Arlene F. Marks - Story Crafting: Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Fiction Writing Skills in the High School Grades

Story Crafting

Literacy: Made for all Series

Series Author: Arlene F. Marks

Literacy: Made for All 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.

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

  Titles in the Series:

  Story Crafting: Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Fiction Writing Skills in the High School Grades (2014)

  Enjoying Literature: Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Fiction and Poetry Analysis Skills in the High School Grades (2014)

  Wordsmithing: Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Nonfiction Writing and Analysis Skills in the High School Grades (2014)

Story Crafting

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

Arlene F. Marks

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom

Copyright 2014 by Arlene F. Marks

All rights reserved. With the exception of worksheets, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Marks, Arlene F., 1947

Story crafting : classroom-ready materials for teaching fiction writing skills in the high school grades / Arlene F. Marks.

pages cm. (Literacy: made to order series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4758-0733-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-1-4758-0734-9 (electronic)

1. Language arts (Secondary)United StatesActivity programs. 2. Composition (Language arts) I. Title.

LB1631.M3857 2014

428.0071'2dc23 2013044406

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American

National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library

Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

Welcome to Literacy: Made for All , a buffet-style reading and writing program for the high school grades.

This student-centered approach to the study of literature, language, and writing is based on certain classroom-tested precepts:

1. That reading and writing are equally essential to the development of a students understanding of and appreciation for literature.

   Students who practice using a variety of rhetorical and literary techniques in their own work not only become much better equipped to identify examples of a particular writing strategy, they are also able to discuss more knowledgeably how and how well the strategy has been used.

2. That literate readers are critical readers.

   Because literate people understand and appreciate what words can do, they are not easily confused or manipulated by words. To be considered literate, therefore, students need to be able to assess the quality, the effect, andmost importantthe intent of the language that is used to address them.

3. That literature being studied must be read with purpose.

   When we read strictly for entertainment, certain parts of the brain gear down, sidelining the learning process. Students of literature, however, need to think about what they are reading. To ensure that this happens, they must read with pen in hand, making notes or recording specific information as they go along.

4. That discovery and learning come about when students feel confident enough to take risks and try new experiences.

   Investigating something new always brings with it the risk of making mistakes. Children are taught from an early age to avoid mistakes if possible. However, students need to understand that while remaining in ones comfort zone may guarantee success, it also prevents growth, and while success may bring praise and make us feel good about ourselves, mistakes are how we learn.

   At the same time, I have developed this program keeping in mind certain other rules of thumb, learned the hard way over years of teaching experience:

1. Always begin with review.

   No matter how basic the skill or how many grades ago the material should have been learned, there are bound to be students in your class who have never heard of it. That is why Ive made laying the foundation a routine first step in each segment of Literacy: Made for All .

2. The one who is doing the work is the one who is learning.

   Since you already have the credit in the course youre teaching, this means the students should be the ones practicing the skills, doing the investigating, bouncing ideas off one another, and drawing the conclusions. Literacy: Made for All gives students plenty of opportunity to do all of these.

3. Repetition works.

   By this, I dont mean rote learning, but rather going back over already-charted territory. This kind of repetition hones skills and deepens understanding. It creates a level of comfort and encourages experimentation. And as long as youre asking students to repeat something theyve enjoyed or found interesting in the past, theyll cheerfully revisit favorite lessons, activities, and assignments, over and over. In fact, Ive had students request them.

4. Practice may not make perfect, but it does make permanent.

   Like a tattoo on the skin, something learned is very difficult to erase from the mind. That is why students need to learn things correctly the first time. And that is why modeling and guided practice are essential preliminary steps in each segment of Literacy: Made for All.

IMPLEMENTING LITERACY: MADE for all

Literacy: Made for All is organized into units called modules , each focusing on a particular kind of writing or a particular type of reading material. Each module is divided into a menu of teachable segments, called skills , projects , or assignments , which provide the teacher with complete, classroom-ready lesson plans focusing on particular aspects of the material being read or written, as well as master copies of any student handouts included in the lessons. Extensions have also been added to deepen or differentiate the material for senior-level or enriched classes.

Literacy: Made for All is not a complete English course. It is designed to complement an English curriculum by providing a repertoire of strategies for teaching writing skills and literary analysis techniques suitable for the study of any type of text. The teacher can then select the most effective and appropriate segment(s) to introduce, reinforce, or illuminate classroom discussions of literary works.