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Grades level iconsGrades 5–6
Session time icon1 Sessions: 2 Hours Each
Genre information iconFantasy/SciFi, Media, Narrative
Resource type iconLessons

Trading Lives: Be a Superhero (or a Wizard or a Vampire) for a Day

Kim Adelman
In this lesson, students imagine trading lives with a fictional character for a day and write about the fantastic possibilities that would ensue.
What Your Students Will Learn

By writing about a fictional existence, your students will increase their feelings of competence and self-determination while practicing their writing, presentation, and social skills.

Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.1.C Common Core Standards Icon
Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., consequently, specifically).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.4 Common Core Standards Icon
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5 Common Core Standards Icon
With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.10 Common Core Standards Icon
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.4 Common Core Standards Icon
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.10 Common Core Standards Icon
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
What You Will Do
Session 1
Timer
2 hours
In this session, students will create personal and fictional profiles, explore the possibilities of combining their favorite characters into one story, and write a chronological “trading lives” tale.
Introduction :

This workshop explores a classic “what-if” situation: Ever read a book and wonder what it would be like if you could trade lives with the main character for just a day? What kind of activities would you do in the fictional world, and what would that fictional character do while living your life for one perfect day?

This workshop, inspired by reality shows that have complete strangers swap lives for a short period of time, prompts the students to do a deep dive into “a day in the life,” of their own lives and that of their favorite fictional character from comics, movies, books, or television. By mining the specifics, the potential storyline of what would happen when the switch takes place becomes easy to foresee.

Perhaps because I had the reality show prototype so clearly in my mind, I assumed the students would write about what happened when they got to live a day in the life of the superhero (or wizard or vampire) or vice versa. I was surprised and thrilled when a student went “off script” and instead wrote a body-swapping adventure in which the fictional character wakes up inhabiting the body of the student. Ah, the many unexpected twists and turns that imagination can take!

In keeping with the reality TV inspiration, additional activities include voting on which fictional heroes might swap lives with each other and what would happen if we put all the fictional characters together in a house for a day, a la “Big Brother.”

The one-of-a-kind adventure the students write after brainstorming and discussion should encourage them to have a deeper understanding of their fictional hero’s world, as well as their own. This stimulates their imagination and creativity, and enhances their feelings of competence and self-determination.

What they write might end up being long and detailed, or short and sweet.  Here’s an example of the latter:

“I wake up as Superman. Eat Krypton creature as breakfast food. Practice flying for a few hours and using powers. Practice writing secret scrolls for a few hours. Have Krypton lunch. Fight bad guy for a long time. Take a nap in Krypton hovering bed. Have dinner, play video games, and go to bed.”

Session 1:

Students imagine trading lives with a fictional character for a day and write about the fantastic possibilities that would ensue.

You Will Need
  • Lined notebook paper
  • Markers or colored pencils
  • Copies of the “My Life” handout
  • Copies of the “My Life in Pictures” handout
  • Copies of the “My Character’s Life” handout
  • Copies of the “My Character’s Life in Pictures” handout
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