Short Story Elements

In studying short stories, some basic elements need to be evaluated. They include the following: 

·   plot

·   theme

·   character

·   setting

·   point of view

·   style

Each element contributes to the overall effect of the story. As you read and/or write a short story you should keep the following questions in mind:

·  What is the writer’s purpose? (inform, arouse, persuade)

·  What is the writer’s tone? (Sarcasm, humour, didactic)

·  How does the story begin? (setting, background information, characters-who, what, where, when, why or how) How much detail is supplied? Most stories begin with an expositional snapshot which is later fleshed out.

·  How does the story develop? (structure- linear or non-chronological, use of flashbacks)  

·  How does the story end? With a twist or surprise, a build up to an inevitable climax or are you left hanging?

·  Who tells the story? POV and narrative voice?

·  What is the language and style like? Level of language-formal, colloquial or slang? Use of dialogue?

·  What are the characters like? Number and level of development? Narrative function and level of reader identification and empathy?

·  How important is the setting in conveying the ideas and mood of the story?

You choice of text to study obviously depends on the age and strength of the student cohort but there are so many short story sites online that it is easy to find suitable texts. Some of the sites I have found most useful are given below. The ABC short story competition generates some excellent stories, suitable for older secondary students. The address given below gives access to audio as well as transcripts of the earlier competition winners. A particularly good story to use with junior secondary is the funny tale, 'The Snake and the Cowgirl' which works well as a listening task. The Harrowing tales site is brilliant to use for a lesson where the students can access the site themselves. I have found that they enjoy reading about real situations. I used it to introduce a Novel study unit for 'Hatchet' but it also works well just as a short story unit introduction where you are looking at what makes such stories interesting.

If you want more ideas about elements and style , check out Rules for Short Stories at answer.com

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/survival.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/shortstories/2006.htm

The Snake and the Cowgirl By Daele Marie Healy, Murrurundi, New South Wales

I've been in the country six months when I see my first real snake, by which I mean the first snake that isn't really a garden hose, a snakeskin, a stick, a blue tongue lizard or a windscreen wiper, all of which have caused me to scream 'snake' at least twice.

I'm in the backyard dustbowl, picking up sticks, having thoroughly checked they're not snakes. Dirty and hot, I head inside for a shallow, cool bath.

In winter, I didn't wash much because it was so cold it was a big deal to take my clothes off. In summer, I'm respecting the restrictions in a town months away from shipping water in - not watering my lawn, rarely bathing and my quarterly bill is $10.61.

I don't towel off, letting the hot air evaporate the water off my skin to cool down. Naked, I walk out of the bathroom and straight into what I now know is the unmistakable s-shaped slither of a six-foot snake.

I've heard snakes are deaf but this serpent sure speeds up when I scream. In three steps I'm on the kitchen sink and wishing I had got around to kitchen curtains or was wearing more than a thong - only one thong because I couldn't find the other flip-flop in the bathroom. There's not even a tea towel in reach. Very few kitchen implements double as clothing. All the good stuff, like the saucepans and the colander, are on the other side of the room, near the oven. Damn my ergonomically organised kitchen. My choices are pink rubber gloves, a wine glass and cutlery. Even Jeannie Little would be struggling.

The snake slithers at the doorway. A viper moves nothing like a windscreen wiper. I won't make that mistake thrice.

It isn't going anywhere. I stupidly closed the back door before taking my clothes off. What was I thinking?

The snake seems unselfconscious of its naked state.

I need help. The mobile phone is in reach but who am I going to call? This is a special job, with specific selection criteria:
1. Snake-catching skills
2. My willingness to have them see me naked on a kitchen sink.
Sadly, the only successful candidate is seven hours' drive away. I'll crack before then. So I call the most important mental health professional in my life - the hotel publican.

'What colour is it?' he asks.

'Black, dark. It's enormous, pythonesque, and not in a Monty way, while still being a full-monty situation...'

'Well, that's good. It's a black snake. Brown snakes are small and skinny and a sandy colour. That would be bad.'

'So black snakes aren't poisonous?' I ask hopefully.

'Oh yeah, they're poisonous, but it won't kill you. It's good if you have black snakes because they keep brown snakes away.'

That's the sort of quality counselling I get from the publican: on the upside, it's not a brown snake. He also suggests sending over Jill, a local cowgirl, an attractive, tanned, blonde who takes trail rides, teaches horse riding and barmaids at the pub. The publican saw her ride past the front door.

Five minutes later I hear her yell through the sunroom window: 'G'day. Got a snake, have you?'

'Oh Jill, thank God. I'm in the kitchen. It's there, at the door... Could you get me a towel?'

She can't see me but she spies the snake, curled up calmly.

'Oh yeah, big bugger but it's a black. No, we won't need a towel for him.'

Then she yells behind her, 'Hey girls, come here. Have a look at this.'

Apparently Jill was in the middle of pony club. I hear the gasps of three local six-year-old girls.

'So, that's a black snake,' Jill instructs them. 'You're not meant to kill them. He's just escaping the heat.'

She must have climbed through the window because she appears at the kitchen door behind the snake. At the sight of me, still starkers on the sink, she starts, and laughs long and hard. When she's recovered, she calmly picks up the snake by its tail. Its head just off the ground, it turns around to look at her placidly. It really is six feet long.

I hear the girls 'ooooh' in admiration.

Jill takes the snake outside. I appear at the kitchen door, clutching in front of me the woven oval kitchen mat, and still wearing my one thong. Three six year olds look at me with contempt. I am everything they never want to be. I feel I have made a real contribution to their development.

'Short Stories' represent a wonderful unit for all age groups

Creative Writing - Sites and tips

There are many websites related to developing creative writing skills but many of them are general rather than suitable for senior students. Below are a few ideas and sites that may prove helpful for those students who are self-reliant enough to do the extra work that will enhance their creativity. 

Writers’ Tennis

You’ll need two people for this one. One of you writes a few paragraphs of a story. It can be about anything. You then pass it on to your writing partner (email is perfect for this) who then writes the next paragraph and so on and so on. If you both try to keep the two parts of the story consistent you can achieve interesting results.

Pictures & Words

Take a painting and look at it for a while then write a story about it. You can write about the actual painting or take the theme of the painting as the theme of your story. You can do the same with poems or with book and movie titles.

Writing exercises from Wake Up Writing

The Wake Up Writing website (www.wakeupwriting.com) has frequently updated writing exercises. Check out the latest ones below, and keep checking back here as this list will update itself.

The mark of a good short story is economy. Action develops quickly, the crisis is created with the greatest precision, and then, quite sharply, the story ends.

Variety in sentence beginnings. There are a several ways to do this eg by using:

Participles: “Jumping with joy I ran home to tell mum my good news.”

Adverbs: “Silently the cat crept toward the bird”

Adjectives: “Brilliant sunlight shone through the window”

Nouns: “Thunder claps filled the air”

Adverbial Phrases: “Along the street walked the girl as if she had not a care in the world.”

Conversations/Dialogue: these may be used as an opener. This may be done through a series of short or one-word sentences or as one long complex sentence.

Show, Don’t Tell: Students have heard the rule “show, don’t tell” but this principle is often difficult for some writers to master.

Personal Voice: It may be described as writing which is honest and convincing. The author is able to ‘put the reader there’. The writer invests something of him/her self in the writing. The writing makes an impact on the reader. It reaches out and touches the reader. A connection is made.

'Witness' Peter Weir

There are many resources for this film but students studying HSC Module B must keep in mind that they need to demonstrate close knowledge and understanding of its distinctive cinematic features. Extended responses are too often just superficial recounts of key events and scenes with mention of a list of techniques. As a film study, it needs to be properly analysed. An evaluation of Weir's auteur style is helpful because it reinforces how film is a collaborative process but often filtered through a director's overall vision in the way it is shot and edited. Nearly all the key scenes are available as movie clips via YouTube but students need to do more than summarise what happens. Also some of the more conceptual scenes such as the clip given below are better than the ones most often mentioned by students such as the barn raising scene.  What is discussed must show appreciation for what Weir is really trying to explore within the film. Film reviews offer some insightful information but it is too simplistic to meet exam requirements. 
To do well, sound analysis is required as well as explicit thesis development. 
Some basic commentary sites include:

The Internet Movie Database
Crazy Dave's Peter Weir Cave
http://www.peterweircave.com/main.html

http://www.irishfilm.ie/downloads/ifi_witness_tn.pdf

The TTA workshop for 'Witness' is running on June 15th. Bookings for it as well as other Term 2 topics such as 'Hamlet' and the poetry of 'Wilfred Owen' can be booked online at  www.tta.edu.au

'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' Resources Update

It seems a lot of people are working on this wonderful novel at the moment. I have used it a number of times with different year 10 and 11 classes and found that it worked well as a critical study of text and as the prescribed text for a conceptual study. While there are some wonderful resources available, as with 'Goodnight Mr. Tom', they often seem to be pitched at Primary School age students.
I use Animoto a great deal as it is a way to give an overview snapshot of a topic. For this text, I wanted to familiarize students with the contextual situation before beginning close study of the text itself. The text had been handed out for pre-reading and journal responses and this Animoto clip along with other resources such as a prezi presentation made by another teacher. 


http://animoto.com/play/ydBWUBGRmKO10eu4D90zuA

I also used a ppt for covering 'The Great Depression' as another important aspect that students needed to understand to really come to grips with the text.
 'Issu' was another important resource for designing  the response booklet that had analysis questions on the text. 
The poem/song 'Strange Fruit' also works well as a related text but obviously it needs to be kept for older students who can better deal with the confronting issues that are addressed within the book and related texts.

Below are the online website guidelines for the first part of this study unit

For this Area of Study unit, your interpretive response to this text will largely be based on 'online learning' tasks. You will be asked to work your way through a number of resourced steps that will be provided on this site. Each stage will require submission of varied tasks to show your evaluative understanding of 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' as a Journey text that explores another time and place. You will be evaluating how the text reflects inner journeys where individuals struggle to cope with the social issues and attitudes of an important period in time.

The aim of this unit is to develop analytical writing as well as time-management and self-directed learning skills.

Stage One: Evaluating historical, social and economic context
This stage will involve examining a number of resources that offer details about the novel's context. Such information will be needed to support your extended response about the novel. An online copy of the novel has also been provided so that you can highlight any quotes that you think might be useful to keep as textual reference for use later.

Animoto Clip

Write two paragraphs that detail your first impressions of the era in response to this animoto clip. You need to support what influenced your ideas by making close reference to what has been presented.

Useful Websites

http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Roll_Of_Thunder/Roll_Of_Thunder_Hear_My_Cry01.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/civil-rights/

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/thunder/

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001567.shtml

Watch unitedstreaming.com video called: Civil Rights: The Long Road to Recovery. 


Hope you find the animoto resource useful.Barbara

Film Study Guide Sites and Web 2 tools

“A film is a world which organizes itself in terms of a story.” ~ Jean Mitry

Even if you are fully prepared for teaching a particular film, it is a good idea to check what is available on some of the many study guide sites that can be found. Some of the best guides that can be found are available from filmeducation. The following two show the range and quality that can be found. 

Quite a few study guide sites can be found such as the following:

http://www.filmeducation.org/metropolis/

http://www.filmeducation.org/thekingsspeech/

Other sites include:

www.nzfi lm.co.nz

Excellent guides on films such as 'Once were Warriors' and 'Whale Rider' can be found along with some of the less known but equally good texts to do in the classroom such as "The World's Oldest Indian".

Other sites for using ITC and improving student film literacy skills include:

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/      (lots of Web 2 ideas and tools)

http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/Film-Media%20Literacy.htm

Good sites for Teaching Film

There are some wonderful image manipulation tools for teaching film and fostering student engagement and developing interpretive skills.

One of the easiest to use if Glogster.

http://www.glogster.com/

 It is a web application that enables students to create really dramatic multimedia online posters or glogs as they are called. These can be used to pinpoint certain filmic elements such as key scenes, characterisation, thematic focus and so on. They can also be embedded into blogs and wikis.

If you have taken one of my earlier tips and explored the potential of Weebly Education within the classroom, students love making their own affiliated websites really rich in content and presentation. 

There are some really brilliant student projects using Glogster from a New Zealand school that was studying 'Schindler's List'.

http://ncowie.edu.glogster.com/glog-675/

N. Cowie does some wonderful things with her students and the work that her class has done with 'Glogster' gives other students a lot of inspiration for what they can do with any particular film being studied.


The other thing about Glogster is that I have found that students of all ages, junior and senior, love being able to use images, audio and YouTube video clips. it is a good homework or revision task and because it is so creative in design, it really encourages collaborative effort as well as individual projects. They can be used for speeches, discussion, creative writing responses and a host of other classroom tasks limited only by your own imagination.

For information about film techniques, one of the most comprehensive sites is the following:

http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/index.htm

Audio and visual digital explanations are given but because it is so extensive and detailed, it is probably best suited for senior film study. 

Followup Activity:

Once students are familiar with the techniques used within films, a fun activity is to allow them to choose from a selection of possible films, examples that demonstrate the various camera shots and angles as well as lighting methods. To get the most out of this activity they would obviously have to indicate the purpose, effect or impact of the shot. This can be done as a simple ppt, photoshop or animoto project. I will give an example from a powerpoint I made for 'Corpse Bride'.

1. Extreme Wide Shot
2. Mid Shot
3. Medium Close up
4. Close up
5. Extreme Close up
6. Low Angle
7. High Angle
8. Dutch Tilt
9. Point of View Shot
10. Cut away
11. Shallow Focus
12. Deep Focus

Extreme Close-up - used to create empathy with protagonist

 

Genre Film Study

Genre Film Study

Cinematic crime fiction has undergone a sweeping change since the popular gangster films of the 1930's and the subsequent 'Film Noir' era. Visual imagery associated with entrenched corruption, violence and social degradation remain but with social and historical contextual change, storylines and characterisation have become more complex. Classics such as 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Big Sleep' established the cynical and alienated detective who struggled amidst seedy city streets. Noirish lighting and cinematography created the sinister atmospheric settings and worldspace that gave audiences a glimpse into a criminal underworld. Crime and criminality is also a topic that allows teachers to tap into documentary study for students can compare fiction and non-fiction depictions of events and individuals.  

Genre film study can simultaneously achieve a number of goals. It...

• enables a study of genre conventions and how they can be both formulaic and  flexible; familiar to audiences but easy to manipulate and re-imagined for enduring popularity. Genre study has become a major academic focus in recent decades and many resources can be found online for most mainstream genres. Students enjoy studying genre in general but film genre in particular as it establishes benchmarks for recurring themes, motifs and stylistic elements. Film Noir is particularly effective with students in Years 10 and 11.
• demonstrates changing social attitudes and values over time and reflects how film can be such a powerful medium for reflecting 'zeitgeist' or the spirit of the times. Cinematic texts can be topical but the best examples outlast their era of composition, retaining relevance for the deeper issues that are explored. 'Citizen Kane' for example remains on the top 100 best films of all times list because it still 'speaks' to contemporary audiences due to the timeless themes, cinematography and 'auteur' vision of Orson Welles. 
• challenges viewers to compare and contrast films over time that deal with similar subject matter but in differing ways. Genre films are marked both by their similarity and inherent diversity. Conventions are not  fixed or static but loose and fluid. The decayed landscapes of Film Noir are equally suitable for a dystopic view of a post apocalyptic world such as that found in films such as 'Children of Men'. 
• can demonstrate the nature of hybridization whereby films cross genre boundaries to communicate ideas and engage their audiences. Films such as 'Blade Runner' or 'Witness' show a mix of several genres that enable directors to address multiple ideas and issues in visually innovative ways. 
• highlights how film techniques have changed over time, reflecting technological development and social expectations. The special effects of yesteryear compared to what is now possible is in itself an interesting topic to explore. The fact that films from earlier periods retain significance should be incorporated into such a study to ensure that students appreciate that distinctive films do not need to rely on whizz bang technology. 
•  can also be interesting to use film stills from genre films such as crime fiction showing characters, settings or objects and have the students try and detect ideas from them about who, what, where, when, why and how. They can be excellent stimulus material for creative writing. I have found the following shot particularly effective in class discussion about what possible storyline could go with it.

 

The language of Film

The particular style of a film might be influenced by the 'auteur' vision of directors such as Welles, Hitchcock or Weir but it is more commonly due to the ways in which key filmic elements have been utilised. Film literacy involves teaching students how to use the building blocks of film in an informed way. There are many excellent websites available giving teachers resources to use including the following:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/

http://www.bfi.org.uk/

http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/tfms/

http://www.filmsite.org/

Any simple google search will bring up others that give a whole range of glossary researches, some of which even have demonstrations for some of the main camera angles and shots that can be used. Searches for powerpoints, wikispaces, You Tube and webtools relating to film techniques and other elements offer still more resources that can be used in class. 

Here is a list of film elements that can be used to discuss, describe and analyse film:

• Setting (geographical, historical, social milieu)
• Genre
• Cinematography (camera placement and movement, lighting, color, focus, frame, composition, etc)
• Lighting
• Art direction (décor, etc)
• Costuming
• Suspense
• Sound (realistic, expressive, simple vs. multi-layered, etc)
• Soundtrack
• Character (complexity, development, believability, etc)
• Plot (story and subplots)
• Narrative structure (straightforward vs. complex, flashbacks, etc)
• Conflict
• Point of view
• Themes
• Editing

More information is available about these elements here...excellent guide from Yale
The following project from students in a Darwin high school is an engaging introductory snapshot of some of the many film elements that can be used. 

Teaching Film-Some basic tips and guidelines

Teaching film can be problematic because it needs to be approached with the same amount of rigour and preparation as any other text. Teachers need to have developed close knowledge and understanding about the medium itself before any study of a specific film is examined closely. There are many, many ppts available that outline the basics in terms of camera angles and shots and many other filmic techniques. I have found them to be in the main, to be so basic and poorly produced that they only skim the surface. They can however be useful in taking the best ideas and approaches from what you find and take the time to make your own rather than just go with something already done. Film study however is far more than being able to identify the ingredients in a generalised way. 


This is obvious when marking student responses to a film studied in class, even at the senior level, only to find that they virtually summarise the story and some obvious methods used to communicate this. 
Since I am working on a number of film texts at the moment, I think I will take this opportunity to examine some of the best strategies I have developed over the decades and give some of the excellent sites that are available for teaching film in depth. 

“As students view a film, we want them to pay special attention to those areas of the film we consider important and to draw conclusions from their experience with the film.  Only then does a passive viewer become active; for by thinking about the film’s content, the student is interacting with the film.”

  -Resch and Schnicker

Analysing film is as complex a process as used with any other text, and so it is important to be familiar with the meta-language of film. The layered building blocks  of examining the audio/visual and two dimensional equivalent to words, must be understood if we are to effectively 'read' a film. We might think that students are so familiar with film that details are already intuitively known, but I have found that cinematic representation codes must be understood by teachers as a pre-requisite for teaching film. The following diagram found many years ago that clearly outlines these codes. 

Narrative codes	The way in which the story is put together, and how the sequence you are analysing moves the story along.
Technical codes	How the images are put together - lighting, camera angles, shot composition, editing, any special effects
Representational codes	The thinking behind the images - how settings (location, colour), characters, costumes, props etc (the re-presentation of reality) create meaning
Audio codes	The way in which sound adds to the images through dialogue, music and sound effects.

That is enough of a rant today. I will give some more ideas and strategies for teaching film if people are interested. I must find that blogging is fun but only if you get some feedback to see how useful teachers find the information or ideas that are presented. As such, I would appreciate knowing what teachers would like to tap into for future blogs. 

Might just go and watch 'Road to Perdition' again in the next few days. Every viewing throws up something new and magical about the work of Sam Mendes. It is a wonderful film to use for senior film study in the Preliminary HSC course.

Barbara

English sites for the classroom

I am busy preparing this terms Teacher Training Workshops and so will just post another few  sites for English teachers to look over today. 
Term 2 Topics and Dates:

June

7th - Module B Advanced - speeches
14th-Module B Standard - 'Witness'
15th-Module B Standard - Wilfred Owen
21st-Module B Advanced-'Hamlet'
28th-Extension 1 Genre - Science Fiction


http://www.tta.edu.au/


Would also like to get some feedback about the ones you have found useful and how you have used them effectively in your classroom. 
Blogging can inform, arouse interest and promote two way communication with other teachers as well as be an effective tool in the classroom.


Some new sites to evaluate today include:

Embedr allows a video playlist to be created which can be embedded  with one embed code. This would be really useful when setting a series of videos for students to view and or assess for studying a film text such as 'The Boy in Striped Pygamas' when you might only certain scenes compared or contrasted. You could also highlight different filmic techniques or show the ways in which a cinematic style such as 'Film Noir' can be represented in different ways. Those who have reviewed Embedr indicate that it is fairly easy to use and is compatable with a ton of video-hosting sites, including TeacherTube and Edublogs TV .

Embedit.in this is another tool to use when you might be having trouble uploading files or things onto blog or websites as I was finding recently. It lets you upload any file or url address, and then create an embed code for it so it can be embedded.

Hipero describes itself as being “The easiest Free Website Builder ever!” I tend to prefer Weebly but this one is possibly easier to use. There are quite a few that are available to trial. Check out:

The Best Ways For Students Or Teachers To Create A Website.

Will find some other ones to upload for tomorrow.
Barbara