Conflict Writing
During this unit, students will explore the concept of conflict. They will create a short story with a small conflict at its heart. The conflict may be with another person, group of people or within themselves. Students will consider how the conflict may escalate and be resolved. They will decide where the heart of their story is and expand this accordingly. Less important parts of the story are summarised. Characters will be brought to life through the inclusion of their spoken words, their thoughts and their actions and reactions. Setting will be described so that readers can visualise where and when the story takes place. Teachers will choose if the stories will be set in a historical or contemporary time period.
Key questions:
- How can I use story elements to structure a story with suspense, drama and resolution?
- What do I need to include in my writing to develop my setting and characters?
- How can I enhance the meaning and appeal of my writing using word choice?
- How will I use conventional English grammar effectively to match my purpose?
A story does not have to state explicitly what its historical setting is for it to become obvious to a reader. Often, historical clues are left for the reader to find and interpret for themselves. Children will consider the following typical clues, to help give their writing historical authenticity:
- fashion
- transport
- schools
- gender roles
- food
- events
- toys/hobbies
- vocabulary and speech patterns of the time
Students will begin by imagining everyday conflicts in their own lives, such as internal conflict or with friends or family. They will then widen their thinking to include conflict within society or in the environment.
In this student extract, one Grade 5 student tries to convey the mood and difficulties of life after war. Pinafores, broth and spinning tops help to place the story in a previous era.
This excerpt does something slightly different, using the context rather than the vocabulary to place the story in its historical setting.
There is plenty of cross-over between the reading and writing units and each supports the other. It's a fairly challenging unit in that it requires children to consider how their characters respond to the conflicts that they are faced with.
Next unit... Changemakers feature article
Whatever the conflict chosen or the historical setting of the piece, students will revisit ideas about using a story mountain or other planning device to help structure and organise their thinking prior to writing. Here is an example from a previous Fantasy unit:
