Narrative Writing: Urban Legends



Narrative Writing: Urban Legends

Name:_______________________________________________________________

8th Grade Language Arts

|The Project: |

|After reading and evaluating urban Legends and other strange and mysterious stories, you will have the opportunity to create your own unique urban legend. |

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|The Purpose: |

|Through the creation of your urban legend, you will demonstrate your understanding of narrative format, the 6+1 Traits of Writing, and elements of this genre. |

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|The Format: |

|The way that you choose to format and present your urban legend is up to YOU! The following is a list of suggestions: |

|Traditional paper |

|Story book |

|Turn your story into a digital story using Photostory or Windows Movie Maker |

|Create a Voice Thread |

|Script/Screen Play with a Live or Video Presentation |

|Create a children’s book, scrap book, pop-up book, or comic book |

|Come up with another option of your choice and get approved by your teacher |

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|Due Date:_________________________________________ |

Source of the legend:

|Who “told” you about this legend? |

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|What is the purpose of your legend? (to frighten people, teach a lesson, explain a strange occurrence, solve a problem…) |

Setting:

|City | |

|Sights | |

|Sounds | |

|Smells | |

|Weather | |

|Time (year, time of year,| |

|time of day) | |

Main Character(s):

|Name: |Name: |

|Physical Description: |Physical Description: |

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|Personality Description: |Personality Description: |

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Additional Character Notes:

Urban Legend Graphic Organizer

|Background Information |Background Information |Initial Conflict |

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|Rising Action #1 |Rising Action #2 |Rising Action #3 |

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|Climax |Falling Action |Resolution |

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Word Choice (include 5-10 per column)

|Adverbs: |Words they modify: |Adjectives: |Words they modify: |

|1. |1. |1. |1. |

|2. |2. |2. |2. |

|3. |3. |3. |3. |

|4. |4. |4. |4. |

|5. |5. |5. |5. |

|6. |6. |6. |6. |

|7. |7. |7. |7. |

|8. |8. |8. |8. |

|9. |9. |9. |9. |

|10. |10. |10. |10. |

|Introduction: Background Information about the Legend |

|(Hook, Who is involved? When did this happen? Where did this take place?) |

|Hook:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|___________________________________________ |

|In any particular order |

|Who is involved? |

|When did the legend occur? |

|Where did the legend occur? |

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|________________________________________________________________________________________________ |

|Body Paragraphs: Rising action and climax |

|Explain (show, don’t tell) what happened in the ancient legend: |

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|___________________________________________________________________________ |

|Paragraph 2: Transition word/phrase: ________________________________________ |

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|___________________________________________________________________________ |

|_____________________________________________________________________ |

|_____________________________________________________________________ Paragraph 3: Transition word/phrase: ________________________________________ |

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|___________________________________________________________________________ |

|_____________________________________________________________________ |

|Conclusion |

|Explain how the details fall into place and how the initial conflict is “resolved” |

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|____________________________________________________________________________________ |

|Takeaway ending: |

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|_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________|

|_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |

Urban Legend Checklist:

✓ Story begins with an interesting hook

✓ Urban Legend tells a story, with a beginning, middle and end

✓ Elements of an urban legend: story is somewhat believable

✓ Characters are described well

✓ There are no missing details (who, what, when, where, why, how)

✓ Story is written in 3-5 paragraphs, with natural paragraph breaks

✓ Story is written with a convincing voice

✓ Word Choice is strong (very few overused words, many interesting adjectives)

✓ A combination of sentence types, as well as short AND long sentences are used

✓ All punctuation, capitalization, and spelling is correct

✓ Story wraps up with an effective conclusion

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