55 Word Video Stories

55 Word Video Stories

Lesson Objective:
The object of this lesson is to develop and honor the literacy skill sets of students in the 21st Century. During this project, students will learn: 1) to use as few words as possible to convey an idea, in this case a story, 2) to create a short video clip of their story, and 3) to publish their finished work electronically on YouTube and the class blog. Students will:
• write their own stories or re-write a pre-existing story.
• create a video of their 55 word story using video cameras.
• merge ther videos together to create a class video and post it on Youtube.com.
• post the finished video on the class blog.
• chose to submit their story to the Fifty-Five Fiction contest for publication.

For the writing and story boarding portions of this lesson, students will focus on the main plot elements of a short story:
1. setting (exposition)
2.a character or characters (exposition)
3. rising action, conflict
4. climax
5. resolution

Materials:
•Book: The World’s Shortest Stories, Edited by: Steve Moss, Illustrated by: Glen Starkey, ISBN-10: 0-76844-0300-4
• Video cameras
• Internet
• Movie maker
• Computer
• Graphic organizers
• Paper

Assignment:
This assignment will take several days and will unfold in the following steps.
1. Discuss the concept of writing a 55-word story and a 55 word short story can have a huge impact.
2. Read examples from the book.
3. Discuss the need for precise words when writing the story.
4. Hand out Elements of a Plot graphic organizer
5. Have students brainstorm ideas.
6. Hand out writing assignment (see below)
7. Peer edit and revise until students are happy with their stories.
8. Discuss how to create Short Films of the 55-word stories using:
a. Story-boarding (hand out Story Board graphic organizers)
b. Photo images
c. Video cameras
d. Movie Maker
9. Working in groups, have students help each other film their stories, they will:
a. Help each other choose appropriate images to add to their films.
b. Help each other choose appropriate background music for the films.
c. Read their stories for the camera.
10. Merge the finished video clips into one video and post it to www.youtube.com.
11. Download the finished video to the class blog. www.msbellonline.com.
12. Submit individual original stories to the Fifty-Five Fiction contest, if they wish to compete.

The Writing Assignment:
1. Write anything you like but do not use more than 55 words, you may:
a. write an original story (suitable for entry into the 55-Fiction contest), or
b. re-write a pre-existing story.
2. Words defined: Any word found in the dictionary
a.) Hyphenated words count as two words. For example robin-red dress would count as three words.
b.) Words that do not become free-standing words when the hyphen is removed count as one word. For example re-entry would count as one word.
c.) Story titles are not counted in the word count.
d.) Story titles cannot have more than seven words.
e.) Contractions count as one word. (Hint: Contractions can help keep down the word count.)
f.) Contractions used as a shortened form of a word count as one word. For example: “’em” for “them.”
g.) Initials count as words because they are abbreviations of complete words. For example: J. Joyce would equal two words.
h.) Acronyms count as single words because they have the same effect as single words. For example: CBS, IBM, or ASAP.
i.) Numbers count as words, whether they are written out or expressed in numerical form.
3. Punctuation does not count as words
4. Avoid clichés like having the reader find out at the end of the story that it was all a dream or the protagonist was really a cat. Something that sounds like it is a sexual act but really isn’t, is considered a cliché and to be avoided, and is especially inappropriate in stories written for high school or lower grades.

YOU HAVE THE CHOICE TO SUBMIT YOUR STORY FOR PUBLICATION TO FIFTY-FIVE FICTION AS FOLLOWS:

1. Type the story(s) on a separate sheet of paper – one story per page.
2. When submitting a story, make sure to include name, address, and telephone number on each story.
3.You can submit your stories to:
Fifty-Five Fiction
Dept. 55
197 Santa Rosa Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405