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Grades level iconsGrades 9–12
Session time icon3 Sessions: 1 Hour Each
Genre information iconFantasy/SciFi, Narrative, Poetry
Resource type iconLessons

Change the Ending, Take Back Your Power

Cristeta Boarini, 826 MSP
In this lesson, students explore the genres of historical and speculative fiction before they reimagine a time they felt powerless and write a different outcome.
What Your Students Will Learn

Your students will learn the fundamentals of historical and speculative fiction, and use those fundamentals to create their own stories.

Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3 Common Core Standards Icon
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3.E Common Core Standards Icon
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.4 Common Core Standards Icon
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3 Common Core Standards Icon
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3.E Common Core Standards Icon
Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.4 Common Core Standards Icon
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
What You Will Do
Session 1
Timer
1 Hour
Historical Fiction
History is told by the victors, but we often find that historical fiction reimagines the voices of history’s victims. There is power in a story, especially in one of resilience and survival. For students from historically marginalized communities, such stories can be important models for their own lives. This session will allow students to practice using words about their communities and their lives in relation to storytelling.
Session 2
Timer
1 Hour
Speculative Fiction
Whereas historical fiction helps students see counter perspectives to a dominant narrative, speculative fiction pushes students to imagine what could be. As the author Simon Sinek has said, “Before we build the world we want to live in, we have to imagine it.” This session will ask students to push the boundaries of what they know to be possible. Through examples of descriptive, out-of-this-world texts, they will develop a practice of creative problem-solving that challenges the status quo.
Session 3
Timer
From “Othering” to Taking Back Power
This is where the magic happens. During this session, it’s important to note that each student may have different definitions and experiences with being “othered.” There are no wrong answers, only honest answers. Make sure that you affirm the stories of each of your students and ask them to elaborate on it, if necessary—this will help them get to the deeper truths while also still having ownership over their own narrative.
Introduction :

Over the course of this lesson, students will read two short stories and explore the boundaries of the historical and speculative fiction genre. They will work together to define common terms, some identity-based and others genre-based, and use those definitions in their own writing, which will span both genres. Their final writing piece will reimagine a time where they felt powerless as a time where they were powerful and fully in control of their narrative. This lesson is just one part of the longer journey that is building a culture of trust and community within the classroom; it also serves as a conduit for students from historically marginalized communities to see themselves and their stories represented as a reminder of how powerful they are as individuals.

Session 1: Historical Fiction

Students will work together to create word banks for identity-related themes, dive into a short story and make connections to today’s world, and write about the dominant narrative of their ancestors versus their personal narrative of their ancestors.

You Will Need
  • 4 pieces of butcher paper or poster board
  • Markers
  • Enough copies of your selected short story for each of your students (we recommend: “They Have Given Us the Land” by Juan Rulfo and the first chapter of The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho)
  • A way for your students to write—lined paper, computers, tablets, etc.
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