Smurrey
10-12-2007, 01:24 AM
October is my favorite month because that is when I teach my "The Mysterious Short Story" unit to my 8th graders. It always goes over well and I love choosing the stories for the year. This year we are doing my all-time favorite short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter," by Roald Dahl and "The Most Dangerous Game," by Connelly and "The Tell-Tale Heart," by Poe and "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury and finally, "The Dinner Party."
You may notice that none of these stories are technically mysteries, but that is the catch. After we study the Anatomy of a Short Story and the literary terms and elements specific to whichever short story we have just read, the students then have to write their own short, short story in response from the perspective of a detecive character that they create. They have to "solve" the crime in their stories following the criteria we've learned about short stories. It is great good fun! The only problem is that they always want to kill off their characters in the gruesome and detailed ways, bloodthirsty little runts ;) At least they exercise those sensory details.
You may notice that none of these stories are technically mysteries, but that is the catch. After we study the Anatomy of a Short Story and the literary terms and elements specific to whichever short story we have just read, the students then have to write their own short, short story in response from the perspective of a detecive character that they create. They have to "solve" the crime in their stories following the criteria we've learned about short stories. It is great good fun! The only problem is that they always want to kill off their characters in the gruesome and detailed ways, bloodthirsty little runts ;) At least they exercise those sensory details.