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This is a deck to help parents teach primary school kids creative writing skills
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Selena Sol presents….. CREATIVE WRITING TEMPLATES A practical tool for primary-school students selena@selenasol.com http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eric-tachibana/0/33/b53 http://www.slideshare.net/selenasol
Using Composition Templates to Facilitate Creative Writing A tool for primary school students Selena Sol | selena@selenasol.com | http://www.slideshare.net/selenasol/ Creative writing can be pretty intimidating to primary school students. They might be asked a very broad question like, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” and be staring at a blank word document for many hours thinking/worrying about what to write. But it need not be so scary! In this deck, I propose 4 easy-to-use templates for common primary school writing questions that can quell some of the anxiety. With a good structure and a series of fill-in-the-blanks, a child can easily plan out the skeleton of any standard school-type of writing and then tackle the work in less intimidating chunks.
There are at least4 generic types (archetypes) of creative writing forms
DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE PERSUASIVE POSITIONAL To be continued…. Each type of writing uses a specific structure. The nice thing about a structure is that if you don’t know what to write, just fill in the blanks
You are a famous detective. You have just been hired to find out why the school lunches tasted awful last week. How do you solve the case? Write a story about what happens. Use your imagination! What did you do on your summer vacation? Imagine that the grocery store is a town where different foods live. Write a story about a day in Grocery Town when one of the foods does something that changed the lives of all the foods in the town. What did the food do? What happened to it and to the other foods afterward? Suppose you woke up and found out that you had become a super hero for a day. What happened? What powers did you have? What did you do? Write a story about your day. Be creative! You love to read stories! You should also love to write stories!
MAKE AUDIENCE INTERESTED 2. The Hook! What sets story in motion 1. Introduce characters & context ACT 1 The Setup It all begins with Act 1 where the author gets the reader interested in the characters and excited about the story
6. Moment of Enlightenment MAKE AUDIENCE INTERESTED 2. The Hook! What sets story in motion MAKE AUDIENCE ANXIOUS 5. The comeback! MAKE AUDIENCE ROOT 3. Facing a series of obstacles 1. Introduce characters & context 4. The Low Point! ACT 3 Enlightenment ACT 1 The Setup ACT 2 Conflict In Act 2, the hero is faced with a series of obstacles that force her to grow and discover something meaningful.
6. Moment of Enlightenment 8. Victory at last! 7. One last test MAKE AUDIENCE CHEER MAKE AUDIENCE INTERESTED 2. The Hook! What sets story in motion MAKE AUDIENCE ANXIOUS 5. The comeback! MAKE AUDIENCE ROOT 3. Facing a series of obstacles 1. Introduce characters & context 4. The Low Point! ACT 3 Enlightenment ACT 1 The Setup ACT 2 Conflict In Act 3, the hero’s new wisdom is tested (just to be sure). Of course, the hero rises to the challenge and everyone is happy
6. Moment of Enlightenment 8. Victory at last! 7. One last test MAKE AUDIENCE CHEER MAKE AUDIENCE INTERESTED 2. The Hook! What sets story in motion MAKE AUDIENCE ANXIOUS 5. The comeback! MAKE AUDIENCE ROOT 3. Facing a series of obstacles 1. Introduce characters & context 4. The Low Point! ACT 3 Enlightenment ACT 1 The Setup ACT 2 Conflict The whole story looks like this!
! OK, I know what you are asking. There are thousands of different stories out there. Aren’t they all different?
As it turns out, this one structure works for probably 80% of the stories you’ll come across (maybe 99% in primary & secondary school)
ACTIVITY TIME!!!!!! Advanced Writer Note: If you get a book for really young kids, sometimes they stop at the end of Act 2 to make it simpler for new readers. Then it is just 1) Intro, 2) Obstacles, 3) Victory Try mapping some of your storybooks and favorite movies using the structure. You’ll be amazed at how many work!
Q: What did you do during school holidays? So what if you are asked to write a story in school? How would you do it using the structure?
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 1 No problem. Just fill in the blanks! Start with the “Ah-Ha” moment, which some authors call, “the moral of the story.” I think of it as the “Why?”
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 2 Advice: Think of maybe 3 obstacles that the hero could overcome that would lead her to the Ah-Ha. Not all obstacles will work. You need to choose carefully. Next, you need to put some obstacles in front of your characters so that they have to work hard to succeed. Try to make the challenges help the hero discover the “ah-ha!”
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 3 And of course, all the challenges need to lead to the low pointwhere the reader feels worried about the hero!
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 4 Advice: The comeback needs to tie the obstacles to the ah-ha! This is how the hero learns the ah-ha, so it needs to make sense! But unless you want to leave the reader crying, you need to turn the story around and show the hero growing
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 5 But after the hero has grown and discovered the moral of the story, we need to test her to make sure she really learned her lesson!
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 6 Finally let’s all say “Hooray!” Our hero has overcome all the obstacles and learned a life lesson.
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 7 But wait, we still need to go back to write the starting! You’ll need something to make your reader “excited” enough to read your story. This hooks the reader like a fish on the line. Think about what goal the hero had that was thwarted by the obstacles you came up with earlier!
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 8 Thought provoker: Isn’t it interesting that we write the intro last? Planning is like that. You need to first decide where you are going. Then, you figure out how to get there. Finally, you start the journey! It’s all backwards in a plan! Finally, write the Intro. Sometimes authors say you should introduce who, what, where, & when.Try to make your characters interesting to the reader. After all, who wants to read about someone they don’t like!
Q: What did you do during school holidays? 8 7 2 3 4 1 5 6 Alright, so here is our Story Plan! All you need to do now is fill in the details following your plan and you’re done!
8 7 2 3 4 1 5 6 Even though everyone uses the same structure and even if their plans are very similar, everyone’s story will be different. That is the magic of writing!
ACTIVITY TIME!!!!!! Now you try!
8 7 2 3 4 1 5 6 PRINT THIS WORKSHEET
Pretend that you have a cousin you've never met. Your cousin lives in another state, but you want him or her to get to know you. Write a letter to your cousin describing yourself. Include what you look like, your personality, and your interests. Think about something that made you happy recently. Describe fully what happened and how you felt. Also explain why it made you feel that way. Throughout life, you will be asked to describe something!
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A-SO-WHATA ISAHASADOESAWASAINASOWHATA! It’s kind’ve fun to say right? Well this is a good way to describe something
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A Q: Describe yourself! First off, all things can be described by explaining what type of thing they are
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A Q: Describe yourself! Things can also be described by explaining the pieces that make them up
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A Q: Describe yourself! In addition, things can be described by explaining the things they do
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A Q: Describe yourself! Further, things can be described by explaining what happens to them over time
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A Q: Describe yourself! Finally, all things can be described by explaining where they are in space
BUT WAIT!!!!! When you are writing a description, you can’t write about everything, or you’d write a 1000 page book! Instead, choose only a few things to write about from isahasadoesawasaina. But which ones to choose?!?
IS-A-HAS-A-DOES-A-WAS-A-IN-A SO-WHATA Q: Describe yourself! The final bit of a Description brings everything together intoone simple message. That means you need to choose isahasawasadoesaina items that fit like a puzzle piece into a single sowhata!
Q: Describe yourself! Of course, you know by now that we always need a hook to start the reader reading. Your introduction is the hook! Try to write something that will entice the reader to read….
Q: Describe yourself Look at this example….
Q: Describe yourself Now you try!
Of all the wild animals that you have ever seen in a zoo, movie, or book, what is your favorite? Which animal would you most like for a friend? Write an essay describing your favorite animal, including its appearance, its habitat, and its behavior. Explain why the animal is your favorite. Throughout life, you will be asked to take position, to state your view on something or other!
Just like you use the Story Structure to tell great stories, youcan use the Positional Structure to take a position! The Positional Structure looks more like a Plus Sign.
1 3 4 5 2 There are 5 parts to the Positional Structure. In primary school this usually means that you have to write 5 paragraphs. In High School it means 5 pages! In University, 5 chapters!!! But the key to remember is 5.
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color blue For Advanced Writers… In your position section, you should provide some context. Why is it that we want to talk about the topic? In this case, why are we talking about colors at all? Try to “hook” the reader by writing something kind’ve interesting First you need to state your position! In this case, the position is you liking the color blue.
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color red 2 THE AH-HA! Blue makes me feel calm and comfortable. At the other end is the Ah-Ha. In the Ah-Ha you tie the position to something meaningful or interesting to the reader.
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color blue 3 4 5 OBSERVATION OBSERVATION OBSERVATION 2 THE AH-HA! Blue makes me feel calm and comfortable. Finally, you need 3 observations that link the position to the ah-ha. Why 3? I don’t know!?! Whatever the case, remember you can choose any 3 things, but they all must lead to the Ah-Ha!
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color blue 3 4 5 OBSERVATION OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Because blue feels relaxing 2 THE AH-HA! Blue makes me feel calm and comfortable. When you are making an observation, it can be powerful to describe in terms of one of your 5 senses. Great writers even describe one sense using another like, “it tastes loud!” just to be cheeky.
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color blue 3 4 5 OBSERVATION OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Because blue feels relaxing Because water in a still lake is blue 2 THE AH-HA! Blue makes me feel calm and comfortable. When you are making an observation, you can also think about context. Where does this thing occur? Is it left, right, up or down?
Q: What is your favorite color? POSITION 1 I like the color blue 3 4 5 OBSERVATION OBSERVATION OBSERVATION Because blue feels relaxing Because water in a still lake is blue Because my mummy’s eyes are blue 2 THE AH-HA! Blue makes me feel calm and comfortable. Finally, it is always good to appeal to emotion! Try to make your reader ‘feel’ something about what you are saying rather than just ‘think’ something
