SHARING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT STORIES

After sharing a favourite short story, ask students about their favourite stories. Ask them to tell their favourite story to the class; ask them to try to explain what makes a good story; ask them why some stories are dull and/or boring. Explain the problems associated with bed-to-bed stories. Lead the discussion to the concept of narrative structure i.e.

• Orientation
• Complication
• Resolution

INTRODUCING NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

Although narrative structure varies from story to story, the common features include:

• Beginning/Orientation:  This sets the scene, creating a visual picture of the setting, atmosphere and time of the story. Characters are introduced and clues are set in place for the coming complication.

• Problem/Complication:  This is where a problem or complication occurs that affects the setting, time or characters.

• Problem seems to be resolved/Minor Resolution:  Everything seems to be resolved.

• New Problem/Complication:  The problem or complication is now often worse than before.

• Problem is solved/Ending/Resolution:  The problem is solved and the story ends.

• Moral/Coda/Evaluative ending:  There may be a moral or message at the end of the story.

Students should work in pairs to consider the story Little Red Riding Hood and match up the main points in the story with the above structure.

1.  Little Red Riding Hood sets out for Grandmother's house;
2.  Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf;
3.  The wolf leaves Little Red Riding Hood and races to Grandmother's house;
4.  The wolf eats Grandmother;
5.  The wolf tricks Little Red Riding Hood;
6.  The woodcutter saves Little Red Riding Hood;
7.  Children should not talk to strangers

Other variations on narrative structure also exist.  For example:

• Orientation
• Complication
• Series of events
• Resolution
• Reorientation

Read aloud, with students following on their own copy, the story The Trojan Horse.  Working in pairs or small groups, ask them to work out its orientation, complication and resolution.

The Trojan Horse

1. In ancient times the mainland and islands of Greece were divided into small states. One of the states, Sparta, was ruled by an old but kindly king called Menelaus. Menelaus had a young wife, Helen, who was the most beautiful woman in the world. Any man who saw Helen fell in love with her immediately. Paris, the son of the King of Troy, was one such man who fell in love with Helen.  He managed to kidnap her and took her back to Troy which was a magnificent walled city on the coast of what is now called Turkey.

2. Menelaus and his family were furious and persuaded all the Greek kings, princes and heroes to help them bring Helen back to Greece. One of these heroes was Odysseus, the King of Ithaca. Odysseus was not very good-looking, but he was clever and he was a favourite of Athene, the goddess of Wisdom.

3. The Greeks assembled a large army and sailed to Troy, which they attacked from the beach. The Greeks managed to trap the Trojans inside their city but the Trojans fought hard and the Greeks could not defeat them. The war between Greece and Troy raged for ten years.

4. There were heroes and bravery on both sides but there was also much savagery, treachery, death and suffering.  No matter how hard both armies tried, the Greeks were never able to enter Troy and the Trojans were never able to drive the Greeks away.  It seemed that this dreadful war would go on forever.  After ten years of fighting, the Trojans were desperate to leave their besieged city and the Greek soldiers simply wanted to go home.

5. However, Odysseus refused to give up and worked out a plan to enter the city.  One morning the Trojans looked out from their besieged city.  They could not see the Greek army or the Greek ships.  The Trojans could not believe it.  They thought that the Greeks had surrendered and for the first time in ten years they left their city and went out into the fields and onto the beach. There was absolutely no sign of the Greeks.  Outside the city gates the Trojans found a huge wooden horse.  Some Trojans were suspicious, but most of them thought the Greeks had left the wooden horse as a gift.  They dragged the horse into the city as an offering to the gods to thank them for the end of the war.  All day and into the night they celebrated the end of the war with banquets and dancing, and the wooden horse was the centre of the celebrations.

6. Later that night, when all the Trojans had fallen asleep, a secret trapdoor in the side of the giant horse opened silently.  Odysseus and his soldiers, who had been hiding inside the horse, crept out without a sound.  They quietly opened the city gates and the waiting Greek army, which had sailed back to Troy under cover of darkness, entered the city.   When the Trojans woke they found themselves completely overpowered by the Greeks.  All the Trojan men were killed and all the Trojan treasure was taken back to Greece along with the women and children who became slaves.  The Greeks burnt Troy to the ground and finally Menelaus was able to take Helen back to Greece.

7. The long war was over, but a terrible price had been paid by both sides.

WRITING A 50 WORD SHORT STORY BASED ON A NURSERY RHYME

Students should write a short story based on a nursery rhyme in exactly 50 words.  The story must follow the required narrative structure i.e. an orientation, a complication/problem and a resolution. 

Two possible nursery rhymes to use include:

Humpty Dumpty and Little Miss Muffet

1. Humpty Dumpty

Orientation:  Humpty is sitting on a wall

Complication/Problem:  Humpty falls or perhaps is pushed from the wall

Resolution:  Humpty dies as the result of his injuries

2. Little Miss Muffet

Orientation:  Miss Muffet is sitting on a tuffet

Complication/Problem:  A big spider sits beside her and scares her

Resolution:  Miss Muffet is forced to escape from the situation

Students should use the known details of the nursery rhyme and fill in the details.  They should be encouraged to think imaginatively about their responses.

Humpty Dumpty may have its origins in relation to an overweight King Richard III who was murdered on top of Ambion Hill at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.  Then again, Humpty Dumpty may not have been a person - or an egg - at all.  In another possible origin of the nursery rhyme, we discover that Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon deployed during the English Civil War 1642 - 49.  It was mounted on top of the Wall Church and during a battle the church tower was hit, blowing off the top and sending the cannon to the ground.  The King's men tried to mend Humpty in vain.

Patience Muffet lived in the 1500s and her father was a well-known bug collector.  One morning whilst she was eating breakfast, one of her father's bugs appeared.  She leapt up, spilling her breakfast and ran out of the house.

THE WRITING PROCESS

Students should be reminded of the writing process when completing their 50 word nursery rhyme-based story. 

Use the RID method ie Replace, Insert, Delete. 

Replace words, phrases and sentences with more effective ones

Insert extra words, phrases and sentences Delete ineffective words phrases and sentences

Stories of less than 50 words will need for example adjectives and adverbs added to them to help with description, emphasis or atmosphere.  Stories with more than 50 words must be edited for example by omitting conjunctions.

Word process and display the stories.  Share the 50 word stories in small groups.  Each group should choose one or two to read aloud to the class.

WRITING A 50 WORD STORY

Students should write their own 50 word short story.  Some students could be given:

• A setting and characters and be required to create a complication.

• A problem or complication and be required to provide the resolution.

Word process and display the stories. Share the 50 word stories in small groups. Each group should choose one or two to read aloud to the class.

WRITING A SHORT SHORT STORY USING EVERDAY OBJECTS

Distribute one everyday object to all students.  For example:

• A pencil
• A doll
• A cake of soap
• A leather belt
• A photograph
• A feather
• A can opener
• A small box
• A shoelace
• A clock

Divide students in random groups of three or four.  Each group uses its objects to write collaboratively a short short story of approximately 200 words which links the objects in some way.

The aim again is to write a story using accepted narrative structure. Students need to choose characters and events that link their objects in an interesting way.  Students should pay particular attention to planning and drafting using RID and sequencing.

Each group should share its story with the class.

WRITING FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

Students should be introduced to the idea of writing from different points of view, particularly first and third person.

First Person:

In this case, the character speaks directly to the reader, who knows everything the character chooses to reveal.  This is a useful point of view to adopt if the author wishes to reveal thoughts and feelings in an intimate way.  The disadvantage for the reader is that he or she only knows about the events of the story from one point of view.

I am sitting on top of the cold sandstone wall, gazing at the horizon. I am worried that I might fall off and hurt myself.

Second Person:

Although this point of view is not used very often for narrative writing, it is widely used by non-fiction writers.  Second person is written in an easy, colloquial style as if you are talking directly to the reader.

You should see him sitting there on that wall.  You wonder what he's thinking about.  You imagine that he may fall.

Third Person:

In this case the writer knows everything there is to know about the characters.  She or he can see inside their minds and knows what they are thinking and feeling.

Humpty Dumpty is sitting calmly on top of the sandstone wall, gazing at the horizon.  He wonders whether he might fall off and hurt himself.

Ask students to use their story of Humpty Dumpty or Little Miss Muffet to experiment with a shifting point of view.  Re-write part of the story in the first person and part of the story in the third person.

WRITING THE RESOLUTION TO A STORY

Read aloud, with students following on their own copy, the short story The Open Window by Saki but without its final five paragraphs. Re-introduce the idea of resolution to students.

In pairs get students to brainstorm possible endings. Students should write the ending to the story, attempting to capture the style of the author. Re-introduce the term third person narrative and highlight the need for tense consistency. Expect students to draft their story ending carefully, again using the RID technique.

After some students have volunteered to read their endings aloud, read the ending of The Open Window to the class.

The Open Window
by Saki

'My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,' said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; 'In the meantime you must try and put up with me.'

Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come.  Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing.

'I know how it will be,' his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; 'You will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping.  I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there.  Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice.'

Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction, came into the nice division.

'Do you know many of the people round here?' asked the niece, when she judged that they had had sufficient silent communion.

'Hardly a soul,' said Framton.  'My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introduction to some of the people here.'

He made the last statement in a tone of distinct regret.

'Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?' pursued the self-possessed young lady.

'Only her name and address,' admitted the caller.  He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappleton was in the married or widowed state.   An undefinable something about the room seemed to suggest masculine habitation.

'Her great tragedy happened just three years ago,' said the child; 'That would be since your sister's time.'

'Her tragedy?' asked Framton; somehow in this restful country spot tragedies seemed out of place.

'You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon,' said the niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn.

'It is quite warm for the time of the year,' said Framton; 'but has that window got anything to do with the tragedy?'

'Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting.  They never came back.  In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shooting ground they were all three engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog.  It had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places that were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warning.  Their bodies were never recovered.  That was the dreadful part of it.'  Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed note and became falteringly human.  'Poor Aunt always thinks that they will come back some day, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just as they used to do.  That is why the window is kept open every evening till it is quite dusk.  Poor dear Aunt, she has often told me how they went out, her husband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing, 'Bertie, why do you bound?' as he always did to tease her, because she said it got on her nerves.  Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, I almost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through that window.'

She broke off with a little shudder.  It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making her appearance.'

'I hope Vera has been amusing you?' she said.

'She has been very interesting,' said Framton.

'I hope you don't mind the open window,' said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; 'my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way.  They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets.  So like you men-folk, isn't it?'

She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter.  To Framton it was all purely horrible.  He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn talk on to a less ghastly topic; he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond.  It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.

'The doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise,' announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably wide-spread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one's ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure.  'On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement,' he continued.

'No?' said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment.  Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention - but not to what Framton was saying.

'Here they are at last!' she cried.  Just in time for tea, and don't they look as if they were muddy up to the ears!'

Framton shivered slightly and turned towards the niece with a look intended to convey sympathetic comprehension.  The child was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes.  In a chill shock of nameless fear Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction.

In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn towards the window; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders.  A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels.  Noiselessly they neared the house, and then a hoarse young voice chanted out of the dust: 'I said, Bettie, why do you bound?'

The Ending to The Open Window

Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel-drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his head-long retreat.  A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision.

'Here we are, my dear,' said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window; 'fairly muddy, but most of it's dry.  Who was that who bolted out as we came up?'

'A most extraordinary man, a Mr Nuttel,' said Mrs. Sappleton; 'could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of good-bye or apology when you arrived.  One would think he had seen a ghost.'

'I expect it was the spaniel, ' said the niece calmly; 'he told me he had a horror of dogs.  He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him.  Enough to make any one lose their nerve.'

Romance at short notice was her speciality.

PLANNING A SHORT STORY

Students should plan a story around the following central idea:

A person fails to turn up to an appointment.  When they are found the next day, they remember nothing of the last 24 hours.

Working in pairs or small groups, students should plan this story on A3 or poster paper, either in note form or as a diagram.  They should include details on most the following:  Please note that some of these narrative structures and features may need to be introduced to students.

• Characters to be included
• Setting, including time and place
• Events, including the orientation/beginning, complication/middle/problem, resolution/ending and the sequence in which they occur
• Type of story such as adventure, crime, science fiction, romance, realism, fantasy, mystery or horror
• Structure such as first person narrative, third person narrative, use of flashback, chronological narrative
• Style of writing to be used
• Atmosphere to be generated
• Intended audience for the story
• Purpose of the story
• Length of the story

Students do not need to write this story.  The focus should be on planning it.

(This idea was first developed by Lynne Collidge)

READING A SHORT STORY WITH A TWIST OR SURPRISE ENDING

Read aloud, with students following on their own copy, one or two favourite short stories with a twist or surprise ending.  Suggested stories include:

The Landlady  Roald Dahl
A Night At The Cottage  Richard Hughes
The Perfect Murder  Renate Yates
Lost For Words  Richard Baines

Working in small groups, students should note any of the hints or clues that the author gives to prepare the reader for the surprise or twist ending.  Each group should share their findings with the whole class.

WRITING A SHORT STORY WITH A TWIST OR SURPRISE ENDING

Students should write their own story with a surprise or twist ending.  The length should be negotiated with individual students.  The story needs to be carefully drafted and edited.

Students should be assessed against the following criteria:

• Creativity and imagination, including how hints and clues are given to the reader
• The effectiveness of the overall narrative structure of the story
• Use of the writing process

INTRODUCING NARRATIVE FEATURES

Effective narrative writing has a range of language features:

• Use of dialogue to elicit an emotional response from the reader
• Descriptive language, including the use of devices such as simile, metaphor and imagery
• Effective characterisation to elicit an emotional response from the reader
• Past or present tense
• Use of a variety of simple, compound and complex sentences

GENERATING STORY IDEAS

Some students will have difficulty in generating story ideas.  The following strategies will assist these students:

• What If
• Story Starter Websites
• Narrative Scaffolds
• Great Openers
• Story Pyramids
• The Plot Generator

What If:

Students can use the What If technique to generate endless writing possibilities.  They should be reminded, however, that the solution to the What If problem must be as good as the initial problem.

• What if gravity were turned off each night?
• What if you could read people's minds?
• What if you could freeze time?
• What if you turned on the tap and chocolate poured out?
• What if eyeballs became as valuable as diamonds?
• What if you woke up one morning to find that you had grown antlers?
• What if every piece of clothing in the world vanished overnight?

Story Starter Websites:

Students can use a story starter website to find ideas.

http://www.dramaplus.org/story1.htm

Narrative Scaffolds:

Narrative scaffolds provide students with the opportunity to plan their story under the following headings:

Story Pyramids:

Working in pairs, students plan a narrative using a story pyramid.  They begin by naming the main character.  Next they describe the character in two words.  In three words students then describe the setting.  On the next line in four words, students state the problem or complication.  Next they describe a significant event in five words, followed by a second significant event in six words, and, finally a third event in seven words.  On the last line, in eight words, students present the resolution to the problem.

Some students enjoy this puzzle-like approach to planning a narrative.

Title of story

Name of main character

Two words describing main character

Three words describing the setting

Four words stating the problem/complication

Five words describing one main event

Six words describing a second main event

Seven words describing a third main event

Eight words stating the resolution to the problem

Great Openers:

Students can be provided with a great opening to a narrative and be asked to continue it.

1.Boring, boring, boring. That was the best way to describe the Earth Station on planet Zaron.

2.This is a story about a kid who was the most talkative brat you could ever meet. What a gasbag!

3.I'll tell you one thing for sure. Fruitcake and Pancake were the best pets that Madeleine ever had.

4.'I've never seen anything like it before,' said the hypnotist. 'You say you had a perfectly normal mouth yesterday.' 

5.The question is: did the girl kill her own father? Some say yes and some say no.

6.He didn't exactly look like an angel. He was so incredibly ordinary - no shining halo or white flowing robes.

7. 'Dinosaur! Dinosauar!' I heard the frantic call.

8.I am responsible for a great many things, but being put on detention for speaking in English was not my fault (not technically anyway).

The Plot Generator:

Good narrative writing is about problems and solutions.  Well-known Australian writer John Marsden believes that it is important to include goals and obstacles in writing. 

Students should complete the table with their own ideas and generate a narrative idea by selecting one idea from each column.

For example:  A narrative set in a skateboard park about an overweight character called David who wishes to win friends but finds that a lack of money is the obstacle.

VARYING THE STRUCTURE OF NARRATIVE WRITING

The most conventional structure for a piece of narrative writing is a chronological structure. In this case students write about events in the order in which they occurred - A followed by B, then C and finally D.

Varying the structure, however, can add interest and even suspense to students' narrative writing. To use flashback, they need to start at the end and then go back to satisfy the reader's curiosity as to how and why something happened. This is a case of D followed by A, B then C. It's an approach often used in films.

Another variation is to use a circular structure where students start at the climax of the story, go back to describe events leading up to the climax and then go on to describe what happens afterwards. This is C then A, B and on to D.

Students should use their 50 word story of Humpty Dumpty or Little Miss Muffet - or another short narrative - to experiment with varying the structure of their writing.  They could start at the end of the story:

Humpty P Dumpty lay on the ground, shattered into a million small pieces...

Or the climax of the story:

No one saw the dark shadowy creature behind the wall as it reached up and shoved Humpty P Dumpty from his resting place.

SHARING AND REFLECTING UPON STORIES WITH A TWIST OR SURPRISE ENDING

Word process and share the stories.  Students should complete a short self-assessment about their story by answering the following questions:

• How effectively does your story follow the established narrative structure of orientation, complication and resolution?
• How well have you planned, drafted, edited and proofread your story?
• Are you pleased with how your story turned out?  Give it an assessment of A, B or C.  Justify your assessment.

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