ENC 3254: Writing in Elementary Education
Major Class Links

Course Syllabus

Course Assignments

Course Schedule

Class Gradebook

Website Helps

Main Homepage

Story Assignment:


In the main I have found students divided into two groups -- those who want to learn largely by experimentation and their own efforts, who are willings to try and try again, even if they fail, or knowing they will fail; and those others who want specific direction, who would have a definite rule-of-thumb to go by. For the latter, if they remain rule-of-thumb persons, I have little to give. I think they will be able to tell storis but I doubt if they will be true storytellers.

--Ruth Sawyer, The Way of the Storyteller (25-26)


Try for this assignment to not be a rule-of-thumb person as the above quote states. But instead, use your creativity, experiment and just have fun relating a story about children's culture and/or literature.

But, for a little more direction, here is a way to frame the assignment that might be applicable to later in your teaching career:
Your principal asks you to prepare a three minute speech for a PTA meeting about any aspect of children's culture that you find interesting. Your goal is to present an informative and entertaining look at one slice of life dealing with children's culture directed at adults (other teachers, parents, and general adults interested in children). Your principal gives you complete leeway on the topic and just tells you to pick something that you find interesting that you think the PTA members would also enjoy hearing about. For exmples, look at Recess!, a radio program on NPR dedicated to making adults aware of aspects of children's culture (http://www.recess.ufl.edu/).

Paper formatting helps
First page sample page in MLA

Length: three minutes (about three paged double spaced)
Style: MLA

Assignment Objectives:

* Students will learn to address a particular audience in a specific situation.

* Students will generate good writing using specific methods of inventing and elaborating ideas, for arranging these ideas to achieve a specific rhetorical purpose, for producing good style, for revising, and for editing.

* Students will demonstrate conciseness and presenting information under time constraints.

* Students will demonstrate storytelling skills and the ability to convey information in an oral format.

* Students will learn to take an open ended assignment and narrow it down by personal preference.