Kalen Barkholtz
GMWP 2014
An inquiry into Teaching the Craft of Realistic Fiction to Upper Elementary Writers
Question: How can I help writers develop believable characters and cohesive plots without
stifling whatever it is about the open door of “Write a Story,” that propels the hands of elevenyear-olds to fill entire notebooks?
Places to find story ideas
 Students imagine books they wish existed in the world (Calkins)
Students write a few sentences about a story that would speak to them they wish
existed

My Writing Territories (Gallagher)
Students keep an ongoing list of everything they could possibly write about based on
their life experiences

Mining writer’s notebooks (or journals, write-ins, etc.) (Calkins)

Story Walk (Calkins)
Take students for a walk, have them observe the world around them and look for the
stories that might exist. They can jot ideas in an assignment notebook. A story walk
could also be assigned as homework.
Character Development
Throughout the process make guide students to ask themselves if their characters makes sense
as real people. If they give a trait to their character, there should be a reason
 Inside/Outside Traits (Calkins)
Students divide paper into two columns for brainstorming: Outside (External traits), Inside
(Internal traits). A follow up activity would be to give concrete examples for the internal traits
such as “kind”. Students could provide an example of what kind refers to in that particular
character. For instance, kind could mean that the character allows his brother to win at board
games.
 Longings/Yearnings
Students draw a heart and fill in ideas about what is most important to their characters, what
they most desire, and what is dear to the characters’ hearts. On the outside of the heart, or
perhaps on post-its that will cover the heart, students write what gets in the way of these
longings. These obstacles can include specific people, physical limitations, society, the
character’s own emotional or social difficulties, or a lack of resources. The stomachache
moment, the height of conflict, will build as the character’s yearnings come against a wall of the
character’s obstacles.
Drama Activities
These drama activities can be used during any part of the process in order to get to know
characters, play with plot possibilities, or envision how a scene might enfold. Students can
improvise in small groups, or with the whole class as the audience.

Characters React, adapted (Erion, 127-132)
Students get into character and improvise how their characters might react in a variety
of situations the teacher calls out. Each reaction should only take a few seconds.
Possibilities: got a good test back, fingers stuck in bowling ball

Conflicts of Interest
Imagine one small moment (scene) where your character wants something that will help them, but
someone gets in the way because they also want something. Have students fill out notecards and
improvise in pairs. Students could write the scene down as practice, or as a draft of one of the small
moments in their story.
Notecard:
Setting:
Character 1 wants:
Character 2 wants:
Example:
Setting: Two boys are in a boat. The fish are biting like crazy, but a storm is approaching.
Character 1: wants to go in to shore to avoid the storm
Character 2: wants to stay on the lake and catch big fish
Characters Interact
Students get into character (one of the characters from their story) and put them into a
situation where they all have to interact. Example: arriving at camp, and meeting your cabin
mates
Counter Objectives (Walker)
Students improvise with partners scenes where characters have counter objectives. For
instance, one character wants to keep his mother from going in his room because there is an
animal in his room that is not supposed to be there. He is trying to keep her out by telling her
about his day because she is about to go in and get his laundry. His objective is to keep him out
of her room. His counter objective is to tell her about his day. (Counter objectives are many
times dishonest)
Plot Building (getting to the stomachache moment or situation)
 Collaboration
In small groups, students talk informally about their story ideas. This should be modeled by
teacher with the whole class with a story idea before students collaborate on their own.
Students talk about possibilities. How might the story go, what would be the stomachache
moment? How would the story get there? Encourage students to ask questions to help the
writer make the story seem logical. Encourage to students to ask how and why questions.
 Story Mountain
Students draw a mountain. At the bottom they place a sentence or two about their lead scene,
and imagine their story in 2-4 small moments (scenes), which will also be summarized and
placed on the mountain (sequentially). The stomachache moment will go at the top of the
mountain. They may choose not to decide how the story will end at this point, to let their
writing lead them there.
When students arrive at plot building, they may have already written a scene or two. If they
started with their stomachache moment first, that’s fine. They can write the story as 2-4 small
moments (or scenes), which they imagine/picture extensively one at a time. After writing each
scene, students revise before going on to another one.