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Creating a World of Your Own

This unit is focused upon teaching students fundamental reading and writing skills
through analyzing and writing fiction.
Significant Assumptions:
This unit is intended for those at a higher level of writing, so it would be limited to
senior or juniors. Students should have a large amount of experience in writing whether it
be expository or creative, and should be able to craft thoughtful and grammatically correct
sentences.
Along with this I am assuming that my students are able to read proficiently and
independently as well as reflect critically upon what they have read, so that they are able to
discuss different elements of storytelling within the work. They should be able to analyze
different literary techniques as well (e.g. metaphor, simile, foreshadowing, etc), that are not
limited to literal meanings of the words present within a text. Students ought to be able to
find the deeper meaning within a text (to an extent) so that they are able to understand
some aspects of symbolism and indirect storytelling.
Students should also understand basic grammatical structures of paragraphs and
sentences. While there is not much focus upon that specifically within this unit, it is essential
that they have the fundamentals down so that they may convey their thoughts to their peers
and myself through writing.
Now one of the things that this unit is attempting to do is give students another
perspective of writing than something other than academic expository style writing. This is
mostly due to my own experience within a high school setting and not having the time to
craft creative writing pieces until I was in college, and as an educator I place a high
importance on giving students multiple lenses to look at writing may be used to do, not only
as a way to illustrate the versatility of writing, but also as a way of giving students the ability
to create a new piece of original literature.
I want to give students this other perspective, because in my experience it is left out
of standard curriculum, and that really is a shame, but also to give students another window
in which they can connect with the art of writing and reading. Rather than forcing students to
learn about grammar and writing out of context through worksheets this will give them real
workshop experience that will give each of the students a better look at what writing the
writing process really ought to look like in order to produce highly polished works.
Overview
This unit as I have said previously is a fiction writing unit focused on those who are
able to write proficiently well with a sense of structure and how to write their fluid thoughts
on paper. That being said I feel that this unit is more appropriate for the senior or junior level
of high school. Not only because they have culminated the necessary writing experience to
craft higher levels of writing, but also because I know that the educational system often fails
to reach a multigenre approach to writing, and that is something that I want to avoid.
Rather than allowing students to think in one dimension about writing, I want to
pressure students to think about writing in more than just the expository/academic sense of
writing. I know that it is important that they see that writing fulfills many different functions,
and when an author begins a piece of work they have think about what they are going to
accomplish before they start, and I think that getting students working on a project that isnt,
just another essay they may find themselves challenged as writers and pushed a little out

of their comfort zone. I think that getting students out of their comfort zone is the most
effective way to get students to think about writing in a new way, and that in itself will
motivate their student learning.
So I think the best way to start off this unit is to get students thinking about different
forms of writing, so I will break the students into either two or three teams with the objective
of thinking of as many different styles of writing as possible. For instance, Ill start them off
with the example of obituary writing, nutritional labels, or newspaper writing, just to give
students an example of the huge variety of acceptable answers. This will get them thinking
about writing in a way that is different from just the book report style of writing or expository
writing that they are used to doing for school. This will get students to compete with each
other, and will help students have an incentive for coming up with as many different styles
as possible. Now this may not get them thinking about Fiction specifically within the start of
the unit, but from this game I plan to delve into a round 2 exercise in which students are
thinking of as many different genres of fiction that they can. This can span from sci-fi to
realistic fiction to historical fiction and I think this will end up getting students to think about
not only the different genres that may be included in the unit, but also different works and
examples of genres that may inspire them as they are writing their own stories.
From here well analyze a few different genres of fiction writing through reading, as
well as emulating the work as well. The first style of writing that we will focus on will be a
personal narrative style of writing. To begin I want to bring up the text that I will be using for
a majority of this class, which is entitled The Art of the Short Story. While this text is more
common place within college level courses, I believe that it has enough popular stories
within that it will be able to cover a large variety of short fiction texts, but also have insight
into the authors minds as they are crafting these timeless tales.
Anchor Standards
Reading Standards
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course
of a text.
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical,
connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape
meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the
whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Writing Standards
3. Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined experiences or
events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Writing Process: Production and Distribution of Writing
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. Use a writing process to develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, drafting,
revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
Speaking, Viewing, Listening, and Media Literacy Standards

1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with
diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.
7. Critically analyze information found in electronic, print, and mass media and use a variety
of these sources.
8. Communicate using traditional or digital multimedia formats and digital writing and
publishing for a specific purpose.
Enduring Understandings
Students will understand that different authors of different genres have different goals in
mind when starting, and that it is extremely important to understand those goals when
choosing a style, organization, and voice for their writing.
Students will understand that writing a polished work is a process in which the author
benefits from multiple drafts, conferences, and extensive thought about the topic at hand
and what they hope to achieve.
Critical reflection is an important step of learning that is crucial to developing both skills that
are lacking, but as well as areas that are doing well, not only in writing, but across
disciplines.
Writing is a broad skill that applies not only to crafting academic essays or argumentative
papers, but is a written form of interpersonal communication, intrapersonal communication,
creative expression, and is used to perform an array of tasks which include sending texts,
creating a grocery list, writing directions for someone to complete a task, etc.
Sample week: Much of this unit will have the same sort of set up, so for
simplicitys sake I will describe the events that go into a typical week. Most weeks if
able will focus on a different short text, and have a different subgenre leading up to
the final project which I will describe later.
For narrative texts Ill be focusing on the story The Tell-Tale Heart. I chose this
story in part because its length will lend itself to two different tasks for my students; the first
task is that it is something that they will be able to emulate without having the pressure of
attempting to recreate something from a massive story such as The Hunger Games, but
also because this will give me a good balance between reading as well as working on
writing skills unlike how students are generally taught writing and reading separately. This
will give students the chance to synthesize their reading skills and their writing skills by
reading like writers. What I mean by this is students will not only be reading aesthetically,
but they will be looking for specific moves that the authors make that they like as readers.
Monday & Tuesday
So over the first week they will be working on reading The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allen Poe. Well be analyzing how Poe is able to establish a first person narrative
throughout the story, but still create the sense of an observer to a story by having the
narrator relay his story to the reader in a unique way. This story in particular has a very
strong sense of the narrator actually telling the reader his story as if they were in the same

room. Since this is probably not the first time that they have encountered a first person
narrative this will be more about the different style of genre within first person narrative;
horror. While this story is not quite as scary to readers as the time in which it was written the
way that Poe is able to relay information to the reader keeps the reader on edge throughout
the tale through his strong and ominous language.
Moreover, this will also be a time to bring in the importance of punctuation within a
story. By highlighting the way Poe utilizes line breaks, commas, and other means to break
up his narrators dialogue in a way that makes him seem shifty or mad. By using
punctuation as a way to actually enhance the story of Tell-Tale Heart students will actually
see an importance to grammar beyond, Well the teacher said that this is the correct way to
do it. Rather theyll be using grammar as a way to reach out to their readers in a way that
was not necessarily possible before.
These important aspects of Poes story will help us segue into the skills such as
using punctuation to help with clarity and enhance the storytelling capability, as well as the
producing the feeling of an unreliable narrator, that they will be practicing later on in the
week through their own writing either through imitation or application the skills in a different
way than has been displayed by Poe. These exercises will give students a context that will
help them understand the different goals that their writing can accomplish.
Wednesday & Thursday
So in the second half of the week after discussing various techniques throughout
Poes work the students will be drafting their own variation of a first-person narrative. While
their story wont have to be focused within the horror genre it is important that they maintain
the first-person aspect and the sort of narrative aspect as opposed to some other form of
storytelling such as an epic, dialogue, or some other option. I will devote one day in class to
the initial draft, and then give another day for which students will be able to modify their
drafts. This is when students will be applying the skills surrounding punctuation and the
unreliable narrator that we discussed while reading the story and give them a chance to
emulate what they liked from the story. If they feel that they did not connect with the story
they will be able to make their own creative design and put that forth as well (with
justifications of course but well get to that later). These two days will be informal workshop
days in which the main focus will be of them writing, and perhaps asking questions of their
neighbors or myself about their own specific moves as writers, but overall the point of these
two days will be to draft a semi-polished story.
It will be important that students understand that this assignment will not be treated
as the, everything is correct, so long as its writing style of assessment that they may have
become used to as they progressed through their English career. Rather, students will be
assessed on how well they are able to replicate the skills exhibited by Poe through the
story, and apply them to their own piece of writing.
Friday
Now comes the juicy bit where students are sharing their work within workshop
groups. Each student will either be in a pair or in a group of three and there will be time for a
more formal style of peer review. Note that this is different than editing for spelling mistakes
and grammatical errors, rather this is for discussing the types of writing moves that they
made as they developed their short story. They will be discussing either why they did or did
not include some of the elements from The Tell-Tale Heart so as to get them used to

talking about their own writing from not only their perspective as writers, but also from the
perspective of possible readers.
Now these stories are just rough drafts, so I wont be treating them as such.
However, students will be assessed upon their participation of the workshop, but also in the
completion of at least two drafts. I will not necessarily collect all of the samples, but I will be
sure to check each students work to see that it is complete. These drafts will eventually be
put into their creative writing portfolio as evidence of their development as writers, but also
as a way to look back at the different writing moves that they learned throughout the unit.
Friday will also be the day in which we come back together as a large group to see
what people felt about writing in specific genres, and well review the different elements that
people were focusing on as they were writing.
This style will be continued as we progress through four other additional works:
A Rose for Emily Faulkner - Writing from a first person plural.
A Good Man is Hard to Find OConnor- Drama/Mystery
The Metamorphosis Kafka - Kafkaesque
The Most Dangerous Game Richard Connel - Suspense
Assessment Evidence
As Ive already mentioned within the description of a typical week I will be assessing
students through the use of a portfolio as well as informal observation through discussion,
workshop, and drafting periods. Ill be looking to see that students are absorbing the
different techniques as displayed by the works we are reading, and seeing if they are able
to use similar techniques within their own works. Ill be looking to see that students are able
to write for their readers, but also to think like writers while they are reading (So essentially
their ability to switch roles). While students rough drafts will not be graded on the quality of
writing, it is important to me that they are going through the process of writing, revising, and
conferencing. For the conferences I hope to meet with each student; however, I realize that
there can be logistical problems with meeting with 100+ students, that being said I think that
these will be mini conferences in which Ill be available for individualized instruction, but also
there to generate some ideas with students.
However, there is one large project near the end of the unit that will consist of either
expanding one of the shorter works that we had done previously in the class or creating a
new piece based in the style that they choose. This will be a longer work and will be given
much more time for editing and polishing as this will be the work that they go deep into.
Students will be crafting a work that is approximately seven pages. While this is not an
absolute students will be encouraged to reach this work, so that they are able to effectively
expand their existing work or convey a larger story that they care about.
Grading
Students will be graded heavily upon participation. While I realize that this is not
always a measure of what a student knows by the end of the day, I feel that it is one of the
more effective grading methods within this unit since so much of the unit will be based in
discussion. It would be hard to have students filling out worksheets or writing extensively
upon the styles of different authors since I want to get away from constant expository
writing. Moreover, they will be graded upon their completion of each of the individual drafts

that they are completing throughout the week. While this is very writing intensive I feel that it
is important that students are able to try their hand at emulating professional work, so that
they are able to push their own understandings of writing.
Ill be sure that students are able to have a constant view of their grade throughout
this unit, so that they are able to see areas in which they might have to pick up the slack
(e.g. discussion points vs workshop points), but also to see where they are achieving. This
will also go into the final writing piece as well as the portfolio. Since creating these works is
a process each step of the process will be a checkpoint at which students are able to see
how they are doing within the course. This is to ensure that students are able to stay on
track, but also to keep me accountable in my grading as well, because students will be able
to see the decisions that I am making in regards to their work.
Grading Breakdown
This unit will be broken up into a few different grading periods, the largest being the
final genre piece (see below), and the accumulation of points through the workshops and
discussion. For the first two days of the week students will be given points based upon how
many times they speak during the discussion, as well as how much they contribute to the
conversation (5 points). Then for the writing aspect in which they will be asked to bring in 13 pages displaying the skills that we cover each week and analyzed through each story, so
that they can gain experience with each story element (5 points). Moreover, we will be
editing those drafts within class, making sure they have applied the skills in an appropriate
method as well as making sure that their papers are grammatically sound (5 points). This
will continue until we get through each of the stories within the unit. (This means there will
be fifteen points per week for the first five week making a total of 75 points)
The final genre piece will reflect that students have a higher understanding of one of the
different genres that we have gone through class and worked on polishing through multiple
revisions and reflections. It will be worth 50 points, and will make up a large portion of their
grade, as it will illustrate a deeper understanding of one of the main concepts that we
learned throughout the unit. As an appendix to this unit plan there is a handout that includes
the instructions, rubric, and checklist which outline the entirety of the process.
In addition to the final genre piece there will be one other form of assessment in the style of
a portfolio. Students will be asked to keep the original drafts of each piece that they write
throughout the class, as well as any subsequent drafts that they craft. This will demonstrate
their growth and give them a way to show off their finest works. The portfolio itself is not as
large of a percentage of the grade as the final genre piece is; however, it will be worth 10
points upon completion and will include the following:
Rough and Revised drafts of the following:
Week one (Unreliable narrator and punctuation)
Week two (First person plural and noun verb agreement)
Week three (Dialogue)
Week four (Descriptive, Adjectives, and adverbs)
Week five (Suspense, realistic fiction, and plot progression)
The final genre project which will include:

The final genre piece


One rough draft with peer review notes
One revised draft with peer review notes
Two reflection pieces that will outline the progression to finished
One final reflection upon the writing process and their work

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