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Fan Fiction seems like a great avenue to take with middle and high school age writers. Like Jenkins pointed out Fan Fiction offers young writers great, existing; and a wealth of background to pull from in their writing. This past year in Writer's Workshop we used mentor texts to get ideas from, but I encouraged my students to develop their own characters. It is amazing how young first and second grade students got a writer's block just trying to do this simple task. I am wondering now, if I should have just allowed them to go with the mentor text?
I enjoyed reading how Tiana and Jandalf worked collaboratively to create a piece of fan fiction, so that is why I chose the picture. These girls seemed to really be in tune with each other. They worked together using each other's strengths to create their fan fiction story. This would be a great example to use in class when trying to teach students how to work collaboratively, because all to often when students are paired one does all the work, there isn't a whole lot of collaborating goes on.
I don't think students writing fan fiction poses a problem. Writing is something that a lot of people are hesitant about doing, so if we can encourage this type of writing or any kind it will be beneficial.
I think it was Tiana that said, "We write so much better when we don't think about what's going on." I think having a partner to work collaboratively with helps so much when they get writer's block. I know what you mean about young kids getting writer's block. Great point that maybe having them use mentor text could help. Writing about a popular movie or book always puts ideas in their heads. Great post.
ReplyDeleteYounger students, like first and second grade as you mentioned, are very creative so it is surprising that they would have writers block too. I love using mentor texts and think they are pretty much always appropriate, but I understand wanting student to come up with their own ideas. Fan fiction kind of reminds me of using mentor texts. While students may not follow the writing style of the author, they do mimic the characters and story structure.
ReplyDeleteLike Kelly has mentioned, using mentor texts does remind me of fan fiction as well. I also mentioned in my post that having a writing partner during writer's workshop would help them with their writer's block. Nice post!
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