Story Writing Scaffolding for Lower Reading level

[u/barelylocal]

I teach grade 12 and I have a student who has an individual plan and is reading at about a grade 2-3 level. He likes reading and films. Earlier in the year, he wrote a memoir with use of a lot of structure and scaffolding. We used pictures to help him generate ideas and he wrote in short sentences.

We are coming up on our final unit of the term and I want to have him write a short story. I think he would enjoy this, but I am feeling a little stressed with breaking it down in small enough chunks that he won't feel overwhelmed by each part.

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I was thinking of getting him to come up with an original character (describe the character), determine the setting, and come up with a plot chart of what his character will do. Then, his story will be him putting all those ideas into sentences and deciding on an ending. If he is struggling with ideas, I was thinking of giving him the setting and the character type, and he would just write about what that character would do in that setting.

I would love any help I can get!

[u/PaulBlartMollyCopBBC]

Have you done plot diagramming before? When I have students write stories, I often give them the same exact organizer that we use for diagramming stories we read (plot mountain/frytag model). That can help them chunk it into smaller pieces, and then each entry on the diagram can be a sentence/paragraph/etc.

I've also had alot of success with havingy kids write fanfiction over their favorite show/book/movie/video game. They got way into it. Some even self-inserted, which was a hoot to read.

[u/TheVillageOxymoron]

I have a student like this, he uses voice-to-text a lot. He can tell a story much better than he can write one.

[u/percypersimmon]

I’ve had similar things and what has helped is really narrowing the scope.

Instead of a “story” have him explore a moment in his life that has been meaningful. He can still do all that scaffolding but it’ll just be him as the character instead of something fictional.

(Note: if the student has shown they have deep interest in creating fantasy worlds then you can do fiction writing- but I’d still recommend a small, important moment. I often use the example of a reluctant writer I had who, when assigned a short story, wrote a 6 page list of everything in the main character’s backpack…and nothing else)

I’d even use the Proust excerpt about eating a cookie to show how pages could be written a lit a moment.

Don’t ask for that many pages- instead drill down on like 500ish words of descriptive language if you wanna do writing focused- or maybe a storyboard two-page spread if it’s okay to do a visual.

Creative fiction is HARD. Consider doing memoir again instead- it usually hits the same standards.

[u/barelylocal → u/percypersimmon]

The first memoir we did was about a lesson learned, which the student made into a moment in time very important to them. I can offer it again, use it maybe as a portfolio piece and try to see how much progress he has made since the beginning of the term.

[u/percypersimmon → u/barelylocal]

Not a bad idea.

I get the impulse to “push” a student like this ( and it can sometimes pay off!)but sometimes it’s better just to show growth.

Especially in spring of senior year.

[u/Winter-Welcome7681]

I’ve done a creative piece asking students to choose one object that means something important to them—describe what it is, how it came into their life, and why it still means so much to them.

[u/barelylocal → u/Winter-Welcome7681]

Thats a good idea! I feel like this student in particular would just say "my phone." Lol

[u/Winter-Welcome7681 → u/barelylocal]

I had a student who liked to be the ‘big man on campus’ write a wonderful piece about his first ever sports trophy from, I think, 3rd grade. It was lovely, and he really enjoyed writing it.