Short Story Assessment

Conflict Cafe Menu

This was a creative way in order to have students sketch out an outline for their story before they began writing.  Most students seemed to enjoy the assignment.  However, their enjoyment, I believe, became an obstacle for students to hand the project in on time.  They did not know how long the project actually required.  I should have spent more time having them frame the assignment and come up with a concrete action plan for it's completion.  Also, the bulkiness of the menus hurt their usability when it came time to composing.  It also was difficult to store and keep in order.  I would use the framework again; however, if I had access to computers for every student I would have them compose the project in Microsoft Publisher.  I believe this would aid the length of time necessary for the composing process and also, allow students to have the menus in front of them once they began writing.

Rough Draft

+ Students were ready to begin writing their stories, since they had already solidified some of their ideas through the conflict cafe menu assignment. 
- A required length for the short story became an issue for contention starting here.  I set the bar at 200 words.  Not enough.  Since, I would later raise the stakes for the final draft to 5 typed double spaced pages.

Second Stage Draft

+ I provided the students with a Checklist for Revision in order to move on to composing their Second Stage Draft.  Also, I set a realizable time frame for when this assignment was due.  I collected these drafts and read each and every one.  I wanted access to student writing.  This would aid me throughout the week to be able to point to student samples of writing, and ways of improving them.
- I did not stress the Checklist enough.  Most students followed it somewhat.  But, those that followed it to the T really showed signs of improvement from their rough draft to second stage draft.  Again, a required word count would be an issue as I fear students who do not have enough material will just write anything in order to meet the minimum requirement for the final stage draft due next week.