Your stories will be allocated to you on Thursday 25th October. Please read the following so that you are clear about your task.
Extended reading – Short Story Reading and Research project – 2 weeks
How will we be working?
You will work in pairs – to choose somebody to work with you need to be sure that you will both contribute and that you will enjoy working collaboratively.
Good communication with each other will be important – email addresses, texting or if you live close to each other.
You need to be able to trust each other, share the work and feel comfortable working together.
You will be allocated a short story, each of you will have your own copy. You may annotate your copy.
You will have to read the story and then discuss it as partners and decide how you will present your story to the rest of the class. There is guidance on how to prepare for this.
You will also have to research the author of the story and present some information to the class about the author – it may be hard to find the information about some lesser known authors.
Outcome of the task:
You will present your story and your research on the author to the rest of the class.
Your teachers will assess your READING of the story and your PRESENTATION skills as well as the evidence of your COLLABORATION.
The rest of the class will be asked to peer assess your presentation and to give feedback to you about how well you have succeeded in presenting the story and author information to them.
How will we go about preparing?
You will use the skills you have developed during our short story unit this half term to inform your presentation.
Reading the story (2/3 times) and annotating it as you read will be important.
Discuss with your partner the story, what you wish to highlight in your presentation and HOW.
A short summary of the story may be useful.
You should also decide when is the most appropriate point at which to include the author information.
Openings – how does it start?
Characters and setting.
What developments, twists or unexpected events caught your attention?
How does it end? OR do you want to encourage the audience to read the story for themselves?
Anything particular to the story that stands out?
What can the reader infer?
What can you read out to the class to show us how language is used in the story?
Did any part of the story cause you problems?
Did you have any questions you would like to ask the author?
How successful is the story? Would you recommend it to other readers?
Researching the author:
Who is the author?
Any dates relevant e.g. born/died/first published/won an award?
What type of writing is this person known for?
Any other work we should know about/read?
Anything important about the setting or time the story was written?
Do we have a picture or portrait of the author?
How can we present our work?
You can incorporate film, PowerPoint, drama, hand-outs, pictures anything that will help to engage the audience’s attention during your presentation.
You can use props to help illustrate the story.
You should aim to read some extracts to the audience (this need not be long) or you can act out a part of the story.
You presentation can be from 5 to 15 minutes long.
React!