The focus this year has been on writing creative stories that both excite and exercise the imagination. I took a process writing approach, starting from scratch, guiding my students through the development of themes, plots, characters, settings, and even illustrations. The objective was to get my students first to appreciate and understand the elements that comprise a story, and then to apply these elements masterfully in their own writing.

Honestly, there are many students who can incorporate story elements successfully into their own works, but fewer can incorporate all of them well; it indeed isn't easy to develop a complete and thorough work of fiction because quality is determined less by writing than by cogent, eloquent thinking; and it's hard for students to consider and be aware of all of the content and language elements at the same time when penning their stories. While focusing on one element, another - let's say underlining grammar items; or using the past tense consistently - suffers.

Still, the students have made discernible progress this year in at least becoming familiar with the process of writing, including the planning and editing stages. Next year, having already developed an acumen for teaching creative fiction, I would like to focus more on the teaching of non-fiction, analytical writing.

Themes

Objective One
Students will be able to induce a theme, based on examples in a story. Students will also be able to draw a conclusion regarding the theme's use in the story.

Task One
To introduce what a theme is, my class read a short story, "The Ugly Duckling," which provides several easily discernible themes. In class, we discussed the notion of "big ideas," those important abstract words (something you can't actually see, but you can see examples of) which cover a story like a blanket, and whose presence is defined by many examples in the story. We determined together that bullying was a theme in the Ugly Duckling, and as a class we enumerated the examples of what characters said or did in relation to bullying.

Assignment One
For homework students, determined another theme and listed the supporting details.

Brenda's response:
I think the other theme in this story is discrimination. In the story, the ducklings said "He is ugly""We don"t want to play with him." This two sentences tell us they - the ducklings is discrimination the ugly duckling. We have many people in this world are always discrimination other. We should care about other people feeling.

Belo's response:
I think another idea in the story Ugly Ducking is courage, because the ugly duck briefly started an adventure to escape other creatures’ teased and the chilly wind and the cold weather, and at the last, it became a beautiful white swan and won appreciates from others. It was brief. So, Ugly Ducking tells us the idea courage.

Wenda's response:
I think another idea is the duckling although have been bullied but it have confidence to be more friendly to them and do not bully them or saying some bad things to them.

Assignment Two
After working individually with themes, students then worked in groups to decide on a theme to present to the class. Examples include discrimination, love, and hardship. Each group made a poster detailing the theme, and its examples, as well as a conclusion, something that can be learned from this story's theme.



Task Two
We continued to work with themes, this time with a markedly different type of story. The story, in fact, was the basis for a music video - Jeremy.



I wanted to provide students with a story whose themes were different from those in the Ugly Duckling. After watching the video, my class recalled those words and images that flashed across the screen, and in our minds, and from those concepts, we derived themes from Jeremy.

Students were also given the lyrics; they could be used in cloze-form.


Objective Two
Students will be able to empathize with characters; students will be able to write a letter in a particular tone reflecting their chosen character and audience.

Task Three
To add a new twist to our thematic writing for the Jeremy video, students imagined themselves as characters in the story writing to other characters. The objective was to empathize with characters - to be in their shoes - and to write text which encompasses a theme; moreover, students had to include a specific grammar item - a "too" statement - in their writing.



Task Three Feedback
The students have had much experience in writing letters and therefore were familiar with its format. However, there were language difficulties, related to parts of speech of frequently used words in this content area, which I have enumerated:

• A bully is someone who bullies others; bullies bully others; those poor people are bullied. Bully is a noun and a verb; bullied is an adjective.
• Revenge is a noun. People can take revenge on each other. Revenge is usually not used as a verb.
• Lovelessness is more or less a pretend word, while helplessness is a word. Loneliness perhaps is a better word to use than lovelessness; they more or less mean the same thing. Lonely, loveless and helpless are adjectives, and we can use them to describe Jeremy!

The students wrote outstanding letters that shocked and frightened. In response to the creative, yet potentially incendiary nature of the texts, I wrote the following reflection for my students:

The amusing yet incendiary letters that my form one students are writing after having viewed the video, Jeremy, will be kept inside the classroom for those who understand the letters' context to enjoy. For our creative writing project, we have been discussing themes. We had just finished reading the Ugly Duckling, one of whose themes is bullying, when we tackled another story, in musical form, which also addresses this issue but in a markedly different way! Jeremy certainly responds to adversity in a manner which shocks, as his classmates unfortunately discovered at the end of the video. To capture the different, depressing thematic elements in this tale, the students imagined themselves as characters in Jeremy, writing letters to other characters in the story. The letters had to use one of Jeremy's themes. The revenge letters were intense, and scary. I'm not sure if I could have taught this lesson in America because whereas this is an intense fantasy for my Hong Kong students, in America writing murderous prose is indeed a frightening reality. The principal, supportive of my teaching projects, did strongly suggest that I cool the kids off when all of this exploring of literature has been completed. Tragedy in the acting world has made the recent headlines, but reading, too, involves immersing oneself in another world of which it can be difficult sometimes to find one's way out. So, my form two kids won't become too lost in the world of Dragonwings, I hope; and my form one kids won't be leading a morbid, Gothic lifestyle if I can help it.

Assignment Two
You will write a story soon. We will work on it together. Before you write, of course you will need to plan. So, choose a theme, any theme that you can possibly imagine. But make sure you want to write about that theme because it will become yours! As a reminder, if we haven't covered it enough already in class, a theme is an abstract (invisible) noun. It is an idea that we can't touch, but of which we can see examples. Simply write the theme of your story in your blog. This should take less than 20 minutes.

Brenda's Response:
I will write a theme is bullying. Also I will use helpless to describe Jeremy. I will talk about why Jeremy be bullying, how the classmates bullyed him, and what do Jeremy feels. I think Jeremy feels helpless.

Belo's Response:
I'll write a story soon, so I think I'll write the theme lovelessness in my story. I will write this because I want to write a letter from the Jeremy's father to Jeremy of lovelessness. I think the father should have the responsibility of to teach his child. I want to teach my child(Jeremy) to be good. So, I'll write about lovelessness in my next letter.

Wenda's Response:
I think another idea is the duckling although have been bullied but it have confidence to be more friendly to them and do not bully them or saying some bad things to them.

Plot Summary

Objectives
Students will understand the five parts to a plot; students will be able to sequence events, to place them correctly within a plot; students will be able to determine a climax based on other events in the plot.

Task One
After exploring themes, my class began dissecting a story's plot structure beginning with the most important part, the climax, which is the high point in a story where there is the greatest confluence of problems and characters - the problem in the story has already been further developed and from this point now needs to transition, either swiftly or slowly, towards the resolution. To help students to understand what a climax should be, my class watched a music video based on a short story whose climax, conveniently, had been left out. Moreover, the video was shot in a pulp fiction style with the plot rearranged, and out of order.

Students watched the video and filled in the plot diagram. They were also given the lyrics of the song.



Assignment One
Students came together in groups to write a climax for the video, "November Rain."



Task Two

Having become familiar with the skill of rearranging plots and filling in plot holes, I added another video - the second part of the "November Rain" story entitled, "Don't Cry" - which further builds on the story shown in the first music video. With two videos full of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution, albeit in an unintelligible sequence, the students then had a writing assignment to put all of the pieces in order in a five paragraph summary. They summarized the story of Axl, Slash and Stephanie according to the aforesaid five stages of a plot.

Moreover, in building greater language awareness, their writing in their blogs had to include grammar items: a "too" statement; one contrasting ideas adverb or conjunction; and one cause/effect conjunction.

The students were given the lyrics of the song.

Assignment Two
Write five paragraphs summarizing what happens in the story of Axl, Stephanie and Slash. You are not writing the scenes; simply describe what you think happens in the five stages of a plot - exposition; rising action; climax; falling action; resolution.

In your summary, please include at least one "too" statement, one contrasting ideas adverb or conjunction (but, however, despite, in spite of, although, though), and one cause/effect conjunction (because, since, as). Each time you use one of these grammar items, underline it!

This will count as a composition. The aforesaid grammar items will count towards the language component, and the rich, creative ideas and descriptions you present will be a part of your content mark, of course.

Brenda's Response:
Exposition

Axl and Stephanie met in the Rainbow Bar. Axl, Stephanie and their friends were smoking,drinking. However, Axl and Stephanie were kissing. they felt that they likes each other too much, so they got married.

Rising action

Axl and Stephanie got married in the church. Unfortunately Axl forgot to bring their ring, however, a boy name Slash borrowed a pair of beautiful ring to Axl. Althogh they got married, but Stephine still felt upset because Axl forgot to bring their ring. Slash was too angry, so he bought a gun at a gun shop. At the wedding party, it had a heavy rain. All the people were hided under the table or ran in to the house. A man destroyed the wedding cake when he was running. At this moment, Stephanie felt she did not love Axl anymore. However, Stephanie got crazy.

Climax

After a week, Axl went to the Rainbow Bar and play piano with a beauitful lady. Suddenly, Stenphanie came into the Rainbow bar and fight with that lady. Slash knew Axl play piano with a lady, and he was too angry about this. This was all because he was love Stephanie for 10 years.
So Slash drove that lady to die. Axl knew that lady was die, he went to found Slash. Axl asked Slash why he went to kill that girl. Slash said that was all because he loved Stephanie very much. Slash took out his gun, and pointed it to Axl head and then fire. But die in front of Slash not is Axl , is Stephanie.

Falling action

Axl felt very sad of his wife death, so he went to see a doctor. But it does not work, so he went to buy a gun.

Resolution

Then, he walked on the snow. And killed himself.

Belo's Response:
Exposition: Axl met a woman at the rainbow bar with their friends including Slash. They were smoking, drinking and kissing. Suddenly, Stephanie came in. She loved Axl very much. She hit the woman and went away.

Rising action: Axl and Stephanie wrestled over a gun about should or shouldn’t kill that woman who hit Stephanie. When they were fighting, they kissed accidently And Stephanie wanted to marry with Axl. Axl agreed. Besides, Slash loved Stephanie and he also wanted to kill the woman. So he drove car with the woman over a cliff but he jumped out of the car before it crashed. The woman was dead. Axl knew that and wanted to kill Slash because he wanted to kill that woman by himself!

Climax: Axl and Stephanie married in a church. They wanted to exchange rings but Stephanie forgot to bring her ring, so they used Slash’s ring instead. That made Axl angrier with Slash. After they finished the kissing part, they went to the wedding party by car. They and their family members and friends played happily in that party. Suddenly, it started to rain. Everybody ran away. There were only three people under the rain. They were Axl, Stephanie and Slash. Then, Axl took out a gun which he bought in a gun shop at night before that day. He wanted to kill Slash. He pressed the trigger. Although he wanted to kill Slash, he was too stupid for targeting Slash. Finally he killed Stephanie who stood near Slash!

Falling action: After Stephanie was buried, Axl talked to his social worker about that he couldn’t sleep at the night anymore. She told him to take drugs. But every night when he went to sleep, he was tossing in bed and woke up screaming because he couldn’t forget that he had killed Stephanie and made her die. Resolution: Ten years later, Axl walked in snow with a bottle of wine and a gun to his wife, Stephanie’s grave.
Wenda's Response:
1. Axl, Stephanie and other friends knew in the rainbow bar. They smoked and kissed in it. Then Axl and Stephanie married.

2. At the wedding, so many people have came. However, Axl gorgot to bring the rings. Suddenly, someone gave them the rings but at the moment, Slash went to a gun shop.

3. When the people are enjoying the wedding, the rain has been falling down but the rain is too heavily. Therefore the people ran very fast.

4. Stephanie was died.

5. Axl can not sleep well and he was too scared everywhere.

Assignment Two Feedback
What is the most important event in the story? Obviously, for many of you, it was the murder or suicide, of Stephanie; then, why was this event placed in the falling action or the end of many of your stories? This is the high point of the story, the climax! Everything that builds towards her death should be a part of the rising action; everything that happens after the event, no matter how small, can be the falling action.

We need to use the past tense when telling stories; read your tenses when checking your work.

You guys have used adverbs and conjunctions of contrast and reason quite well. The use of "too" too was superb.

Assignment Three

We finished studying plot summaries by reforming groups to write a collaborative plot summary of the "November Rain" story.

Assignment Three Feedback
I posted their marks and individual group feedback together. These were my overall comments:

The content and plotting of the story summary has improved for every group; there was less confusion about characters' actions in the story and the climax indeed was the high point in the summaries, where there was much fitting murder and mayhem.

Students who didn't underline their grammar items were punished severely; I made it a point to reiterate the need to highlight these words and those groups who responded were rewarded handsomely. In general, the conjunctions and adverbs were, by far, the easiest to use naturally in the writing; the "enough" statements, surprisingly, were better constructed than the "too" statements as students, I suspect, have already forgotten the formula: too + adjective or adverb + (for + what +) to what. About half of the class used relative pronouns correctly, which means we'll have to continue to work on combining clauses together; using adjective and noun suffixes, too, will be on our agenda since there were very few instances of people using those suffixes well, if at all.

Setting, Point of View and Characters

Objectives
Students will understand the benefits and drawbacks of first-person and third-person perspectives; students will develop a thorough understanding of their characters, and the dynamic between characters.

Task One
Our class briefly covered different points of view, covering the benefits and drawbacks of each; moreover, we reviewed the importance of establishing a good setting for a story.

Assignment One
Each student studied character development by mapping characters, every character, in fact, that would be included in their story. It was important that students had an extensive understanding of all their characters.

The Short Stories

Objectives
Students will be able to write a text of at least 150 words that demonstrates mastery of either characters, plot, or theme. Students will be able to incorporate grammar items proficiently into their work.

Assignment One
The culmination of our form one creative writing module was indeed the students' short stories of which there were many exemplars. But before the students began writing their first drafts, they outlined their stories. They mapped everything: point of view; theme; characters; the problem; setting; and plot.

In addition, their first drafts should have included a number of specific examples of their chosen themes, as well as a variety of past tense verbs. Students wrote eight grammar items into their stories:

• too... statement
• ...enough statement
• because/since/as conjunctions
• however/despite/but adverbs and conjunctions
• noun suffix
• adjective suffix
• adverb suffix
• relative pronoun

Assignment One Feedback
For the form two students, I reviewed their outlines and provided feedback for each group.

Assignment Two
First drafts of short stories were peer reviewed using a standardized assessment sheet, similar to that used in their final assessment of their stories.

Assignment Three
Two form one students wrote excellent stories that will be published in the school magazine.





Assignment Three Feedback
During the writing process, students provided each other with individual feedback using a peer assessment form; I, too, have used that form when delivering my individual feedback for their writing.



In general, I read the students' stories, and while there were many exemplars, many students too, it appeared, could not be bothered to plan thoroughly, and when it came to applying their plan, there were still misunderstandings about the climax and the problem, both of which we spent much time on in class. These were my comments:

I've been marking your stories - those of you who have given me a second draft, that is; otherwise, you received a zero; there were many students, too, who failed to supply much coherent planning.

The grading is quite simple: your grammar mark depended on how many grammar items you used correctly of the eight that were required in your paper; and of course they had to be underlined; I didn't pay any attention to any other language usage in the composition, though perhaps I should have given the severe abuse of the English language in some of your stories. Some of you guys have forgotten that sentences end with periods, not commas. Moreover, many students, despite my exhortations in class, disregarded the past tense in their stories.

I awarded top content marks to those stories which had a plot that included a problem and a climax. I truly was surprised to read the number of stories about nothing: there was no problem, at least from my point of view; and the problem never reached an appropriate head where one could confidently say, "Wow, this is the most important part of the story." We had a few exemplary stories that will be shared, I think, sometime next week.

Illustrations

Objectives
Students will analyze four-panel comic strips for similarities, including the introduction of a punchline. Students will also be able to develop drawings - storyboards - to accompany their stories; or they will be able to draw a four-panel comic that delivers a punchline.

Task One
A final addition to the short stories, at least for my form two students, was the inclusion of illustrations, comic-book style. Using a deductive approach, we analyzed comic strips in the South China Morning Post to determine similarities in format and in the delivery of punchlines.

Assignment One
Each student was responsible for developing four panels, so each group had to deliver at least 16 panels that, if they chose, could be related to their story.

SCAMPER

Introduction
A thinking technique that I have been utilizing frequently in class is called SCAMPER, an acronym which stands for:

Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify
Put to other use
Eliminate
Rearrange

It's a terrific way to stretch the mind on any topic, whether fiction or non-fiction, to foster creativity; in fact, not all elements need to be used when mulling over a text which gives this technique a robust element.

Assignment One
With the form one students, we took a reading passage from our Longman Express textbook (unit nine), and made a substitution, modification and elimination. We first generated questions, and then we rewrote the passage.

S: Substitute (a person, place, time or situation)
What do you think would happen if Tommy Im had been Tommy Lai?
What do you think would happen if we switched the dolphin with Brenda panda?

Combine

Adapt

M: Modify (for example, by changing the physical size or personality traits of some characters or changing the setting)
What would happen if Tommy Im were really, really tall?
What would happen if Tommy and the dolphins were at the Ocean instead of Ocean Park?
What would happen if the penguins were blind?

Put to Other Use

E: Eliminate a feature of the story
How might the story change if there were no dolphins?
What would happen if there were not "bumble foot?"
How might the story change if the penguins had no water?

Rearrange

Brenda's Response (Dolphin Trainer Article):
Bonnie Chan has on of the worst jobs in the world- or at least she thinks so! She's a panda trainer at Brenda Park. Find out more about Bonnie and her boring job in the interview below.

How did you become a panda trainer?
I saw an advertisement in the newspaper. I thought it sounded like an unusual job so I applied. That was nearly five years ago.

What qualifications do you need to become a panda trainer?
Most of the trainers do not have patience, but i have patience.

What does a panda trainer actually do?
Well, one obvious answer is train pandas. However, we spend less time doing this than people think. Our main responsibility is to look after the pandas- to make sure that they are happy and healthy. For example, the first thing I do every morning is to check the place where the panda lives, because the panda do not know how to go to the toilet, and this is too smelly for me to clean it. I also spend a lot of time feeding the pandas, playing with them. Pandas are very stupid. This is a picture of me stoking and play with my favourite stupid panda, Brenda.

How do you train a panda?
One of the first thing we teach the pandas is to dive. That is the shallow pool over there. It is about a metre long and half metre deep. They also learn other simple tricks such as shaking hands, singing and dancing. It takes time to learn tricks so the younger pandas generally know fewer tricks than the older ones.

Would you recommend this job to other people?
No, definitely. It's hard work and do not have any reward.

Belo's Response (Dolphin Trainer Article):
Tommy Lai and Carrie Chan have one of the best jobs in the world--or at least they think so! They're two dolphin trainers at Ocean Park. Find out more about Tommy and Carrie and their fascinating job in the interview below.

B(Reporter Belo):How did you became a dolphin trainer?
T(Tommy Lai):I saw an advertisement in the newspaper. I thought it sounded like an unusual job so I applied. That was nearly five years ago.

B:What qualifications do you need to become a dolphin trainer?
C(Carrie Chan):Most of the trainers have a degree--I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology. In the past, most of the trainers studied overseas. However, these days there are more graduates from local universities than from overseas universities. But, I myself did not study at any university!

B:What does a dolphin trainer actually do?
T:Well, one obvious answer is train dolphins. However, we spend less time doing this than people think. Our main responsibility is to look after the dolphins--to make sure that they are happy and healthy. For example, the first thing I do every morning is to check their temperature to find whether they are too strange or well enough for them to move. I also spend a lot of time feeding the dolphins, playing with them and cleaning the tanks. Dolphins are very playful. This is a picture of me stroking and playing with my favourite dolphin, Toto. Although it said it is an invader which came from Kero-star, I didn't believe it and I'm still playing with it as usual.

B:How do you train a dolphin?
C:One of the first tricks we teach the dolphins is to touch a stick with their noses. That is the training stick over there. It's about half a metre long. You can see one in this photo too. They also learn other simple tricks such as shaking hands,; touching the trainer's hands, singing and dancing. It takes time to learn tricks so the younger dolphins generally know fewer tricks than the older ones.

B:would you recommend this job to other people?
T&C:Yes, definitely. It's hard work but very rewarding.
Wenda's Response (Penguin Article):
Penguins like to swim. The exercise is also good for them. To encourage penguins to swim, there should be a small, shallow pool (at least 0.5 metre deep and 1 metre long). If the areas are enough, there should also be a weak current of water. Penguins like swimming in moving water.
Penguins can suffer from a disease called 'bumble foot' which attacks their feet and can kill them. To help prevent this disease, there should be a wide variety of surfaces for the penguins to walk on - some hard, some soft, some rough, some smooth.
Finally, it is important that the temperature in the penguins' home is just right. Some penguins, like gentoo penguins, like to be hot (over 30 degree). If the temperature is too cold, they will die. However, others feel more comfortable when they are cold.

Assignment Two
We later tried to apply SCAMPER to a newspaper article, one about the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province, China. The only requirement was a substitution: instead of Sichuan Province, the earthquake would have happened in Hong Kong. Read the results.

Assignment Three
We also used the technique to transform a passage from the form two students' reader, Dragonwings. Students first mapped a scene; then they went through the SCAMPER progression, creating and answer questions; next they would go back to the passage in the book and underline all that needed revision based on their SCAMPER; and finally, they rewrote the scene. Please view a sample of our process writing.

Muky's Response:
Finally, though, when the demons called me for questioning, I found they
already had a big bunch of paper on my father. Inside it was the record of his first
interview, which ran for some one hundred and fifty pages. The demons were very
weak and their voices were faint. I was surprised that I was even stronger than them.
I woundered could I beat them up if they did something horrible to me. The demons
spent an hour looking at the huge bunch of paper on my father and then asking me
questions about my village and kinsmen. I was getting impatient and bored so I
pretended I was angry and stared at them with an furious expression. They seemed
to be afraid and they didn't look up when they ask me questions. Their reaction
entertained me. They tried to trip me up so they could prove I was not my father's son, but
they did not succeed.

Finally even the demons had to admit that I was who I claimed to be. Then
they wanted to made me strip naked and took my measurements. I shouted at them that
I didn't want it. And I resisted and punched one of them and his nose bled. The other demons wanted to catch me but I kicked their legs easily and they all fell down with loud bangs. They got up clumsily
and rushed into the cellar of the ship. They brought out a blond-colored monkey that
was very fat. The monkey took my measurements and poked me all around, and the
demons wrote down all that information on a sheet of paper so that if I ever left their
country, no one could sneak back in my place. I didn't reject the fat monkey to take my
measurements because it was so funny and its fur made me felt itchy. I laughed out loudly
because of the itch and the demons seemed to be less frightened. They put that sheet into a new
bunch of papers, which were on me. They also added the notes of our interview to that pile.

Mandy's Response:
The demons told us to stay in a big room for a week. They talked with us and played with us. There were beds for sleeping which were very comfortable. All the time,we smelled the delicious dishes from the kitchen. Besides that, there were washroom for bathing.

Finally, though, the demons called me for interview, I found they already had a big bunch of papers on my father. Inside it was the record of his first interview, which ran fro someone hundred and fifty pages. They spend an hour looking at it and then chat with me about my village and kinsmen. They tried to prove I was my father's son.

Finally, the demons allowed me to enter the demons land and kept my interview information on their record for future use.

Samuela's Response

Nathania's Response

Karen's Response