Honors Narrative Writing

Outcomes and Aims For The 17/18 School Year

To appreciate the career trajectories and outcomes associated with competencies and capacities associted with narrative writing.   

To appreciate the linguistic, stylistic and formative differences between fictional narrative and nonfictional journalistic narratives.

To read and appreciate narrative accounts of major historical events.

To become more fully aware of the qualities of contemporary writers in journalism of narrative accounts of current events.

To be able to conduct independent research of a major historical milestone in China (or a country of your choosing), reference source material in APA format and compose an embellished docu-drama style narrative piece that outlines the manner in which chosen event unfolded as well as dialogic interactions between major players.

To appreciate segments of longer memoirs and relate elements of the lives of memoir writers to oneself in personally reflective compositions.

To master phases of the writing process as they relate to both fictional and nonfictional narrative writing forms.

To be able to use rich detail in narrative form to describe a major event of time period in Chinese history including the rein / death / conquest activities of major emperors, periods of historical transition such as the Mao years, reformations of Ding Xiao Ping, etc.

To be able to compose pieces of fictional narratives in order to improve skills in creating characters that are dynamic, sympathetic and exemplify the flawed nature of the human animal ; To furthermore be able to paint a detailed portrait of a fictional setting including  

Nonfictional narrative writing draws its influences from fiction, magazine journalism, memoir, and personal essays. Writers use many of the same tools as fiction writers, including scene shifts, dialogue, vivid description, character development, nonlinear structure, and shifts in tense, time and points of view

To explore and study the multicultural tradition of oral narratives which predate the written word exemplified in the Vedic stories of India and traditions of many cultures globally. 

To compose a written analysis of an oral narrative presented in class focusing on the more theatrical elements of narrative

To use ‘story elements from a hat’ activity to utilize teacher-prepared handouts to produce well-prepared oral narratives / storytelling on various themes and fictional events such as:

·       The landing of a mission / colonization of Mars and establishment of Martian human colony, government, culture and religion. This scenario shall be told from the omniscient perspective of a future leader of the Martian colony in the year 2100 reflecting on the first establishment of a colony and will require loads of creativity.

·       An elderly couple telling the story of their lives, major life events and birth of their first child.