoint)

Step 3: Try Out Writing Strategies

In Step 3, students experiment with a collection of strategies that allow them to effectively engage their readers with their story’s events and characters. Students experiment with these strategies in their climax and introductory scenes using ideas from their story maps. These “experiments” may or may not make it into the draft of the short story. The idea is to develop a “toolkit” that students can draw upon when drafting their stories as well as in future narrative writing.

Lesson 3.1: Use Description to Set the Mood

Students learn how writers set the mood of a scene using vivid descriptions of the setting, the characters and the action. Guided by their story maps, students identify the moods they wish to communicate in their climax scenes and develop them using descriptive language.

Lesson 3.2: Show Your Character’s Personality

Students learn how to reveal their characters’ personalities and motivations through the use of action, dialogue and interior monologue. They add these elements to make the climax scenes developed in the previous lesson even more effective.

Lesson 3.3: Determine a Point of View for Your Story

After learning the differences between first and third person narration, students experiment with each by starting a draft of their first scene using first person and rewriting the scene in third person. They compare the resulting paragraphs and choose the point of view that will be most effective in making their stories interesting and bringing meaning to them. (Checkpoint)

Lesson 3.4: Use the Computer for Drafting (Supplementary)

This supplemental lesson is targeted to classrooms in which students are inexperienced in using word processing software. Students learn about good file saving practices in preparation for typing their first drafts. Students learn to upload their typed documents to the Online Classroom.

Step 4: Write Your First Draft

In Step 4, students produce a complete first draft of their short stories. In doing so, they draw on the drafting techniques discussed in the mini lessons on ensuring plot consistency and writing effective endings as well as the narrative craft techniques introduced in Step 3.

Lesson 4.1: Begin to Draft

Students begin drafting their stories from beginning to end. They use the story maps and brief story pitches generated in Step 2 to guide them in incorporating both the inside (thoughts and emotions) and the outside (actions) of their character. In addition, they apply the craft strategies introduced in Step 3 to their writing.

Lesson 4.2: Draft an Effective Ending

Based on their story maps, students create endings that effectively resolve their central conflicts. In addition, they show how their characters have changed throughout the course of their stories.

Lesson 4.3: Ensure Plot Consistency

Students reread their first drafts, comparing them to the story maps they created in Step 2 to ensure that their plots are cohesive and consistent with their plans. Students eliminate any inconsistencies they find by adding, deleting or refocusing scenes as needed. (Checkpoint)

Lesson 4.4: Use Dialogue to Advance the Plot (Supplementary)

Students learn how to use dialogue to advance the plot and bring characters to life. The mechanics of punctuating and formatting dialogue are also addressed in the lesson. Students apply their newly acquired skills to their draft stories.

Step 5: Revise

In Step 5, now that students have a complete draft, they refine their texts. They guide readers from scene to scene with appropriate transitions and sharpen clarity and readers’ engagement by applying additional craft strategies. Through peer review, students have another opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses in their work and to plan for improving their stories.

Lesson 5.1: Transition from Scene to Scene

After learning different ways to signal the transitions between scenes in their writing, students review their draft short stories and revise them so that readers can clearly understand any changes in location, time and characters.

Lesson 5.2: Use Foreshadowing

Students learn specific foreshadowing strategies to make their stories more believable and consistent. Armed with this knowledge, they reread and revise their short stories to establish important facts and to introduce key character traits before their climax scenes.

Lesson 5.3: Grab Readers with Your Beginning

Using a set of guiding questions, students revisit the opening paragraphs of their stories in order to more fully engage their readers. Students stimulate readers by introducing their main characters through use of vivid detail, providing interesting background, or starting off the story with a dramatic event. Strategies selected should work to introduce the main character and conflict in an interesting and clear way. (Checkpoint)

Lesson 5.4: Peer Review

After learning the importance of sharing both warm and cool feedback and giving specific comments, students confer with classmates to improve their stories. As reviewers, they respond to one another’s work and then, as writers, they use the feedback they receive to develop and execute a revision plan.

Step 6: Edit and Publish

In Step 6, the final step of the unit, students edit and proofread their short stories for accuracy of grammar and spelling. At the end of this process, students celebrate their accomplishments by publishing their short stories in the class eZine and commenting online on one another’s stories.

Lesson 6.1: Edit for Run-on Sentences

Students edit their stories for grammar and punctuation using the Editing Checklist (Handout 6.1a). They pay particular attention to identifying and eliminating run-on sentences. Students work on computers to correct their typed drafts.

Lesson 6.2: Reflect on Your Work

Students make final refinements to their stories using Handout 2.2b, Short Fiction Rubric. The rubric serves as a guide as students prepare their stories for publication. Students also reflect upon what they have learned throughout the Short Fiction unit and establish future writing goals. (Checkpoint)

Lesson 6.3: Publish on Writing Matters

Students create appealing titles for their stories. They insert drop caps into their first paragraphs. Then they publish their finished pieces on their Writing Matters class ezine.

Lesson 6.4: Respond to Other’s Writing

Students read one another’s work and post their comments on the class ezine. The process is scaffolded by a series of “sentence starters” that keep the remarks focused and thoughtful.

References

Anderson, Jeff. Mechanically Inclined. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005.

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle. New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning. Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1998.

Baldwin, Carol. Teaching the Story. Gainesville, Fl.: Maupin House, 2007.

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1994.

Heard, Georgia. The Revision Toolbox. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2002.

Lattimer, Heather. Thinking Through Genre. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2003.

Standards

New York State English Language Arts Learning Standards

ELA 1.1c: Students use the process of pre-writing, drafting, revising and proofreading (the "writing process") to produce well-constructed informational texts.

ELA 2.2: Speaking and writing for literary expression involves producing imaginative texts that use language and text structures that are inventive and often multilayered.

Students

• explain the meaning of literary works with some attention to meanings beyond the literal level
• write stories, poems, literary essays and plays that observe the conventions of the genre and contain interesting and effective language and voice
• use Standard English effectively.

This is evident, for example, when students

• write stories or poems for their peers or younger children.

ELA 3.1: Students evaluate their own and other’s work based on a variety of criteria (e.g., logic, clarity, comprehensiveness, conciseness, originality, conventionality) and recognize the varying effectiveness of different approaches. They analyze, interpret and evaluate information, ideas, organization and language from academic and nonacademic texts, such as textbooks, public documents, book and movie reviews and editorials.
ELA 4.1: Students express ideas and concerns clearly and respectfully in conversations and group discussions.

ELA 4.3: Students share the process of writing with peers and adults.

ELA 4.4: Students use the conventions of electronic mail.