Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Reading Assignment suggestions?

I decided on the spur of the moment to volunteer with a program at my college to teach a middle/high school creative writing class. You can basically teach anything you want (within reason) so I'm teaching Creative Writing with no boundaries. Sci-fi, fantasy, romance, mystery, fanfic... anything they want to write is okay with me. When I was in high school (and even college), I was too often told I had to write certain kinds of stories and that I couldn't write what interested me. I loved writing enough that I was going to do it on my own, but if I hadn't loved it as much as I did I would have just quit by now. And I imagine lots of kids would enjoy writing a lot more if they didn't have a bunch of rules telling them how to do it.

So my next task is to come up with reading assignments for the kids. I'd like to read things in lots of different genres and styles to give them ideas and emphasize that they can write whatever they want. Maybe even some fanfic, if I can find some that's PGish and in a fandom that I think most kids will be familiar with (which probably means not L&C, although it's the easiest place to find gfic separate from nfic).

So far, the only story I've decided on is the fantasy "Roses by Moonlight" from Patricia C. Wrede's Book of Enchantments . So I'm looking for a bunch of shortish stories (or things I can take excerpts from), especially in genres I'm not very familiar with. Everyone on this board seems to be very well read, so I figure you guys can suggest some good things

Any thoughts? The class is for grades 6-9, which roughly translates to ages 12-15, so I need things that would be appropriate for that age group. Other than that, no restrictions

I used to teach a creative writing course to high school seniors.

Although allowing students to write whatever they like sounds nice, it becomes very difficult to handle.

It's easier to give them short assignments where they can explore different genres so they can understand the nature of story writing.

For example: Let them read all or part of To Kill A Mockingbird. Then get them to write a first person narrative based on something meaningful that happened in their own lives.

or

Read the short story by Guy de Maupassant or O'Henry. One is called The Gift of the Magi, the other the Necklace. Basically, they're the same story. Then get the kids to write a short story based around an object (real or imaginary), symbolic or not.

By choosing the skill you're trying to teach, you are allowing the students the opportunity to choose their own topics and develop their own style.

Good luck,

gerry

Oh, this sounds like it's gonna be a lot of fun!

I second gerry's suggestion of Maupassant's The Necklace. Fantastic story, although I found it misleading because after I read that first story (in French) I thought I could take on the rest of his work, so I chose a Maupassant short stories collection to study for my French oral exam and ended up feeling like I was in waaay over my head. But that could be because I was studying French. Still, while I adore Maupassant, I think that you'll have to carefully screen the stories because some might be hard for that age group to handle. But The Necklace is perfect.

My mum and I once had this looong conversation about our favourite short stories. One of mine definitely has to be Roald Dahl's Lamb to the Slaughter. It's a little morbid, so it veers away from his usual funny-ha-ha style, but it's amazing. I think it can be found in Roald Dahl's anthology Skin (which is full of other good stories) but I'm not too sure...

Another story I like is called The Epitaph, but I can't remember the author because I read that in a reading anthology in grade 8...

One of my mom's favourites is a well-known story called...gosh, I can't remember! Sorry about the vagueness! But I think it's fairly famous. It's about this little girl who plays and talks to her doll - but you get to the end and discover that the girl is really a madwoman and her doll is actually her dead (stillborn?) baby.

Yikes, I hope I've helped more than I've complicated things! :p

Chriscy

I thought of another title. It's a Canadian short story by Roch Carriere called The Sweater.

gerry

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I've actually found several of the stories you guys mentioned, and others, at ClassicShorts.com , so that's been helpful. And I got a bunch of books and anthologies from the store/library, so I'm poking around.

If anyone else comes up with any more suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them! And the class starts this Saturday, wish me luck!