Third Grade Language Arts -- all ya need for a story

[DannMcGrew]

 

[HareBrain]

I can't see the difference between the "so" and the "then".

I guess I would have failed third grade.

 

[Steve Harrison]

George was a writer who wanted people to stop giving him gratuitous writing advice, but they wouldn't stop, so he tracked them down one by one and then murdered them.

It works!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

For writing advice it is really not phrased very well, is it? Written a little differently, it would be a good enough outline of how to plan a story, especially at the level of complexity one might expect of a third grader.

That So should probably be something along the lines of "So what did they decide to do to solve their problem" and the Then "How did they succeed or fail to solve it."

 

[sknox]

You know you're in a writing forum when one of us posts a joke and the rest of us correct its grammar and syntax.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Freddie wanted to write a novel, but he didn't know how to go about it, so he joined an online forum and then he spent all of his time reading humorous threads and posting frivolous comments.

 

[Mouse]

I'd have thought the 'then' was what they got from the 'so?'

Mouse wanted to eat cake. But she has coeliac disease. So she learnt to bake with gluten free flour. Then she got to eat lots of cake.

The end.

 

[HareBrain]

Embarrassingly, I think my confusion arose from not clearly knowing the difference between "solution" and "resolution".

is there a first grade language arts class I can join?

 

[Danny McG]

Freddie wanted to write a novel, but he didn't know how to go about it, so he joined an online forum and then he spent all of his time reading humorous threads and posting frivolous comments.

That's me, that is

 

[-K2-]

That's me, that is

I thought your name was Danny, not Freddie... Or, is that your pen-name?

K2

 

[sknox]

I had a pen name once, but I lost the pen.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I had a pen name once, but I lost the pen.

Was it Groucho?

 

[sknox]

No, it was State.

 

[olive]

This is for an 8 year-old, right? If the aim is making the children write one simple he/she does this story with one character, the "wanted" section might cause some confusion in my opinion. Or unintended guidance maybe.

The "wanted" part wouldn't likely evoke anything positive for the children. When you are 8, 'wanted' is what you 'wanted' and what your parents say to that which is often 'no'. Also, the "Wanted" line evokes a bit of a Wanted sign, the ones like in cartoons? Like, somebody did/wanted something 'bad' and now they are wanted?

Yes, there is an explanation below, but while the pointer for "Somebody" is "[Who is the] main character?", just after that it is "[What did the] character want?" for "Wanted". So they might think there are already two separate characters they should put in the story and get confused. Because the teachers will point out to possible other characters. Maybe there was this main character and then another one who wanted something and did something 'bad' and now maybe he is 'wanted' for it? And as the second one is already assigned an event what is this first one is doing, who is she/he?

This is restrictive and boring.

Children have better, wider imaginations than adults but simple words as 'somebody wanted to do something so this happened and then...' wouldn't be as openly neutral to them as they would be to adults I guess. Maybe simplifying it like this is actually making it difficult and boring for them.

Why don't they just ask them to write their own versions of their favourite stories and then their own story after some time? I bet they'll get much better results than this.