Halloween Writing Activity

It's that time of year - Halloween. What a great time of year to teach mood and suspense in writing and film. Kids love scary stories and movies. As educators we need to embrace there love and incorporate some fun into our lessons.

As a writing teacher, I am always struggling to find ways for students to write, and to enjoy it. Students all to often are afraid to try to write creatively because they may fail. I believe the fear of failure in students derives from high stakes testing and all too often high stakes writing. Students need to feel comfortable writing in a low stakes environment. They need to feel that what they are doing is fun! If you can get kids to buy into the lesson you will have a much easier time in life.

So below here is my mini-lesson for Halloween:

Mini-preview:
- Students will group write several Halloween stories all at once. They will try to create mood, develop characters, and establish suspense.

1. Set-up:
1. Students needs to get in groups of three or four
2. Every student needs a piece of paper
3. Prompts:
1. on the board write:
1. It was a dark and stormy night
2. "What was that...I heard something"  
2. Lesson:
1. Every student selects one of the prompts and begins to write their story.
1. Students should focus on creating the setting, the mood, and the introduce the characters
2. After five minutes students rotate papers to the right
1. Students should begin to introduce the conflict of their new story. They must maintain the style of the original author
3. After five minutes students should rotate again
1. Students should try to resolve the conflict
4. After five minutes students should rotate again
1. Conclude the story...they may add a cliffhanger
3. Afterwards:
1. Students should read their stories and vote on the best one
4. Benefits:
1. Students will be writing for 20 minutes solid
1. building stamina
2. Students must maintain the original author's style and intent
1. work on style, and purpose
3. Establish mood
1. mood and setting
4. Go through a plot chart
5. Optional:
1. Music:
1. I usually play Pandora's scary symphonies channel during this lesson. It helps them buy into the lesson 

I believe this is a great lesson. Give it a shot.