Performance Task 1

After having read several short stories, now you have a chance to get your creative juices flowing and write your own story! You will be given a few ideas to get you started but from there be unique, original and make sure you keep in mind all of the important elements of narrative writing.

Short Story Jumble

All good stories start somewhere. Remember some of the key details of narrative writing. This Short Story Diagram will help you think about how narrative writing is constructed.

To write your short story, you will be given some story ideas and then you will begin the brainstorming and pre-writing steps in the writing process.

Choose one option from each of the following four lists. Write a story with the character, setting, time period, and situation that you've chosen. The character that you've chosen should be the main character in the story, but isn't necessarily the ONLY character in the story. Likewise, most of the story will take place in the setting that you've chosen, but you can include other settings or elaborate on the setting that you have chosen (breaking it into several smaller settings, for example). The situation or challenge that you've chosen may involve the main character or your main character may observe someone else who must deal with the situation or challenge. In other words, you can combine these elements anyway that you desire, so long as all four are included in your story.

Character

1. a new mother

2. a photographer

3. a recent high school graduate

4. a restaurant owner or manager

5. an alien from outer space

6. a homeless child

7. a 93-year-old woman

8. an environmentalist

9. a bull rider

Setting

1. near a National Forest

2. a wedding reception

3. a celebration party

4. an expensive restaurant

5. a city park

6. the porch of an old farmhouse

7. a polluted stream

8. a college library

9. a concert hall

Time

1. during a forest fire

2. after a fight

3. the night of high school graduation

4. after a big meal

5. sometime in December

6. late at night

7. after a big thunderstorm has passed

8. in early spring

9. first week of the school year

Situation/Conflict

1. an important decision needs to be made

2. a secret needs to be confessed to someone else

3. someone's pride has been injured

4. a death has occurred

5. someone has found or lost something

6. someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong

7. reminiscing on how things have changed

8. someone feels like giving up

9. something embarrassing has just happened

10. someone has just reached an important goal

Once you have chosen your character, setting, time and situation, use the Short Story diagram to begin organizing your ideas. Filling this out will he a helpful prewriting strategy.

The first step of this performance task is to fill out and submit your completed Short Story Diagram to google classroom. Use the jumbled story layout above to start your narrative. Make sure to submit a detailed short story diagram to google classroom.

Now you get a chance to take your brainstorming and pre-writing and create your first draft. You have done all of the hard work, getting your ideas out on paper and should have the general outline of your story already written down. Now you get to take those ideas and make them come to life by adding in the detail. Remember that you want to catch your readers' attention right away and then hold their interest. But do not put too much pressure on yourself with this first draft. It does not have to be perfect! The next step you will get an opportunity to revise and edit.

You might be asking how do I write a this narrative...

Now that you have your pre-writing done, you are ready to begin your draft.

Exposition: Use the introduction section on your Short Story diagram to create your first paragraph. Let's look at a model for how to construct our own writing, "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. Read the first few paragraphs. Think about how Montresor starts his story, drawing us in by explaining how he is going to get revenge. You will want to establish your setting, introduce your characters and point out the conflict within your first few paragraphs.

Rising Action: The events of your rising action section on your Short Story diagram will be the next couple of paragraphs. The tension surrounding the conflict should be building at this point. Your readers should feel the anticipation as you get closer to the climax.

Climax: For your climax, you will want the conflict to explode. You should have a paragraph or two that details how the conflict finally is revealed.

Falling Action and Resolution: In the falling action, help guide the readers toward the resolution. Your falling action may be combined with your resolution in one or two paragraphs.

Also, take a look at the example in this example: Student Model so you have an idea of what a narrative should read like.

Before you submit your final draft please make sure that it is in MLA formatting.

* Your header should be in the upper right-hand corner and should contain your last name and the page number.

* Your heading should look like this:

Your Name

Your Teacher's Last name

English 9

Date

* Your entire paper should be double-spaced, including your heading.

* Your title should follow your heading and be centered.

* Your margins should be 1 inch on all sides.

* The font size should be 12 pt and should be Times New Roman.

Make sure that your final draft adheres to these expectations!

This is a rubric you can use as a guide for grading. There will be revisions and edits that will be need to be done from draft to draft.