In this unit, students write their own fictional narratives
while exploring elements of literature such as character, motivation, plot,
setting, and theme. They start out by looking at short texts and understand how
motivation and setting determine plot. They
then move toward writing their own fictional narratives based around character
motivations within a given setting. They create outlines, write first drafts and spend time strengthening
their writing by writing dialogues, improving dialogue tags, using precise
words, and trying different approaches. While they are doing this work in class
they are exploring issues of such as bullying and coming of age through
reading, blogging, and in-class discussion. Finally, they move back towards
literary analysis including thinking about how authors use specific details to
refine themes. In the end they take an assessment in which they analyze a text
and write a continuation of a selection from The Kite Runner.