Special Announcement: STORY FRAMES Coming October 2020!

I'm excited to announce that Brookes Publishing has offered a contract for my educational book, Story Frames: Using Narratives to Improve Reading Comprehension, Writing, Executive Function Skills and More. Publication is scheduled for October of 2020. Even more exciting, they have agreed to use the illustrations created by my very talented brother, Chris Jochens. Here's a sample of his artwork:

In Story Frames, I combine my understanding of story structure (from my perspective as a young adult author) with my years of experience using narratives with struggling students in the public schools working as a speech-language pathologist. I have been fine-tuning this approach for years. A detailed description of the twelve story elements along with examples of stories I have analyzed using this method may be found on this blog at the tab for  The Secret Language of Stories.

Free activities may be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers Page HERE.

If you want to keep up with news and other free offers, sign up for my free newsletter on my CONTACT PAGE.

Thanks to everyone who has offered support and encouragement for this project. It has been quite a labor of love. I couldn't have done it without you!

NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO GO TO DISNEYLAND: HOW TO TALK TO KIDS ABOUT WHAT THEY DID OVER SUMMER VACATION

I returned from break last spring and shared with my students my exciting trip to Italy to visit my daughter who was studying abroad. I usually just stay home and organize my closets during spring break, and I had never travelled across the ocean, so this was a big deal for me.

One of my students followed up by talking about taking a family trip to Disneyland. Another shared about visiting cousins in Colorado, then a third boy who had been very quiet up until that point shared how his family had gone to Hawaii and then New York City and then Florida. I got the distinct impression that he was confabulating his tale. This was a very low income school after all, and that's a lot of traveling for a one week vacation. But who could blame him? I had set the bar pretty high by describing my Italy trip.

As I'm preparing to return to school, I'm rethinking the typical summer break conversation and reframing it through a story plotting lens in a way that I hope will celebrate every student's summer experience. For a more complete discussion of my story analysis format, visit The Secret Language of Stories page on this blog. For activities based on this structure, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Page.

The Downtime of a story occurs after the Midpoint where there is major attempt by the hero to solve a problem or attain a prize. The Midpoint is full of action but the Downtime is when the hero must face the consequences of those actions. 

Students are typically good at creating action in their original stories and identifying these high points in the stories of others, but much can be gained from exploring what happens during the quieter moments in a story. These downtimes are when planning, reflection, and internal responses occur –the evidence of higher cognitive processes.

Since we are all returning from summer vacation where we most likely experienced adventure as well as downtime, and since these experiences are fresh on our minds as well as on the minds of our students, instead of giving them the age old assignment of "What did you do over summer vacation?" try this activity: As a class brainstorm two lists: 

Adventure vs. Downtime

1. Have students talk about their summer experiences and categorize these experiences as a group.

2. Discuss what makes one experience an adventure and what makes another experience an example of downtime. Are there any experiences that could be both?

3. Not all adventures involve going on an expensive vacation. Did anyone stay in their Ordinary World and have an adventure without leaving home? 

4. Highlight the importance of quiet times for our personal development, our mental development, and our stories.

5. Be sensitive to the fact that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may not have stories to tell about riding in an airplane, going to the beach, of visiting an amusement park. Be sure to honor all experiences. 

6. Talk about examples of Downtime in movies students have seen over the summer.

7. What did I leave out? What are other ways you could explore Downtime with your students?

A Crazy Summer Adventure

If you want to turn this discussion into a writing assignment do the following:

1. Add additional examples of Adventure vs. Downtime to your lists. You may even want to download images from the internet for students who are visual learners.

2. Instruct students to choose one example from the Adventure list and one from the Downtime list.

3. Outline a story that leads to the Adventure and then reflects on the adventure during the Downtime.

4. Write the story and share it with the class.

Plot Tips: Spectacular Sun Rises, Stunning Sun Sets, and the Dry, Hot Middle of the Day

I recently attended an informal writing retreat in the middle of the desert at an abbey with a few of my long-time writing friends. The abbey rents out its facilities for retreats and the accommodations were sparse, but it was also far enough out of town that the mountains didn't block the sunrises or sunsets. It is this very desolation of the dessert that allows for such a beautiful, unobstructed sky.

It got me thinking about stories and how it's fairly easy for me to create a spectacular beginning and/or a stunning ending. It is often my vision of an exciting scene at either the beginning or the ending of a story that inspires me to write the story in the first place. Then there is the despair that happens in the murky middle where I have to invent plot twists just to keep the story slogging along. It's not unlike the dry, hot middle of the day when nothing much seems to be happening and I can barely put one foot in front of the other just to make it to the shade.

The beginning of a story starts out in the main characters (MC) Ordinary World. Then some inciting event and a Call to Adventure turn the MC's world upside down. This is followed by a reaction, typically a Refusal to embark on the Hero's Journey because the danger is just too great. A Mentor shows up to provide advice along with cool Gifts like ruby red slippers or an invisibility cloak. Then the MC Crosses over to the New World where we enter the middle of the story.

The story is still exciting at this point because the MC faces all manner of dangerous and often hilarious attempts to fit in. Soon there is a Problem to be solved or a Prize to be sought and a Plan must be made to achieve it. There is a Midpoint Attempt to solve the problem and/or gain the prize, followed by Downtime Response as the MC reacts to either the success or failure of the attempt.

This structure works quite well for a short story, a picture book, a play, or even a screenplay with a fairly linear plot, but what if you want to write a 300, 400 or 800 page novel? You're going to need more action in the middle.

Going back to the mid section of the story outlined above, there is a Plan, Attempt, Response sequence that may be repeated an infinite number of times. This is why the structure of an epic poem, a narrative picture book, and War and Peace all have a fundamentally similar foundation. The MC makes a Plan and then Attempts to carry it out and Responds emotionally to the success or failure which leads to the creation of a new Plan. Other elements may also be repeated such as Crossing over into additional New Worlds. 

Karen S. Wiesner discusses a similar structure for the middle of a story in First Draft in 30 Days: A Novel Writer's System for Building a Complete and Cohesive Manuscript.

Christopher Vogler explains the Hero's Journey structure in his book, the Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. I discuss how I use a combination of strategies for both writing my novels and teaching writing to children in The Secret Language of Stories.

As for the ending of the story, the Downtime Response is followed by Chase and Escape as the action twists in an unexpected direction. A Death and Transformation occurs either before or during the Climax and the story ends with a Final Reward where the MC gets what he or she deserves which is not always what was desired at the beginning of the story.

To learn more about this structure, check out the books by Christopher Vogler's, Karen Wiesner, and my page on the Secret Language of Stories. Also watch my Teacher Resource section for Teachers Pay Teachers activities using the Hero's Journey coming soon!