Adventures in Fantasy: Lessons and Activities in Narrative and Descriptive Writing, Grades 5–9 - Softcover

Gust, John

9780787992903: Adventures in Fantasy: Lessons and Activities in Narrative and Descriptive Writing, Grades 5–9

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787992909 ISBN 13: 9780787992903

Publisher: Jossey Bass, 2007

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Adventures in Fantasy offers an exciting approach to teaching narrative and descriptive writing that stimulates a student's creativity and imagination. Filled with mini-lessons, reading projects, and hands-on writing activities, the book shows teachers step-by-step how to introduce students to the "magic" of creating a complete story in the fantasy/adventure genre. Before fleshing out their stories, however, students are asked to construct actual maps of their 'fantasyland' - and then to write a travelogue describing the setting in vivid detail. This initial fantasizing encourages students to be wildly inventive in creating the drama, ogres, villains, heroes and heroines featured in their story, and on the way they learn about the mythic journey.

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About the Author

John Gust teaches fifth grade at a magnet school in the Los Angeles Unified School District and serves as adjunct lecturer/teacher trainer at various local universities. He has published numerous books on topics ranging from self-esteem enhancement, to character development, to systems thinking, to communication skills and multicultural education. Gust's first attempt at storytelling was a personal narrative titled Round Peg , Square Hole: A Teacher Lives and Learns in Watts . Currently, Gust is writing a fantasy trilogy for young adults. For more information about John Gust, his writing workshops, and his other books, please visit www.johngust.org.

From the Back Cover

Before fleshing out their stories, however, students are asked to construct actual maps of their 'fantasyland' and then to write a travelogue describing the setting in vivid detail. This initial fantasizing encourages students to be wildly inventive in creating the drama, ogres, villains, heroes and heroines featured in their story, and on the way they learn about the mythic journey.

With prompts, rubrics, and reader response forms on reproducible worksheets, the book provides instructions for helping students:

Generate story ideas
Craft compelling characters
Develop a plotline rich with complications
Bring the story to fruition

Adventures in Fantasy offers teachers a creative method for teaching conventions such as voice, theme, point of view, and attention to the reader. The approach has proven to work well with both advanced and struggling students and is easily integrated with other writing curricula.

Praise for Adventures in Fantasy

"Follow step-by-step, or pick and choose from Gust's exhaustive strategies for teaching setting, characterization, plot, dialogue, figurative language, and mechanics. A treasury of information and imagination for middle-grade writing teachers whose goal is to provide students with a means to discover the joy and accomplishment of good story writing."
David Gifaldi, Vermont College faculty member;fifth-grade teacher, Vancouver, WA School District;and author of Listening to Crickets

"Gust describes how he engages his students in order for them to achieve the creation of their own highly skilled, adventurous fantasy writing journey. Humorous, thoughtful, engaging and practical, Gust provides hope that our children can experience this same educational transformation on the road to becoming real writers. More than mere strategies and activities, he has drawn the secret map and all we need to do is follow."
J. Cynthia McDermott, Ed.D., program chair, Teacher Education, Antioch University, Los Angeles

"Teachers, students, writers, prepare yourselves! John Gust's Adventures in Fantasy will propel you into a world like no other: your imagination and the wonderful power that lies within it. This maze of fantasy, constructivist teaching, and creative writing leads you on a heroic journey that surpasses the noble quest to be stronger, more confident writers."
Bruce Frost, children's author and fourth-grade teacher at South River School, Marshfield, Massachusetts

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