Goosebumps and R.L. Stine Teach You How to Write Fiction: Flexible Schedule
In this nine-week flexible course, students will learn nine different story elements to use in their own creative writing with examples from the suspenseful children's series Goosebumps #creative
Janelle Fila
Average rating:
4.6
Number of reviews:(903)
Star Educator
What's included
Homework
1-2 hours per week. Each week, I assign a short writing assignment focused around that week's theme and encourage the students to share their paragraphs in the classroom (so other students may view, comment, and interact as well). I also encourage students to submit their own creative writing (which can be horror, scary, creepy, a ghost story, or just regular contemporary fiction if they prefer). I will critique submitted work based on an overall view of that week's theme and give lots of support and encouragement along the way!Assessment
The more assignments that students post and the more creative writing that they share helps me to understand their knowledge and comprehension of the topics we are discussing.Class Experience
US Grade 2 - 5
Each week in a 10-20 minute video, I will introduce students to nine different story elements: place and time, setting, protagonist, antagonist, secondary characters, dialogue (with particular emphasis on how it looks written on the page), passive voice, showing versus telling, and foreshadowing. This class does not meet live. The prerecorded sessions will discuss the week's current theme and how it relates to the Goosebumps series specifically. Students should have a familiarity with the Goosebumps universe, but they won't need to read any specific books prior to class. We will review some examples and short excerpts from some books, which students may recognize, but there is no reading required before the start of this class. Each Sunday, students will have access to the new video and a corresponding one page worksheet that addresses/reminds them of some of the topics discussed (it will also have room for notes and some questions to consider answering). Each week, I assign a short writing assignment focused around that week's theme and encourage the students to share their paragraphs in the classroom (so other students may view, comment, and interact as well). I also encourage students to submit their own creative writing (which can be horror, scary, creepy, a ghost story, or just regular contemporary fiction if they prefer). I will critique submitted work based on an overall view of that week's theme and give lots of support and encouragement along the way! Each Monday, I will post a 20 question type game that allows the students to ask yes or no questions to figure out the item that either pertains to Goosebumps, scary writing, or the week's theme. Tuesday through Saturday, I will post an interactive question or riddle into the classroom. The questions will pertain to the week's theme and could be about students favorite villains, cliffhangers, or story settings. There will also be some fun "What If" and "Would You Rather" type questions. The students can check in each day to make guesses, get clues, and even post their own questions into the classroom.
Learning Goals
Week One: Place/time is different than setting, telling us the physical location and year/era the story takes place. Although Goosebumps stories are fantasy and science fiction, most take place in a fairly normal, contemporary world. How might these stories be different if they were set in a different country? What if they took place 50 years in the past or 50 years in the future?
Week Two: Setting is important in the Goosebumps series because each story is set in a different area, from a creepy basement to a haunted camp. Besides being descriptive, setting can help the reader feel as if they are actually with the characters in the scene. That's an important element for a scary thriller!
Week Three: The protagonist is the main character. Stories generally only have one main character. This character has a specific want or goal that he/she works on trying to achieve throughout the novel.
Week Four: The antagonist is the main villain. Goosebumps books are notorious for having some incredible villains! We will talk about students' favorite villains and what makes these characters so compelling.
Week Five: Secondary characters are not less important than main characters! In Goosebumps books, often the hero or main character has a team of friends to help solve the story's main problem. How do these characters add to the story? How would the story be different without these supporting characters?
Week Six: Showing vs. telling. Similar to the previous week, students will read examples of both showing and telling in the text. They will work together to rewrite telling words and sentences to show the characters' action and emotions more clearly.
Week Seven: Dialogue. Students will look at some examples of dialogue from the Goosebumps series to review proper construction of dialogue sentences. We will also examine how dialogue is used to move the plot forward through the story.
Week Eight: Passive voice. Students should write in active voice as much as possible. They will read examples of both active and passive voice. They will work together to rewrite passive sentences in active voice so that the character completes the action in the sentence.
Week Nine: Foreshadowing is the art of dropping hints early in a story to warn us about upcoming events later on in the story. Students will examine some examples from the Goosebumps series and discuss how important these hints are to the overall story.
Other Details
Parental Guidance
Part of the allure of the Goosebumps series is its creepiness. While we won't focus solely on the scariness of this series, there may be times that we do reference the villains, monsters, and magic within these stories.
Supply List
Students should have a familiarity with the Goosebumps universe, but they won't need any specific books or outside materials.
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Sources
Students should have a familiarity with the Goosebumps universe, but they won't need to read any specific books prior to class. We will review some examples from some of the books, which students may recognize, but there is no reading required before the beginning of this class.
Joined June, 2019
4.6
903reviews
Star Educator
Teacher expertise and credentials
Master's Degree in Music or Theatre or Arts from Spalding University
I have a Master's Degree in Writing for Children and Young Adults, so I feel like I have been reading and writing my entire life. I distinctly remember a friend lending me a Goosebumps book in seventh grade. My mother was appalled when I came home with such a dark story, but I devoured these books. It was the first time I'd ever done anything specifically against my mother's wishes, but I was hooked by the spooky villains and cliffhanger chapter endings! I hope to use students' enthusiasm for this series to pass on the knowledge I learned about writing and grammar from my MFA and to foster a love of writing and reading in your young student.Reviews
Live Group Class
$5
weekly9 weeks
Completed by 16 learners
No live video meetings
Ages: 7-12
