When I began to read the article “Episodic Fiction: Another Way to Tell a Story,” I thought to myself: “Well you are doing just great Kris. Two sentences into the introduction and you already don’t know what a word means” (It’s been a rough day).
However, I found this article to be rather interesting and something that will definitly engage student’s in their writing. Since I am reading The House on Mango Street, my interest was sparked when I read the quote, “I found that by isolating the images and story high points and by forming these into vignettes and linking these episodes with a common theme, my stories became vibrant, sparse, and poetic.” The House on Mango Street is written through a series of vignettes, which portrays a quick read and a lot of flexibility. However, although each vignette is different and not written in chronological order, the theme remains a constant throughout the text.
As we have been learning throughout this semester, we know we need to base our assignments around things that matter to students and things that will actually interest them. Therefore, by writing episodic fiction, students will not feel pressured or forced to write lengthy, boring papers, when they can be creative, flexible, and have choice about each “scene” they write about.
I wish I was assigned to write in this type of format in high school!
Kristin
