f.

fan fiction:

"To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend.”

~Jacques Derrida~

"A Production and Exchange of Information"

Rationale

Fan fiction units might be specifically applied by ninth grade English teachers to meet Standard 3 - Writing and Composition of the Colorado Academic Standards, but could also be modified for other grades and other purposes (fan fiction would make a great after school club). The following assignment and rubric could be adapted to any size school and to meet any curriculum, but would be most effective in settings that have access to a computer lab to meet the multimodal aspects of the assignment. Block periods would be optimal for the fan fiction unit. However, the unit could be designed to fit in a 50-minute period setting as well.

A concept central to the writing and composition of a fan fiction unit would primarily be for students to “master the techniques of effective informational, literary, and persuasive writing” (CDE 103). Students would be assigned to develop creative narratives based in the characters of assigned readings, such as in the contemporary young adult novel Speak and the canonized text To Kill a Mockingbird. Arguably, a fan fiction unit would focus more on process writing than the production of the writing. Fan fiction might be classified as what new literacies researchers have identified “New Capitalist” writing or writing that assigns value to process and “the exchange of information,” an alternative to writing that solely values production (Black 16).

Overview

Angela Thomas discusses fan fiction in “Youth Literacies: Understanding Self through Role-Playing the Other" in her book Youth Online. The author describes how fans “borrow” the work of others to create “new” fictional narratives of their own. Thomas describes the writing process of fan fiction writers:

Borrowing settings, plots, characters and ideas from all forms of media and popular culture, fans weave together new tales, sometimes within the accepted canon (the real works from which they are borrowing), sometimes blending several ideas from different sources (i.e. Star Wars meets Middle Earth) together in a type of fiction called ‘Crossovers’, and sometimes imagining new possibilities for additional characters, different histories or different settings to build on existing stores, called ‘Alternative Universe’ fiction (Thomas 130 – 131).

New literacies researcher Rebecca W. Black, in a chapter titled “Digital Design: English Language Learners and Reader Reviews in Online Fiction,” also discusses how:

Scholarship within the New Literacy Studies (Cope and Kalantzis 2000, Gee 2004, New London Group 1996) has dealt with shifts from what is valued within the Old Capitalist/Industrial “mindset” (Lankshear and Knobel 2003) that centers on the production of material goods, to what is valued within social and work spaces rooted in a mindset “forged in cyberspace” (Lankshear and Knobel 2003, 3) (116).

Black implies that fan fiction, a genre forging its way in cyberspace with the popular site http://www.fanfiction.net/ and into secondary English classrooms, operates under a “New Capitalist” framework. She distinguishes between the “mindset” of Old Capitalism, a mindset focused on the production of goods, to the “mindset” of “New Capitalism” that focuses on “the production and exchange of information.” Black said, “According to Gee there are ‘three types of design that reap large rewards in the New Capitalism: the ability to design new identities, affinity spaces, and networks (pg. 97)’” (116).

Black states at the end of the chapter how she is “not suggesting that educators adopt popular culture and fan fiction wholesale into their curriculum, as this would certainly diminish its popularity with students” (134-135). As an alternative, incorporating a fan fiction assignment into a secondary classroom would allow students to begin questioning what counts as a text and what counts as reading, writing, and composing. Twenty-first century learners will need to be familiarized with glue-bound books in a traditional English classroom, as well as with digital, multimodal texts.

Educators who use fan fiction in their classroom will want to use the opportunity of teaching the assignment to expand how students read, write, speak, listen, view, and visually represent. The assignment will challenge students to closely and critically read the text of another author and then ask students to engage in their own process of authorship. A fan fiction assignment will allow students to explore and design “new identities, affinity spaces, and networks” (116).

Teachers at schools with access to computer labs and multimedia software, such as Audacity, Adobe Premier, Garage Band, and iMovie, may have greater ease in teaching a fan fiction assignment. A teacher of a fan fiction assignment becomes responsible for assessing the tools available at their schools and what access students have to digital literacies in and out of school. An assignment of fan fiction does not however necessarily hinge on digital spaces to function. A teacher need only to inspire students to become fans of a text being taught, whatever the mode of text may be, and give focused writing activities that appropriately balance the focus on “the production and exchange of information” with “the production of material goods” (116).

The assignment might include a final project of expression where the students process a piece of fan fiction over the course of a 4-week period. Students can be required to produce multimodal final projects or projects that include more than printed words on a page, such as an audio recording or podcast, a video segment or movie trailer, or a PowerPoint/Prezi presentation or theatrical performance. Students will be encouraged to share their final pieces on a public platform (i.e. http://www.fanfiction.net/) but will not be required to do so. A part of the final grade might focus on the process work that led to the completion of the final production to emphasize the importance of how they are exchanging their information. Students can then turn in portfolios that trace their work from the beginning of the project to the end.

Purpose

The purpose of a fan fiction assignment will be to help students examine, use, and produce a meaningful text in the genre of fan fiction. Students will enter into the process of producing original pieces of fiction, based on the work of authors in the traditional literary canon, such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and the work of more contemporary young adult authors, such as Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999). Students will have the opportunity to shift the way they think about words, images, pages on a computer screen, the use of voice in written language and audio/visual recordings. They will also challenge how the role of authorship results in new relationships between readers and writers.

The impact of teaching fan fiction within a secondary teachers' curriculum will lend to the purpose of developing twenty-first century producers of culture who understand how to examine traditional glue-bound texts as well as contemporary digital texts. A fan fiction assignment, as such, will prospectively aim to revise current instructional standards and promote general educational reform.

A fan fiction assignment with the above stated purpose will also be conducive to analysis in literacy action research. Through what Black states as “the production and exchange of information," students will take a single text or a couple of texts and demonstrate how they can create chains of texts. The students will perform within the “new identities, affinity spaces, and networks,” in which Black describes by way of Gee, developing their literacy and literary practice (116). Students will be able to identify themselves as an author of fan fiction by the end of the assignment and, given the appropriate tools, be able to interact with classmates and other fan fiction writers worldwide in online affinity spaces and networks.

Readings

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 1999.

Print.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Warner Books, Inc. 1960.

Print.

Audience

The audience for students will be the instructor and fellow classmates, unless they choose to post their fan fiction piece to www.fanfiction.net or another digital space. Even though the teacher and classmates are familiar with the two texts that will spawn the fan fiction piece, students will need to give readers who are not familiar with the two texts enough information to contextualize the story. Therefore, some summary and background information will be necessary within the plot construction of the fan fiction piece.

Requirements

Students will be required to read the two texts, Speak and To Kill a Mockingbird, and write process work and fan fiction for both. However, only one of the two pieces will be polished for their final project. The fan fiction assignment will require a 4 - 5 page prose component coupled with a digital or new literacies component. The nature and length of the digital, new literacies component can be negotiated.

The following guide will be the chart for the course of the fan fiction assignment:

• Week 1: The fan fiction unit will introduce students to the assignment, will discuss the background and culture of fan fiction, and will present important terms of the genre. The students will be expected to read the first half of Speak. They will be assigned to write how they think the book will end for a weekend homework assignment.

• Week 2: Students will share their fan fiction pieces with one another, finish reading Speak, practice creating multimodal components to include with their fan fiction, and reflect on the composing process.

• Week 3: Students will have posted their reflections on the fan fiction class webpage. They will be introduced to Harper’s To Kill a Mockingbird and will be asked to read the first half of the book. They will again speculate into the nature of the book’s ending and write another piece of fan fiction.

• Week 4: Students will share their pieces of To Kill a Mockingbird fan fiction. The students will work on the multimodal elements of the project and decide which of the two texts they want to polish to hand in for the final project.

Assignment length

The assignment should be approximately 4 - 5 pages for prose component and approximately 3 - 5 minutes of digital material, such as audio recordings (podcasts), video recordings (movie trailers), theatrical performances (soliloquy or skits), or other creative new literacies activity.

Due date

The project will be due on the Monday following the fourth week of the unit.

Fan fiction grading rubric

Prose Component

Excellent

The piece of fan fiction demonstrates a close and critical reading of the text used to create the work. The fan fiction takes advantage of literary elements, such as conflict, climax, and resolution to tell a story of an alternative universe, an alternative ending, a crossover, or another literary fan fiction devise. The piece of fan fiction demonstrates strong character development and plot creativity, while adhering to the page requirements.

Satisfactory

The piece of fan fiction tells a story of an alternative universe, alternative ending, a crossover, or another literary fan fiction device. However, the story lacks necessary aspects of summary from the original text that allow a reader to contextualize the story. The prose may omit key aspects of a character or the story and/or the prose does not meet the necessary page requirements.

Unsatisfactory

The author of the fan fiction text did not present to the reader a close and critical reading of the original text. Therefore, the piece of fan fiction does not effectively construct a plot of characters in a meaningful way. The fan fiction piece is either too short and does not develop a coherent storyline or the reader remains confused as to what literary fan fiction device the author chose, i.e. alternative ending, crossover, etc.

Process Work

Excellent

The final project was compiled in a portfolio. The portfolio has included a polished, final draft, at least one rough draft, peer comments from workshop, and evidence of the process the writer underwent to create the new literacies component. Digital components are included and/or a URL to access the digital media is made available online.

Satisfactory

The final project lacks evidence of thorough development of the process the writer underwent to create the final piece of fan fiction, such as no prior drafts with peer comments or no evidence of what the writer did to create the new literacies component. The new literacies component is not included with the final project or is made difficult to find or access in a digital, online space.

Unsatisfactory

The writer has no evidence of process work and only submits a final project. The fan fiction writer did not turn in a portfolio and does not have prior drafts with peer comments, or fails to contribute in workshop. The writer has not worked as a collaborator with their peers to be useful to others within the writing community.

Style & Conventions

Excellent

The prose is clear, understandable, and has few grammatical or conventional errors.

Satisfactory

The prose, as a whole, would benefit from careful proofreading and editing for clarity.

Unsatisfactory

Grammar mistakes and readability obstruct the readers understanding of the prose.

Digital/New Literacies component

Excellent

The project includes a digital and/or new literacies component, such as an audio recording [e.g. song (.mp3, .wav), podcast], a video (movie trailer, music video, interpretive dance), presents a live theatrical performance (soliloquy, skit, or role-play), or creates some other form of expression beyond the alphabetic, printed page. The new literacies form of expression effectively accompanies the prose component and demonstrates an overall depth of thought, concern, and creativity.

Satisfactory

The project includes a digital and/or new literacies component, but lacks an overall depth of thought, concern, and creativity. Either the author and composer of the digital and/or new literacies text did not take the time to smooth out the rough edges of an audio or visual production or he or she does not show his or her audience the relevance of their content to the prose component and the original text in which the fan fiction is based.

Unsatisfactory

The project does not include a digital and/or new literacies component, or the digital and/or new literacies component fails to demonstrate any constructive thought or connection to the prose component and the original text in which the fan fiction was based. The digital and/or new literacies text makes inappropriate suggestions and commentary to subject matters that could be potentially harmful for readers and viewers within the writing community.

Teacher Sample

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