The grade 9 class has just started their KHS Reads: Short Story Edition assignment. The students were given the task to find their own short story to read, analyze, and write a synopsis for. They had to find their own short story in order to work in groups where they would share their synopsis and try to persuade their group members into believing that their short story is worthy of being read as a class.
Their assignment will have them discussing their short story and the stories that their peers have found. They will analyze each one and have a voting process that will eliminate group members’ short stories daily until there is only one story standing within the group. We have 5 groups within the class, so when each group finds their top story, that group will make a new synopsis to share with the entire class and the voting process will begin again! It’s a new and exciting unit that has the students taking ownership of “their” story. It’s a great way to have them share several different stories and themes in a short amount of time.
What does the winning short story and student receive, you ask? Pride, of course, and the feeling of ultimate domination!
The winning short story will provide a start to our overall short story unit. Last year's winning story was Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. From that, we had a class theme of "A guilty conscience can never be overridden" and we chose other short stories that coincided with that theme and surrounded our short story unit around that theme.
All in all, each student read at least 6 short stories (3 from their own group and 3 from our winning unit theme). That's a lot of reading and a lot of discussion!
One of the things I adore about this unit is that the students get to pick their stories, "fight" for their lives in their group, grasp an understanding of theme and discuss what it is about our winning short story that garnered enough attention to be crowned the best!
This assignment will take the greater part of two weeks and I will keep you updated on their progress!
I can't wait to hear your discussions and see who the big winner will be! Good luck, grade 9s!
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