Grow an understanding of short story with a well-sequenced plan built around an Academy Award-winning short film. Class members explore the elements of an effective short story, and practice writing their own. They also watch the short film (about 30 minutes long) and read the accompanying transcript. A discussion follows the film.

Concepts

Narrative Writing, narratives, short stories, literary elements

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Additional Tags

short story, short film, creative writng, meaning of life, short story elements, the man who planted trees, jean giono, frederic back, english language arts

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Classroom Considerations

• The Kurt Vonnegut video on how to write a short story is a bit odd; it shows images of Kurt Vonnegut throughout his life between the tips for writing a story
• The videos are on youtube, so you may wish to queue them up in order to skip the advertisements

Pros

• Includes all of the additional materials you will need to teach the lesson: links to the videos, handouts for the exercises, the transcript, and questions to ask during discussion
• The film itself is a beautifully animated artistic piece; the story has a lovely message that will spark discussion and thought

Cons

• There are one or two minor typos in the written procedures; students do not see these parts

Common Core

W.9-10.3.a W.11-12.3.a SL.9-10.1.a SL.11-12.1.a