Book description
Adventures in Fantasy
offers an exciting approach to teaching narrative and descriptive
writing that stimulates a student's creativity and imagination. Filled
with mini-lessons, reading projects, and hands-on writing activities,
the book shows teachers step-by-step how to introduce students to the
“magic” of creating a complete story in the fantasy/adventure
genre.
Before fleshing out their stories, however, students are
asked to construct actual maps of their 'fantasyland' - and then to
write a travelogue describing the setting in vivid detail. This
initial fantasizing encourages students to be wildly inventive in
creating the drama, ogres, villains, heroes and heroines featured in
their story, and on the way they learn about the mythic journey.
John Gust teaches fifth grade at a magnet school
in the Los Angeles Unified School District and serves as adjunct
lecturer/teacher trainer at various local universities. He has
published numerous books on topics ranging from self-esteem
enhancement, to character development, to systems thinking, to
communication skills and multicultural education. Gust's first attempt
at storytelling was a personal narrative titled Round Peg,
Square Hole: A Teacher Lives and Learns in Watts. Currently,
Gust is writing a fantasy trilogy for young adults. For more
information about John Gust, his writing workshops, and his other
books, please visit www. johngust. org.
