Animal Fact

Animal Fact / Animal Fable

Writing Process - Realistic Short Story

Your task is to write a realistic short story about as animal as character in a story. Your story may be about a day in the life of your animal, or your animal's view point of being a pet / living in a zoo, or something that might happen to your animal in the real world like it could be hunted, or hungry, or need a new home.

Prewriting

Make a list of your favorite animals of animals you might want to learn more about and think of their defining traits... for example cats are very independent, dogs love to play with people, or elephants never forget.

Pick out the one animal that you are the most interested in writing about.

Go to the library or on the internet to conduct your basic research for your story. Use the template to help you do your research.

Explore what could happen to your animal that would make an interesting story.

Drafting

Think about your animal and considering what you know about your animal and what you have learn from researching your animal... can you think of a problem your animal might have that you could write about and help solve. Think about how you could begin your story. What events would have to happen to help solve the problem or the middle. Finally how would you end your story? Use the story draft template to how you map out your story.

Revising Stage...

Do you have a beginning, a middle, and an end in your story?

Did you describe the setting of your story using enough details to help our audience visualize where the story takes place?

Are each of your characters have some descriptive words to help your reader know who is in the story?

Does the order make sense or does something need to be moved so that it reads better?

Did you check your spelling?

Did you check to see that you have good sentence structure?

Is there anything you can add to your story to make it a better story?

Give your story a name that tells what the story is going to be about and try to make it sound exciting.

Rewrite your story carefully.

Exchange your story with a classmate or your parents and have them read your story and make some suggestions for how to make it a better story.

Proofreading Rewrite your story with the corrections suggested to improve the story. Then reread your story carefully. Check

spelling all words correctly

good sentence structure; begins with capital letter, punctuation mark at end, quotations are made correctly, and are complete thoughts

indented each paragraph ( paragraph talks about one part of your story... each part of the story should be composed into a new paragraph with appropriate indent. )

You used interesting and exact words to make your writing interesting.

Your story shows good organization; beginning, middle, and end.

Publishing

Draw a picture illustrating something that happens in your story.

Use Microsoft Word to rewrite/type your story. Have your parent or teacher help you to do a final proofreading before printing your story.

Combine your picture with your printed story as a poster.

Use Microsoft Word Art to create a catchy title for your story?

Rubric for Realistic Short Story
4 Advanced	The writer has created an original story that successfully makes use facts and descriptions that make the story sound like it could be real. The writer has a well defined setting, a dilemma/problem, a beginning, a middle, and an end to the story. Writer has meet good writing and grammar guidelines.
3 Proficient	The story has a clear beginning, middle, and end. There is adequate attention to the character and setting. The story presents a problem to be solved. The writer has paid attention to grammar in writing the story.
2 Basic	The story may need more attention to character and/or setting, and may not be well organized. The overall story shows good effort to meet the task assigned and some originality in its writing.
1 Minimal	The writing reflects a lack of all or most of the following in developing and writing a realistic short story; character development, setting, organization, grammar, and effort put forth.

Return to Language Arts

Return to Extended Classroom

	Do you have a beginning, a middle, and an end in your story?
	Did you describe the setting of your story using enough details to help our audience visualize where the story takes place?
	Are each of your characters have some descriptive words to help your reader know who is in the story?
	Does the order make sense or does something need to be moved so that it reads better?
	Did you check your spelling?
	Did you check to see that you have good sentence structure?
	Is there anything you can add to your story to make it a better story?
	Give your story a name that tells what the story is going to be about and try to make it sound exciting.
	Rewrite your story carefully.
	Exchange your story with a classmate or your parents and have them read your story and make some suggestions for how to make it a better story.

	spelling all words correctly
	good sentence structure; begins with capital letter, punctuation mark at end, quotations are made correctly, and are complete thoughts
	indented each paragraph ( paragraph talks about one part of your story... each part of the story should be composed into a new paragraph with appropriate indent. )
	You used interesting and exact words to make your writing interesting.
	Your story shows good organization; beginning, middle, and end.