CCSS ELA Standard: 6.W.3.b

What is bobbing for apples like… for an apple?

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at the zoo.

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place at school.

Students pick from 12 random phrases to create a story about an incident in a restaurant.

Students use 12 random phrases to write a story that takes place in at an amusement park.

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in at a magical school.

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!

Imagine being a character in a story. Are you worried that your story’s narrator may inaccurately describe you? What if they reveal something you wanted to be kept secret? Do narrators have too much power!?

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

What if… Edgar Allen Poe wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

We tell students to “show, not tell” in their writing, but this advice isn’t effective until they experience the difference. In this video, we’ll put a famous character (of students’ choosing) into a mundane situation and develop a fun scene to show off their main traits.

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!