Writing Unit 4: Realistic Fiction

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This writing uint will have students writing a piece of realistic fiction.

Target Skills: Theme and Characterization

For Writing Unit 4, the students will be creating their own works of realistic fiction.  This writing will make use of the story structure that we have been learning about throughout the year to create an original work of fiction that depicts realistic characters and themes that real people can relate to.  

Theme
Each student should first decide on a theme for their story.  Since a theme is bigger than any specific story, students do not need to already have developed characters or a plot when choosing a theme.  On the contrary, the students should first decide on a theme and then use it as a foundation to build a story on top of.

Choosing a theme: The first step to choosing a theme is choosing a topic.  The topic can be just one word, for example, love, family, friendship, loneliness, struggle, or fear.  Once a topic is chosen, decide what you want to say about the topic.  For example, if the topic is "friendship," then a possible theme could be "friends can help you through difficult challenges" or "it is important to choose your friends wisely."  Once you have decided on a theme, you can begin planning your story.

Characterization
Good characters drive a story.  Different people will do different things in different situations.  When creating characters, it is important to understand their motivations (why they do things).  It's okay to base your fictional characters on real people.  This helps make them realistic.  As you write your story, use your characters motivations, thoughts, and actions to communicate your theme.  For the theme "friends can help you through difficult challenge," you could create a character who always wants to do things by herself without any help.  The character can then learn that it's okay to get help from friends sometimes.  For the theme "it is important to choose your friends wisely," you could create a character that at first just wants to be friends with the cool, popular kids, but then learns that they are not real friends.  

Story Structure
Once you have a theme and characters, you can begin to plan your story.  In addition to characters, you also need a setting and a plot.  Remember that the plot includes a conflict, events, and a conclusion.  Be sure to plan your story using a graphic organizer before you begin to write.

Rubric for Realistic Fiction Total: 30pts

Format	5-Original Title, Date, Single Space, Indented ¶, Pencil or Black Pen	4- 4/5	3- 3/5	2- 2/5	1 1/5
Length	5-Five complete paragraphs	4-Five paragraphs, some incomplete	3-Four Complete paragraphs	2-Less than five paragraphs, some incomplete	1-Less than five paragraphs, most or all incomplete
Narrative Structure	5-Gripping opener, 3 supporting paragraphs, satisfying conclusion	4-Opener, 3 supporting paragraphs, conclusion	3-Narrative lacks a conclusion or enough support	2-Narrative is largely incomplete	1-Not realistic fiction
Story Structure	5-Contains well developed characters and a clear theme	4-Contains well developed characters or a clear theme	3-Contains characters and theme with minimal development	2-Characters are generic and/or theme is unclear	1-Characters are generic and theme is lacking
Revision	5-Notebook shows a clear, multi-stage revision process	4-Notebook shows a general revision process	3-Notebook shows a limited revision process	2-Notebook shows only minor revisions	1-No evidence of revision (only 1 draft)
Spelling and Grammar	5-Only 1 or 2 minor spelling or grammar mistake types	4-1 or 2 major spelling or grammar mistakes types	3-Generally correct spelling and grammar with frequent mistakes	2-Evidence of incomplete editing	1-No evidence of editing (full of grammar and spelling mistakes)

Use these Graphic Organizers to help you plan your story.