ENGLISH 9: Short Story Writing Part 1

Unit: Creative Writing ("How do our decisions affect ourselves and others?") - Short Story Writing

Introduction

• Over the next five classes, you will be asked to create an original, "published" quality short story.  
• You will first write a first draft and then have a classmate peer-assess your work using the Short Story Conference Form.  
• Next, you will create a revision (typed) that will include major changes (example: moving whole paragraphs, alterations to plot, character, setting, etc.).  
• From your revision, you will edit further until your story is considered "published" quality. 
• Your short story must include a main character whose conflict is dealing with having made a decision(s) that affected him/herself and someone else. 
• The short story will be due January 27th.  

Brainstorm on the board: what makes a good short story?  Students copy the class response into notes.

There aren't a lot of rules that I'll use when marking the story, other than to see if you are meeting the criteria set out in the BC Performance Standards - Writing (see p. 394 for a rubric on quality writing at the grade 9 level).

Activities

• As a class, review the "Writing a Short Story" package (includes lessons, BC Performance Standards - Writing rubric, and Short Story graphic organizers), focussing mainly on "Eight Ways to Reveal Character" and "Story Hill."
• Students begin writing their short story.