Flash Fiction at Deer Lakes Middle School: Big Benefits from Little Stories by Tammy McQueen

Flash Fiction at Deer Lakes Middle School: Big Benefits from Little Stories

The WPCTE Flash Fiction Writing Contest is one of my favorite events of the year!  As a gifted/enrichment support teacher for students in grades K - 8, I appreciate that this event gives students of all ages the opportunity to experiment with this fascinating medium.  Students get to learn about a genre that is recognizable in its early forms (fables and parables) and relatable in its modern forms (Twitterature, dribble and drabble, sudden fiction).   

I work in tandem with our elementary and middle school literacy teachers, who have taught strong foundational writing skills. Students who would benefit from writing enrichment projects are made aware of the WPCTE contest. I teach a lesson or series of mini-lessons on flash fiction to individuals, small groups, or as a co-taught, push-in lesson in advanced literacy classes. The lesson includes a brief history of flash fiction, distinguishes flash fiction from short stories, shows some of the modern subgenres of flash fiction, presents the basic characteristics of flash, and features a few popular examples. As we dig deeply into this genre, the lesson emphasizes important elements of flash fiction: use of strong imagery, focus on one moment in time, work with one or two well-developed characters, write in the first person point of view, use the title to help tell the story, and incorporate the element of surprise through word play, plot twists, or unexpected outcomes (from Neil Gaiman’s Master Class on Flash Fiction). Whenever possible, I have students from the previous year’s contest share their work with the new participants.

Students begin their drafts in a Google doc, which they may share with me and/or their classroom literacy teacher. We use the “comments” feature to ask questions or offer suggestions. We are also available for one-on-one writing conferences to coach our young writers through the process. This digital and in-person contact gives our students the opportunity to  seek advice on character or plot development, learn about ways to sharpen word choice for more concise writing, and get tips for smoothing out the rough places with regards to the organization and structure. These coaching opportunities are also about affirming a student’s personal experiences, perspective, ideas, and interests. Throughout the project, students are encouraged to experiment with the genre, take risks with their writing, discover something new about themselves, and have fun with the project! I have observed that the idea of competing with other students creates a lot of enthusiasm and entices students to try their hardest, helping them to maximize their writing strengths and creativity.  DLMS Advanced Language Arts 7 teacher, Lisa Huerbin, who uses this flash fiction activity as a classroom assignment stated, “Written expression evolves when students are given the ability to engage in creative writing. I am always pleased with the writing of our students. It is always fun to read their ideas as they come alive on paper. Flash fiction writing is the perfect opportunity to allow our students to get their creative juices flowing."

Deer Lakes students and staff are always eager to hear from contest judges. The WPCTE Flash Fiction Awards Ceremony is an exciting event, and it gives our young writers the opportunity to celebrate self-expression through writing. We enjoy hearing stories written by students in other schools and have found the variety of ideas and quality of writing to be both impressive and inspiring. One of my young writers stated, “I enjoyed writing flash fiction because anything that comes to mind can happen. If you can think of it, it’s possible! That’s also what makes flash fiction writing fun to read!”

In fact, our enthusiastic young writers wanted MORE flash fiction! DLMS Advanced English Language Arts 8 teacher Charlena Welteroth and I pulled together our first annual Flash Fiction Festival just before Christmas break. We invited a Pittsburgh-based flash fiction writer to open the day with a peek into the writer’s process and to lead a flash writing activity.   Students visited writing stations with task cards (containing directions and examples) and relevant materials. Writing tasks ranged from the six-word story, to dribble/drabble, to twitterature, pocket fiction, postcard fiction, and more! We hope to publish an in-house anthology of work produced by the nearly 75 student participants.  

Here, at Deer Lakes, flash fiction has proven to be a popular form of writing. Not only is flash fiction an engaging genre to write and share, it will stretch student creativity and strengthen important writing skills.  

Tammy McQueen is the K - 8 Gifted & Enrichment Support teacher at Deer Lakes School District. She enjoys creating and facilitating experiential and project based learning experiences for students. In her free time, Ms. McQueen loves sharing stories and creating memories with her six young grandchildren.   

Time to Tell Their Stories - On a Stage! by Carol Frow

Time to Tell Their Stories - On a Stage! by Carol Frow

Once a week my advanced English 8 classroom learns from a voice other than my own and embarks on a new journey in creativity.  For five years now after the Christmas break, a teaching artist from City Theater has become a weekly instructor helping my students learn how to write plays; this great endeavor occurs because of a partnership through City Theater in Pittsburgh for the Young Playwright’s Program (YP) and the Young Playwright’s Festival (YPF). 

Several years ago, I attended the English Education Collaborative (EEC) Conference at California University of PA and was introduced to YP.  Intrigued, I followed up with the education director at the time.  The program had not yet extended into Westmoreland Country where I teach, but as funding continued for it, I became the first Westmoreland educator.  Knowing that budgets were tight, I explained that I couldn’t pay for any complex program and was assured that grant funding was available if I would commit to a series of professional development activities.  

First, I attended a day of training to learn the ins and outs of theater games and the process of playwriting.  I was then assigned a teaching artist who has tremendous professional experience in theater.  (One artist was a professional playwright, one an actor who had also taught playwriting, and one now who runs playwriting classes for young people!) These people are experts and so incredibly wonderful with my students! My teaching artist and I would meet through text or phone to plan our meeting schedule, but the teaching was all in their hands. To “earn” my grant funding, I then had to attend four City Theater shows and the pre-show training where we would meet with those shows’ directors, costume designers, writers, etc.  How “terrible” to have to see incredible performers and learn so much about the inner workings of theater!  For someone who directs plays and musicals in her own district, this was fantastic professional development!

My students have an even better experience with YP.  Their teaching artist gets them thinking about possible play topics and then reinforces so many skills required by PA Standards such as story structure and characterization.  The students draft and then learn to give constructive feedback while sharing their scripts aloud in class.  The teaching artist also reads and responds to all of the play scripts so that by the contest deadline, students can be ready to submit their work.  Yet another exciting aspect of YPF continues as those plays are judged by professional playwrights and dramaturgs.

Once students develop a one act and send it into City Theatre, they get written feedback from judges and potentially get selected for the Young Playwright’s Festival. Contest winners, three from middle school and three from high school,  will work with a dramaturg in the summer to perfect the playwriting.   In the fall, the winners will then be included in the casting of the play with professional actors and see the show develop as it is directed by a professional.  The festival’s winners are produced for the public including the students who will be a part of the program in that school year!  What an experience for young writers!

My students have been so enriched through this wonderful program. They have gained confidence in writing, have learned to get and receive feedback, and have balanced developing a long-term project while maintaining other regular classwork.  I love seeing their pride in the development of their final pieces.  It makes a writing teacher’s heart swell with joy!

If you have interest in learning more about the Young Playwwright’s Program and Festival, please contact its education director, Mrs. Katie Trupiano. (ktrupiano@citytheatrecompany.org.)   Additional information can also be found on the City Theater’s website at: 

https://citytheatrecompany.org/education/ypc/

Carol Frow, the president of WPCTE, is a seventh and eighth grade ELA teacher at Belle Vernon Area Middle School.  There she is the yearbook sponsor, coach for reading contests such as WPCTE’s English Festival, literary magazine sponsor, and the director of both a fall play and spring musical.

2022 MG/YA Book Recommendations Month-by-Month (Part 1) by Lesley Roessing

2022 MG/YA Book Recommendations Month-by-Month (Part 1)

by Lesley Roessing

When invited to write a blog about MG/YA books that I may recommend to read through the year, I immediately thought about suggesting books to read in book clubs, 5-6 recently-published novels/memoirs of different reading and interest levels, featuring culturally diverse authors or characters and settings, written in a variety of formats—prose, verse, graphic, or multi-formatted. Even though in my own classroom I taught a gradual-release-of-responsibility model, employing one whole-class novel, then a few book club novels, scaffolding to self-selected choice novels, I strongly advocate for book clubs whenever possible.

BOOK CLUBS offer countless advantages:

• social

• supportive—readers can read more complex text with support of peers

• deeper discussions—with more participation and multiple perspectives and a safe space for those important conversations

• collaboration—to learn and practice social skills necessary in the real world

• increased reading and employment of skills–-reading required to participate

• motivation to read—to participate in club discussions and activities; peer pressure

• a way to meet listening and speaking standards

• differentiation—class can read at multiple reading levels; students can read at individual reading and interest levels

• choice—students can choose books of interest = motivation

• provide a small safe community to discuss sensitive issues

• a class can read multiple formats at the same time: prose, verse novels, graphic novels, or multiple topics/titles within a genre or format

• readers learn about 4-5 other novels; after-reading Book Club presentations introduce books to entire class

Therefore, I will suggest 4-6 novels for each month that can be combined for class book club selections or employed as whole-class or independent, self-selected reading choices. Summaries of these novels are available on Goodreads, and my review of many are available on my Goodreads account (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/46246977-lesley) or my Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/lesley.roessing) under #TalkingTexts.

For strategies for planning, organizing, facilitating, teaching discussion practices and literacy lessons, and assessing book clubs and for more suggestions for reading books based on common topics, genres, formats, characters, settings, and authors, as well as other types of text clubs, such as Memoir Clubs, Nonfiction Clubs, Short Story Clubs, Article Clubs, Poetry Clubs, and Textbook Clubs, see Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs Across the Curriculum (2019), a WPCTE Book Club selection in October 2020.

*  *  *

JANUARY: Family Month The beginning of the new year when students are headed back to school after time spent with all different types of families would be an effective time to read and talk about the many types of families.

Some novels I would suggest for Middle Grades: 

• K.A. Holt’s verse novel* House Arrest 

• Lynda Mullay Hunt’s One for the Murphys 

• Before the Ever After, a verse novel* by Jacqueline Woodson

• Another novel-in-verse*, A.L. Sonnichsen’s Red Butterfly

• Two Naomis  (and the sequel Naomis Too) by Olugbenisola Rhuday-Perkovich 

• The Dollar Kids by Jenifer Richard Jacobsen

Some novels I would suggest for High School:

• Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway, winner of the  2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

• Natasha Friend’s The Other F Word (F for Family)

• One,  a verse novel* written by Sarah Crossan

• Clap When You Land, a verse novel* by Elizabeth Acevedo

• Skyscraping, a verse novel* by Cordelia Jensen

FEBRUARY: In honor of Black History Month

Some novels/memoirs I would suggest for Middle Grades: 

• Jewell Parker Rhodes’ Ghost Boys

• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a memoir written by Ishmael Beah

• Unbound, a historical fiction in verse* by Ann E. Burg

• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

• The Long Ride by Marina Budhos

Some novels/memoirs I would recommend for High School:

• X, written by Malcom X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon 

• American Ace,  a novel in verse* by poet Marilyn Nelson

• Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane’s memoir

• Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina, Michaela DePrince’s memoir

• Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March, a memoir by Lynda Blackmon Lowery

• Loving vs Virginia, a verse* documentary by Patricia Hruby Powell 

FEBRUARY: In honor of the NCTE National African American Read-In

Some novels I would suggest for Middle Grade readers:

• Jewell Parker Rhodes’ Black Brother Black Brother

• Full Cicada Moon, a verse novel* by Marilyn Hilton

• The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon

• A Comb of Wishes by Lisa Stringfellow 

• Blended by Sharon M. Draper 

• Nic Stone’s newest novel, Fast Pitch

Some novels I would suggest for High School:

• All American Boys written from two perspectives by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

• The Skin I’m In and The Life I’m In, two novels by Sharon Flake

• Tiffany Jackson’s provocative novel Allegedly

• How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

• Kwame Alexander’s free verse* Solo

MARCH: Women’s History Month:

Some novels I would suggest for Middle Grades about actual historic events, but featuring fictitious characters: 

• Words on Fire by Jennifer Nielsen

• A Night Divided also by Jennifer Nielsen

• Ann E. Burg’s verse novel* Unbound

• Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

• The Last Cherry Blossom, written by Kathleen Burkinshaw and based on her mother’s life 

Some novels about actual women in history I would recommend for High School:

• Loving vs Virginia, written in verse* by Patricia Hruby

• Audacity another free verse* text by Melanie Crowder

• Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, a memoir by Lynda Blackmon Lowery

• Rima’s Rebellion: Courage in a Time of Tyranny also a verse novel* by Margarita Engle, a Cuban-American author and 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate 

• Margarita Engle’s The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist

MARCH 2: Read Across America Day

Suggestion 1: School librarians or classroom ELA teachers could set up a United States wall map, and students could place tacks or pins at the site of the setting(s) of novels they have finished reading, either the last novel they read or the novels they read from March 2 to the end of the year. World Lit teachers could display a world map with the same assignment.

Suggestion 2: Book Clubs: Each Book Club across the grade level could read a novel that takes place in a different state, or within a class, each Book Club could read a novel from a different section of the country: Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Central. Book Clubs could present their book and how it reflects the part of the country in which it takes place. Some examples might be 

• Northwest—The Honest Truth (Washington) by Dan Gemeinhart

• Southwest—Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen (Texas) by Niki Lenz

• Northeast—A Home for Goddesses and Dogs (Connecticut) by Leslie Conner 

• Southeast—The Paris Project (Florida) by Donna Gephart 

• Central—Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe (Mississippi) by Jo Hackl

APRIL: National Poetry Month: Books in Verse

Verse novels are novels written in free verse; in other types of verse, such as Nikki Grimes’ Garvey’s Choice written in tanka; or in variety of verse types, as in Laura Shovan The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. Novels-in-verse can be multi-formatted, employing a fusion of different types of verse, prose, and graphics. In some verse novels, there are two narrators, one writing in verse and one in prose, in some cases written by two co-authors; some verse novels offer multiple narrators and perspectives. 

Novel-in-verse is a text format which engages readers for divergent reasons. Reluctant readers, emerging readers, and ELL readers particularly appreciate the less-dense text while proficient readers value their lyricism and creative structures, the words, the spacing—sometimes creatively designed.

Verse “novels” are published in a variety of genres, i.e., memoir, biography, historical fiction, and all other types of fiction, and written at a range of reading levels. These novels are available by culturally-diverse authors on diverse topics, featuring diverse characters and settings. Verse texts lend themselves to lessons for teaching poetic elements and devices and can be employed as mentor texts for writing poetry or poetically.
 
*Some verse novels are included in the previous and subsequent months’ listings and over 100 are reviewed in http://www.yawednesday.com/weekly-posts/verse-novels-to-engage-readers-an-update-on-20-new-novels-in-verse-by-lesley-roessing and the previous guest-blogs which are linked within.

Some novels-in-verse I would suggest for Middle Grades: 

• Above the Rim, as well as all other Jen F, Bryant verse biographies and novels for both MG and YA readers

• Starfish by Lisa Fipps

• Three Pennies by Melanie Crowder

• House Arrest and other novels by K.A. Holt

• Crossover, Rebound, and Booked by Kwame Alexander

Some YA verse novels I would suggest for High School:

• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

• Junk Boy by Tony Abbott

• The Poet X, as well as other novels by Elizabeth Acevedo

• White Rose, a historical fiction verse novel by Kip Wilson

• Saving Red and other novels by Sonya Sones

• Up from the Sea by Leza Lowitz

MAY: Asian Pacific American Heritage and Jewish American Heritage Month

Some novels I would suggest with characters of Asian Pacific American heritage for Middle Grade readers:

• Front Desk and its sequel, Three Keys by Kelly Yang

• The Called Us Enemy,  a graphic novel by George Takei

• The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman

• Into the Tiger’s Mouth, a verse novel, by Holly Thompson

• When You Trap a Tiger, winner of the 2021 Newbery Award, written by Tae Keller

Some novels with Asian Pacific American heritage I would suggest for High School readers:

• Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

• Up from the Sea, a verse novel by Leza Lowitz

• American Born Chinese,  a graphic novel written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang

• Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed

• You Bring the Distant Near written by Mitali Perkins

Some Middle Grade novels that include Jewish customs, holidays, and traditions, a few which also include characters of Asian or Pacific American heritage*:

• Falling Over Sideways by Jordan Sonnenblick 

• *A Place at the Table by Laura Shovan and Saadia Faruqi 

• Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen by Sarah Kapit

• *The Magical Imperfect by Chris Baron 

• *Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang

• *My Basmati Bat Mitzvah written by Paula J. Freedman

• Coming of Age: 13 B’nai Mitzvah Stories, edited by Jonathan Rosen and Henry Herz

JUNE: LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Some novels I would suggest for Middle Grade readers are:

• Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

• Drama, a graphic novel, by Raina Telgemeier

• Greg Howard’s Middle School’s a Drag

• Flight of the Puffin, a multi-formatted novel by Anne Braden

• Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky

• Trowbridge Road by Marcella Pixley

Some novels I would suggest for High School readers are:

• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

• Honor Girl, a graphic memoir by Maggie Thrash

• The Bridge written by Bill Konigsberg

• October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard written in multi-formatted verse by Leslea Newman

• Skyscraping a verse novel* by Cordelia Jensen

Later this year, I will blog about MG/YA suggestions for July-December 2022.

* * *

A middle school and high school teacher for twenty years, Lesley Roessing was the Founding Director of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project at Georgia Southern University (formerly Armstrong State University) where she was also a Senior Lecturer in the College of Education. In 2018-19 she served as a Literacy Consultant with a K-8 school. Lesley served as past editor of Connections, the award-winning journal of the Georgia Council of Teachers of English. As a columnist for AMLE Magazine, she shared before, during, and after-reading response strategies across the curriculum through ten “Writing to Learn” columns. She now works independently, writing, providing professional development in literacy to schools, and visiting classrooms to facilitate reading and writing lessons. Lesley is the author of

• Bridging the Gap: Reading Critically & Writing Meaningfully to Get to the Core 

• Comma Quest: The Rules They Followed. The Sentences They Saved 

• No More “Us” & “Them: Classroom Lessons and Activities to Promote Peer Respect 

• The Write to Read: Response Journals That Increase Comprehension

• Talking Texts: A Teachers’ Guide to Book Clubs across the Curriculum

• and has contributed chapters to

• Young Adult Literature in a Digital World: Textual Engagement though Visual Literacy

• Queer Adolescent Literature as a Complement to the English Language Arts Curriculum

• Story Frames for Teaching Literacy: Enhancing Student Learning through the Power of Storytelling

• ​Fostering Mental Health Literacy through Adolescent Literature

Lesley can be contacted at lesleyroessing@gmail.com.