This learning activity should be used as an explore/explain activity for students to apply their narrative writing skills and practice differentiating between narrative and expository writing. The students will practice these skills through correspondence with a publisher and by writing a narrative of a single scene from a hero's journey. By including the correspondence aspect of the activity, students will be able to show their ability to differentiate between narrative and expository writing. By limiting the students to writing a single narrative scene, they will be able to more easily demonstrate their ability to write narratives that show not tell. This should combat some of the summaries that often results when students try to tell an entire story. Students will need to have prior knowledge concerning the difference between narrative and expository writing and the difference between a single scene in a story and an entire story. They will also need to be familiar with the basic concepts of letter writing, the hero's journey motif, and the choices authors must make in terms of point of view, showing not telling, and dialogue. Finally, the students will be presented with My Hero's Journey Narrative Correspondence, a letter between the students and an editor from a publishing company interested in publishing their work. The students will write a single-scene narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end using a consistent point of view that paints a picture of the characters, setting, and events of the story. The students will use action verbs, imagery, dialogue, and figurative language to paint this picture. During the activity the students will use a My Hero's Journey Peer Review; revise, edit, and publish their writing to a class Padlet page; and write a letter to their publisher concerning the status of their work.
This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
