Story Bracket Day
November 10th, 2014
Warm Up: Current Events
Warm Up: Current Events
Date: Monday, November 10th, 2014
Writing Prompt: Have you heard
about #PointerGate? After
watching the video, answer one
of the following questions:
• What questions should you ask
about this information source?
• What is the news story not
showing?
• What are your overall thoughts?
Agenda
Learning Target:
Today I will learn how to
compare stories to see which one is the
strongest and most viable.
Story Bracket
Keys to Expository
“The Tell-Tale Heart” Quiz
What is a “good story”?
What does the story need to have?
What do the characters need to do?
How must I feel as the reader?
Anything else?
Our Last Two (Notable) Stories
Flowers for Algernon
The Tell-Tale Heart
• Charlie Gordon goes from
being a mentally retarded man
into a genius
• Algernon the lab mouse
becomes his friend
• Charlie experiences life as an
adult man and as a child
• Charlie learns his friends are
not as genuine as he had
thought
• Charlie experiences a
rollercoaster of emotions
• Old Man and Narrator live
together
• Narrator kills Old Man because
of his dead eye
• Narrator tells this in first
person
• Story details are limited to the
Narrator’s perspective
• The reader is uncertain of
whether the narrator really
killed the Old Man or not
Which of these is a better story?
Today you will work together to
determine which of the two is the
stronger story.
Story Bracket
How many of you have ever been in a
tournament?
What is “March Madness”?
How does a bracket work?
How can we use this to evaluate
stories?
Bracket Criteria
On what criteria should we judge the
stories?
Characters
Plot
Writing Style
Mood
Overall Enjoyability
Create a Rubric
In your table groups, work to create a
3-column rubric to evaluate each
story on the preceding criteria.
Example:
Overall
Enjoyability
1 Point
3 Points
5 Points
The story is
painful to read.
The story is not
always exciting,
but was worth
reading.
The story was
enchanting and fun
to read. I really
want to read more
of this author’s
work.
Quiz Time!
Pack up your items in preparation for
the “Tell-Tale Heart” quiz.
All you will need is the class set of the
quiz (2-sided, 8 questions) and an
iRespond remote.
Once I tell you to do so, you may
begin.
Homework
Read for 30 minutes.
Work on Genius Hour project.
Closing
Group Debrief:
Let’s discuss any further talks and
thoughts that arose.