Teacher: Jim Goss

Subject Area: Creative Writing II

Grade Level: Various (9-12)
Unit Title: Characterization
Lesson Title: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Objectives:
Students will understand that humor can be used as a tool to hone a storys
dramatic edge
Students will understand how character conflicts can inform a story, and
discuss their understanding in a whole-class scenario
Students will apply this knowledge in a writing response
Materials/Resources Needed: Copies of Everything Ravaged, Everything
Burned by Wells Tower; copies of reading response questions; writing response
prompt
Anticipatory Set: Refresher on genre fiction versus literary fiction. Talk about
humor in fiction. We have read humorous stories up until this pointOrientation
and Sorry, Dan and parts of Reunionbut we have yet to talk about the value
of humor in fiction. When I was in college, a creative writing professor assigned this
story. In our discussion, two of the students in the class believed firmly that the
entire point of the story was to be funny. These students were wrong. Today, we are
going to read this story and engage in a class discussion about the end of the story
and how the author earns it. This discussion will be as collegiate as possiblebe
ready to open the story to particular pages and discuss particular lines.
Objective/Purpose: By the end of the lesson, the students will have a vocabulary
for describing how emotional beats in fiction are set up and paid off. This is
important to understand leading into their first sustained writing project.
Input: Students read Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.
Model: Instructor will model the process of recognizing set-ups and pay-offs in
fiction. If there is time to begin/complete the writing response in-class, the
instructor will write alongside students.
Check for Understanding: Students reading and writing responses will be part of
the students journal, which will be collected and checked at a later date. During
discussion, instructor will periodically ask for confirmation that the students
understand, and gauge understanding by responses and verbosity in discussion.
Guided Practice: Students engage in a Think-Pair-Share structured lesson.
Students read the story by themselves and complete the reading response
questions as a small group. These responses are then utilized in a class discussion.
Closure: Students individual reading responses are used in a class discussion.
Teachers response to answers helps cement concepts.
Independent Practice: Students engage in a free write. This will either be
completed in-class after discussion, completed as homework, or both as time
allows.
Standards: