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.   

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.

Homework Offered
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! 
1 - 2 hours per week outside of class
Assessments Offered
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.
Grades Offered

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.