Critical Linking

• Examine and explore the characteristics of horror and fantasy literature;
   
• Read and listen to scary short stories;
   
• Create a fantasy plot and write a descriptive short story;
   
• Investigate writing conventions and common writing errors;
   
• Self-evaluate writing and peer-edit using the “Six-Trait” framework.

Big Idea: Conventions

 
Writing Horrors
Core Learning Strategy Map

Core Objective: I can draft and craft a short story in the fantasy fiction genre.

Learning Target: I can identify the traits of a mysterious, suspenseful or frightening story.
Learning Assessment: mini-lessons, readings, discussions
Learning Target: I can use the writing process to revise a text for clarity and tone.
Learning Assessment: mini-conferences, peer-editing

Core Assessment: Fantasy Horror Short Story - 80%;

Core Objective: I can recognize standard and nonstandard use of writing conventions.

Learning Target: I can distinguish standard from nonstandard writing conventions.
Learning Assessment: observation, discussions, mini-lessons

Core Assessment: Writing Conventions Quiz - 20%

• Mode
  Persuasive essay, email, lab report, poem, magazine article
• Audience
  Instructor, peers, members of a discipline, employer or employee, (potential) customer
• Purpose
  Inform, persuade, woo, criticise, apologize, sell
• Situation
  Deadline, resources, experience & skills, collaborators
  
  
  
  
  

Generally, writing-to-learn activities are short, impromptu or otherwise informal writing tasks that help students think through key concepts or ideas presented in a course. Often, these writing tasks are limited to less than five minutes of class time or are assigned as brief, out-of-class assignments.

Because writing-to-learn activities are crucial to many WAC programs (because they best meet teaching goals through writing), this guide presents a great deal of information on writing to learn (WTL), including a detailed rationale, examples, and logistical tips.

Writing to communicate -- or what James Britton calls "transactional writing"-- means writing to accomplish something, to inform, instruct, or persuade. . . . Writing to learn is different. We write to ourselves as well as talk with others to objectify our perceptions of reality; the primary function of this "expressive" language is not to communicate, but to order and represent experience to our own understanding. In this sense language provides us with a unique way of knowing and becomes a tool for discovering, for shaping meaning, and for reaching understanding.

As teachers we can choose between (a) sentencing students to thoughtless mechanical operations and (b) facilitating their ability to think. If students' readiness for more involved thought processes is bypassed in favor of jamming more facts and figures into their heads, they will stagnate at the lower levels of thinking. But if students are encouraged to try a variety of thought processes in classes, they can, regardless of their ages, develop considerable mental power. Writing is one of the most effective ways to develop thinking. 

• The Periodic Sentence -- additional details are placed before the basic statement:
  "Andrea, the tough one, the sullen kid who scoffed at any show of sentiment, gave her mother flowers."
• The Cumulative (or Loose) Sentence -- basic statement with a string of details added to it:
  "Bells rang, filling the air with joy and bringing people into the streets to hear the news."

• Declarative (most of the sentences we use)
  
• Imperative ("Don't write about that!")
• Interrogative (questions --"Why are those bells ringing?")
• Exclamatory ("That's a fine paragraph!")
  

• Simple (one independent clause)
  "We drove from Minneapolis to Bismarck without stopping."
• Compound (more than one independent clause)
  "We were exhausted, but we arrived in time for my father's birthday party."
• Complex (one independent clause and at least one dependent clause)
  "Although he is now in his eightieth year, he is still quite active."
  
• Compound-Complex (more than one independent clause and at least one dependent clause)
  "After it was all over, my dad claimed he knew we were planning something, but we think he was really surprised."

1.   Research
2.   Analysis
3.   Brainstorming
4.   Thesis
5.   Outline
6.   Introduction
7.   Body
8.   Conclusion
9.   Format (APA, MLA Style)
10. Language editing