Write Your Own Picture or Comic Book - Week Two

This is week two of a four-week writing program for tweens age 8-12.
Week One
Week Three
Week Four

Last week we had four extra kiddos who didn't sign up, and today we had five more! While we can technically turn people away from an event when they have not registered, I hate to tell anyone they can't participate in a library program. Counting some parents who wanted to stick around and watch, we filled our tiny room with twenty people not including myself! All twelve laptops were out and running, with sibling sets sharing again.

Our icebreaker today was another Wacky Web Tale from Eduplace. Today's puzzle was called "Could it Really Happen," and since we used it as an ice breaker, I asked that each child fill in their own name for "friend." They worked on it for 15 minutes, then had a chance to share with the group.

After everyone shared, I brought attention to how different every single story was. Even though they all filled out the same form, the adjectives and nouns and verbs they chose made them completely different stories! This point segued nicely into the next activity of the day, learning about plot structure.

I doctored up this image to include definitions, and then shared it with them on a PowerPoint:

I picked five readers, and had each one read a different definition out loud to the rest of the group. Then, I asked each of them to think about a story they had read lately, and fill in the plot points to each definition. One of the kids was really excited about the book Wonder by RJ Palacio, so I asked him to go through each point in the plot diagram and tell me which parts of the story match up. He came up with:

Exposition: Augie has had a lot of surgeries because of a facial deformity, and has never been to real school.
Rising Action: His parents decide to send him to school, where he meets some kids who are nice and others who are bullies.
Climax: He finds out that one kid who he thought was a friend is actually a bully, and makes fun of Auggie behind his back.
Falling Action: With the help of his friend Summer, Auggie thinks about how everyone should just choose to be kind to one another. His "bully" friend apologizes and they become friends again.
Resolution: The school year ends, and some of the kids show they have learned to become a little kinder through their made-up precepts assigned by their teacher.

After this completely stellar example, I set the kids free with laptops, pencils, and notepads, with instructions to come up with their own story that fits into these five plot points. It could be a true story, something that has happened to them, or something they made up. A couple of the kids had some trouble getting started, but for the most part they were able to fit the happenings of their story into these boxes. I'm excited that they all seemed to understand the concept as they worked on their stories!