Teaching the Story: Fiction Writing in Middle School

Take the mystery out of teaching creative writing to middle-school students with Carol Baldwin's book of mini-lessons! The middle grades are a time of blossoming creativity. Students are reading more intricate novels, thinking new thoughts, and stretching their minds and imaginations. Teaching these students the craft of short story writing is a great way to challenge them and channel their creative energy into a written format. But writing fiction is more than strictly creative it will also help your students prepare for standardized testing and for writing academically. Baldwin's approach will teach your students to translate their thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. As they move through the process of brainstorming thoughts to writing a cohesive story, your students will learn the importance of planning and writing in a logical, sequential manner. In addition, your students will critique their own and their peers' writing, so these lessons will develop their critical thinking skills as they analyze and evaluate. Flexibility is the foundation of Baldwin's approach, allowing you to spend as much or as little time as you want on this unit. The mini-lessons are grouped into blocks (overview of the process; developing character, setting, and plot; writing the first draft; and revision) that give you the flexibility to pick and choose which individual mini-lessons will meet your goals and be most beneficial to your students. Support is included for students who want to write a sports, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, or historical story. More than seventy customizable transparencies and reproducibles are included on the CD which accompanies the book.