Lesson 1

We will watch several Pixar videos to help us think about how we are storytellers and how we can conceive a story we want to tell. We will review the requirements and options for the final narrative writing task to determine which option we will pursue. Then we will identify the organization for our narrative and build a general storyboard. In writing pairs, we will present and discuss our initial ideas for our narrative and receive constructive feedback from our partners.

Lesson Goals

Am I ready to write my narrative?
Can I provide and utilize constructive peer feedback in the process of developing a narrative?

Texts

Core

- “What If” from “Pixar in a Box: The Art of Storytelling,” Pixar Animation Studios, Khan Academy, 2017
- “World and Character” from “Pixar in a Box: The Art of Storytelling,” Pixar Animation Studios, Khan Academy, 2017
- “Your Unique Perspective” from “Pixar in a Box: The Art of Storytelling,” Pixar Animation Studios, Khan Academy, 2017

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Telling Stories: Section 5 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – View

We will begin to write an original narrative by thinking about what type of story we will tell and how we will tell it. We will watch several PIxar videos to help us focus on the elements of our stories.

To start thinking about the story you are going to tell, watch and discuss three additional Pixar videos—"Your Unique Perspective," "What If," and "World and Character"—that build from those you have already viewed in the unit. Think about the stories you have to tell, and which one you might choose to tell for the Culminating Task.

Activity 2: Read – Write

We will determine what kind of narrative we want to write and begin to envision the story we want to tell.

Closely read and annotate the Culminating Task Checklist.

Think about the following planning questions:

What do the question and task expect you to think about and do?
What type of writing will you do? What choices or options do you have?
What do you need to think about and decide so you can be successful on the Culminating Task?

Determine what kind of narrative you want to write and begin to identify the major elements of the story: its setting, structure, main characters, plot events, use of dialogue and description, and general themes.

To support your initial planning, review your entries in your Learning Logs about story planning throughout the unit and the narratives you wrote for the Section 1-4 Diagnostics.

Activity 3: Write

We will develop our thinking by reconsidering the elements that make a good story.

Work with a partner to develop your thinking. Reconsider the unit’s Central Question: What makes a good story? Think about and discuss these related questions:

What have you learned and discovered about the elements of a good story during this unit?
Which stories have you most enjoyed reading in this unit? What about them appealed to you? How might you emulate them in writing your own story?
What have you learned from the Pixar animators about how to tell a story?
Who might your readers be? What kinds of experiences would you want them to have when reading your story? What might you want them to think about or feel?

Write down the thinking that emerges from your discussion in your Learning Log.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will determine which type of narrative we want to write, and how we want to build the story from personal experiences, imagination, or research.

Decide how you will build your story from your own experiences, your imagination, or your research.

Review the texts, notes, and tools you have worked with throughout the unit. Pay attention to what you have written down in your Learning Log after watching the Pixar videos. Then think about what option you will choose:

a personal narrative or memoir, such as Amy Tan’s or Barack Obama’s
an original story, such as any of the stories we read in Sections 2 and 3
a nonfiction narrative, such as Hampton Sides’s, about a historical event or person

Then, consider what you need to think about to tell the type of story you want to write.

Options 1 and 2

What events and characters from your own experiences might you use as part of your story?

Think about what Pete Docter and the other Pixar animators have said about the ways their own experiences go into their movies. Think about what you have learned about how writers write from personal experience.

Option 3

What events or people might you want to bring to life by telling their stories?
What have you learned about what happened?
What do you still need to learn about the event?
What imaginative touches will you need to add to bring the story to life?

Think about what Hampton Sides had to learn about and do to tell the stories of the three 9/11 survivors.

Discuss your story concepts with your editing partner and continue to plan what you want to write.

Activity 5: Write

We will plan the elements we will use to tell our stories.

Based on previous discussions, begin to plan the specifics of your story.

Think about the central elements of the narrative and how they will work together.

Setting: Where and when will your story take place? What sort of atmosphere will you try to develop?
Characters: Who will you include in your story? For each character, what will be their external and internal features? What will they want and need?
Narrative Point of View and Voice: Who will tell your story? A third- or first-person narrator? Will the narrator be omniscient (able to see inside the characters’ thoughts and feelings)? What perspective and voice will the narrator bring to the story?
Theme: What aspects of life or human experience will your story address? What will be the central ideas, themes, or morals of your story? Will your story be a parable or allegory with an obvious central theme, or will you leave it up to your reader to decide what the meaning of the story is?

In your Learning Log, write out your initial thoughts in response to these questions, in preparation for discussing them with a writing partner.