Ms. Crandell
English 9
Southern Gothic Unit
Short Story Assignment
Option 1: English 9 Short Story (2-3 pages): Write a short story about two of the unit’s concepts.
(Individuality, loneliness, hope, violence, empathy, courage, destruction, fairness). For instance, the
theme of your story could be: individuality is a strength, but it can lead to loneliness. Or: empathy is the
only way to break a cycle of violence.
____ Strong opening (consider action, dialogue, thought, reaction)
____ Uses sensory details effectively (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)
____ Uses figurative language well (List your best example of each of the following types that are
integrated into your short story:
Simile:
Personification:
Metaphor:
Hyperbole:
____ Story has a beginning, middle, and an end
____ Story’s theme is evident; good writing answers the question “so what?”
Option 2: English 9 Honors Southern Gothic Short Story (2-5 pages): Write a short story that uses
at least three characteristics found in southern gothic fiction. Highlight and fully annotate the places
where you incorporate the Southern Gothic elements, and at the end, write a brief reflection about your
process of deciding which elements to use and how successful you were with each one.
Southern Gothic elements:
Paradox, broken bodies or souls, haunted houses, otherness (outsider), loneliness, off-kilter characters,
role of the innocent figure who is a “redeemer,” strangers in strange places, small town life- strong
sense of place or setting (you can make this Pacific Northwest rather than the South), imprisonmentphysical or mental, violence, decay, irony, reflects on morality, neutral gender roles
Diction: Consider using phrases with opposites partnered side by side to create an oxymoron or in a
sentence as a paradox. Use the southern gothic fiction authors that we have read as inspiration. For
example: “Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched
to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square” (Lee 6).
Short Story Rubric
(Narrative writing rubric adapted from
http://www.schoolimprovement.com/docs/Common%20Core%20Rubrics_Gr9-10.pdf )
advanced
meets standards
developing
Exposition
Sets up a story by
introducing the
event/conflict,
characters, and
setting.
Creatively engages the reader
by setting out a well-developed
conflict, situation, or
observation. The text
establishes one or multiple
points of view and introduces a
narrator and/or complex
characters.
Sets out a conflict, situation, or
observation. Establishes a point of
view and introduces a narrator and/or
characters.
Setting is unclear with a
vague conflict, situation,
or observation. It may
have an unclear point of
view and
underdeveloped narrator
and/or characters.
Narrative
Techniques and
Development: The
story is developed
using dialogue, pace,
and description.
Demonstrates sophisticated
narrative techniques such as
engaging dialogue, artistic
pacing, vivid description,
complex reflection, and
multiple plot lines to develop
experiences, events, and/or
characters.
Demonstrates some narrative
techniques such as dialogue, pacing,
and description.
Few narrative techniques
such as dialogue, pacing,
and description.
Organization and
Cohesion: Follows a
logical sequence of
events.
The text creates a seamless
progression of experiences or
events using multiple
techniques—such as
chronology, flashback,
foreshadowing, suspense,
etc.—to sequence events so
that they build on one another
to create a coherent whole.
The text creates a logical progression of
experiences or events using some
techniques —such as chronology,
flashback, foreshadowing, suspense,
etc.—to sequence events so that they
build on one another to create a
coherent whole.
The text lacks a
sequence or progression
of experiences or events
or presents an illogical
sequence of events.
Style: Sensory
language and details
create a vivid picture
of the events,
setting, and
characters.
The text uses eloquent words
and phrases, showing details,
and rich sensory language and
mood to convey an evocative
picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or
characters.
The text uses precise words and
phrases, telling details, and sensory
language to convey a vivid picture of
the experiences, events, setting, and/or
characters.
The text merely tells
about experiences,
events, settings.
Mechanics and
Usage: Writing
conventions follow
standard American
English
Error-free
no systematic errors; if errors are
present, they do not affect reader’s
understanding
errors create confusion