September Assignments

My students are dripping with creativity these days and showing it in all sorts of ways. Here are some of the assignments they've tackled this month:

1. Magical Realism  

After a quick introduction to the literary genre, students looked at various surrealist works of art. Paying close attention the juxtaposition of literal and fantastical elements in each work, they looked for common themes like terror, time, revolution, the carnival and the promise of a better future.

Next, they created their own simple works of surrealist art, exchanged pictures with a classmate and turned the picture into words. They wrote stories about the picture without speaking to the artist, going solely off what they saw. Finally, they returned the picture and corresponding story to the artist and discussed their interpretations. 

2. Collaborative Fiction

Students worked with a partner, selected a setting, character, plot twist, dialogue and theme from a list of options and pieced together hilarious short stories. The challenge came in trying to include everything they'd selected in 750 words or less. 

3. Movie Scripts

After watching Better Off Dead and reading excerpts from various other 80's classics, students visited simplyscripts.com, read the script "The Only Boy In The World" and watched the movie:

After that, they created their own short film script about loneliness. Watch out, Hollywood!