Kelsi Long

Tiffany Barnes

Dr. Cook

English 3580

February 15, 2017

Narrative Mini-Lesson: Developing Setting in Short Stories

Formative Assessments:

- Opening discussion questions to assess how much prior knowledge students have about

developing the setting when writing short stories.

(Example questions: What is setting? What does setting affect? What are some of the

elements of setting?)
- Listen as students discuss the elements of setting present in the example paragraph from

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher. (Whats great about the setting?, Whats missing/ how

can it improve?)
- Walk around the room as students work in groups to see if there is any confusion or

questions. Answer questions, if any.

Summative Assessment:

- Final group mini-project in which they compose an introduction of their own short story

by developing the setting based on the picture they draw out of the hat.
- Ask a few groups to share their work; class critiques and discusses the examples.

Modifications:

- Writing a bulleted list of discussion answers on the board so that students can more easily

follow along and take notes if they wish. This will benefit any students with hearing

disabilities that might be present in the classroom.

 - Providing concrete visual pictures of the setting they will describe in their group work.

This way, students can get a close-up look at what setting they will be developing and

describing. Any students with visual disabilities will benefit from this modification.
- Numbering students off into groups rather than having them pick their own will hopefully

more evenly disperse the students based on their academic learning abilities and prevent

cliques from thriving in the classroom setting.

- The pictures the students will draw to develop their setting on represent a wide range of

cultures, so that hopefully students with cultural differences will feel comfortable adding

their ideas and experiences to the mini group project.

Related extensions:

- If class time runs out, students will be given an extension so that they can turn in and

share their examples of developed setting in the following class period; or they can share

them in an online forum in which students must respond to and discuss online prior to the

next class meeting.