Goals:
1. Vivid description of the setting, using sensory details, in story. Develop a vocabulary for describing sounds.
2. Writing a story with a plot that shows a problem and a solution.
3. Nurturing a joy for creative writing.
This writing activity needs to be done over 4 – 5 days. Use your judgement about combining steps into a single lesson.
1. Set the mood …
I started this task by taking the students on a virtual tour of a haunted house. I found a decent website by doing a Google search. As we entered the house and explored the various spooky rooms the desire to create a story shone in the faces of my students!
2. Make the setting come alive …
I played a Halloween soundtrack. The kids were instructed to listen and jot down all the sounds they could hear. After about five minutes of the soundtrack I asked them to share what they heard. I listed their responses on chart paper. Whenever they gave a vague response such as “I could hear an owl”, I would say, “How did you know it was an owl? What sound did it make?” They soon got the idea. We came up with an impressive list: cackling, screeching, rattling, groans, moans, howls, screaming, hooting, growling, yelps, creaking, evil laughter.
3. Get the picture …
I handed a picture of a haunted house and some writing paper to each of the kids.
Look at the picture. What can you see? What would you be able to smell? What would you hear? What would you feel on your skin?
I asked the kids to divide their writing paper into four squares. In each square they wrote down the following headings: Sights, Smells, Sounds, Feel. They then filled each square with as many sensory details as they could come with from examining the picture.
4. The first draft …
Think about a story set in that haunted house. Who would your main character/s be? You could put yourself in the story and write it in first person. What would the problem be? How would it be solved?
Now write your story.
I didn’t give too much guidance with plot development. They were already quite excited about the task. I wanted them to just let out their creativity. The one thing I emphasized is that the story should have no violence or blood and to remember our “banned” words which are displayed on a chart made visible during our writing sessions. My students understand very well by now that they are not allowed to use these words: nice, good, bad, stuff, things, cool, great.
5. The Setting – described in a powerful paragraph …
This lesson was devoted to writing a stellar paragraph describing the setting. I asked the kids to get out the paper with the four squares and look at what they wrote. On a separate paper they had to select from their list what would fit into their story. They had to write sentences to describe the setting, being sure not to start with “I saw … “; “I heard … “; etc. After they wrote their paragraph, I told them that this could be the first paragraph in their story, or if that didn’t work, they had to decide where it would fit. Because my students are third graders I felt a little unsure about this. Did they get what I was asking of them? To my delight, they were fine. They knew exactly what I was asking them to do.
6. Finish the story. The kids returned to their stories, plugged in the setting, and figured out ways to resolve the problem they had thought about. They had to proofread for spelling and punctuation.
7. Editing and Revising
This step applies to all writing tasks. Each student comes to me with their story and I help them fix their mistakes. I show them how to make their sentences short and succinct. We delete “so” and “then”, and clean up awkward words and phrases. Because I am a writer I can do this quite quickly. I realize that this phase of the task could be difficult to manage. This is a good time to solicit the help of a parent volunteer.
8. Final Draft
The stories are rewritten and the haunted house pictures are colored.
Below are excerpts of student stories showing their setting descriptions.
When they got to the haunted house they saw that it was as large as a school. It was musty and you could smell it a mile away. When it became dark they went in. It was dark. All of a sudden ghosts started hovering all over the house. When they flew away the three kids decided to sleep there. They could hear a wolf howling fearlessly in the moonlight. At about 1:30 A.M. they were awakened. They turned on their flashlights and what they saw was not pleasant!
Sara opened the door and they heard witches cackling. It was scary, but they went on. They felt a light breeze on their necks. They couldn't see what it was so they lit a candle. When they turned around they saw ghosts! "I thought was lost them," said Sofia. From the corner of their eyes they could see three witches.
Fhernand and Daniela were walking when they saw a haunted house. They could hear eveil laughter coming from inside. They could feel the cool wind. One of the wooden beams from the house fell. They could smell the old wood. Cackling witches were flying around on their broomsticks.
Here is a full story by one of my students:
A Haunted House
There was a boy in a cornfield, just walking along. After a while he came to an open space with a house in the middle. He walked to the house and up the steps. He knocked on the door. As he knocked the door just opened. He walked into the house slowly. About three feet in he heard a really loud noise. He turned around fast.
The door had closed and locked.
The boy, Indy, screamed for help. HELP! HELP! HELP! He walked toward a wall and put his back against it.
After an hour Indy heard slow footsteps. He said to himself, “How will I get out of here?” The footsteps came closer. There was barely any light where he was standing. Then he remembered what the haunted house looked like. It had broken windows, old, rotten pumpkins, rusted doorknobs, words written on walls, ripped clothes, a chair missing a leg, old and dirty books, a hole on the roof, and spider-webs everywhere.
Indy took a step forward and his foot hit something. He looked down and he saw a flashlight. He bent down and picked it up. He turned it on and looked for the steps going upstairs. When he found it he walked up three steps. A bat flew at him and knocked him down. He got back up and went upstairs with his flashlight.
There were five rooms upstairs. Indy walked into the middle one. It had a closet on the side, a bed in the middle, and a few windows on the side. He walked to the windows and tried to open them. He tried for about five aminutes. They finally opened. He looked down. Indy thought he could jump down but there were spikes. As he was looking down a skeleton jumped up and pushed Indy onto the bed. Indy kicked the skeleton out the window and into the spikes.
He got off the bed and walked to the window. He looked down and saw that the skeleton was gone. Then he looked up. He saw witches and he knew this was a haunted house. He looked at the witches for a while. But then a witch saw him. He ran out of the room and into another room and jumped out the window. He past all the spikes. He landed on his back in a pile of leaves right by the spikes. The witches couldn’t find him. After he got out of the haunted house he looked at his watch. The time was 12:51 P.M. He got out of the pile of leaves and ran back to his house.
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