Writing historical fiction gives the writer a sense of real, live people living in history
Description
In this lesson, students will choose some period of history and write a fictional short story. Remember, the historical facts need to be true.
Goals
Students will learn:
* About historical fiction stories
* How to write a historical fiction story
I. Historical Fiction stories are short stories that are fiction (made up), but some of the elements are true.
For example, you could write a story about pilgrims. The writer would discuss the true elements about the pilgrims, but the characters are fictional and the other plot elements are fictional.
II. Students will keep a research notebook and formulate a BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE as they collect their notes. **Please indicate page numbers in your notebooks.
III. Topics:
-You MUST select a SPECIFIC DATE WITH A SPECIFIC EVENT IN HISTORY
-Your plot will formulate around this time period.
ALL AREAS BELOW (SECTIONS A AND B) MUST BE INCLUDED IN YOUR RESEARCH NOTEBOOK. It will give you a better understanding of the time period. However, the items in section A MUST appear in your story.
A. In your story, you must reference the following:
-The economy of the time
-Transportation
-Cooking / food popular to the region and date
-Cost of household necessities
-Fashion - Indicate the characters clothing
-Entertainment: popular music, books, magazines, plays, or movies
-Social rules and customs/ cultural traditions
-Contemporary slang and other language etiquette
B. Required Research- BUT optional items that may be included in your paper
Form of government
famous "firsts" of that year
A Person or people who lived and were famous for positive achievements during the research year
House and furniture design
Hairstyles
Occupations and salaries
IV. Pre-Writing (Must be handed in with your final draft)
1. Indicate your time period/ date
2. Indicate your setting (Location)
3. Indicate your characters
4. Write the basic concept for your story
5. Indicate problems to be encountered by the main characters. How will they solve the dilemma?
EX:
an important decision needs to be made
a secret needs to be confessed to someone else
a person's pride has been injured
a death has occurred someone has found or lost something
someone has accused someone else of doing something wrong
reminiscing on how things have changed
someone feels like giving up
something embarrassing has just happened
someone has just reached an important goal
Extra Resources:
On the History Channel's This Day in History, students can type in their year or even a decade and find lots of good information to choose from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
Due Dates:
The research portion of this assignment is due by January 16. (It might be wise not to waste any time in the library)
You will have a rough draft prepared for peer editing on January 23.
Your final draft will be due January 30.
