Story Settings Writing Bundle – Worksheets, Setting Wheels and Information Guide

The resources in this bundle were designed to develop students’ understandings of story settings while also providing them with strategies to effectively establish place and time when writing their own short stories. They have mainly been used with upper primary / lower secondary (middle school ) students and would be useful for any English teacher who teaches Creative Writing and/or Short Story writing units.

Included resources/tasks:

1. Understanding Settings – Information Booklet (16 page PDF file)

This information booklet provides information about the following topics and ideas:

• Settings (definition and introduction)
• Story settings for different genres
• Descriptive language
• Sensory information
• Setting transitions
• Language and dialects
• Literary setting descriptions (exploring setting descriptions from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum)

2. 21 Interactive PDF worksheets (these tasks can be printed or typed on directly). *I have also included some PowerPoint versions of these worksheets so they can be uploaded onto Google Slides.

• 10 x Describe the Setting worksheets (visual prompt tasks with different scenes)
• 2 x Use Your Senses worksheets (applying sensory information to a visual prompt)
• 1 x Match the Setting to the Genre worksheet – Matching settings to literary genres
• 1 x Create a Setting for the Genre worksheet – Creating suitable settings for Adventure, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Romance and Science Fiction stories.
• 1 x Describe Your Favorite Settings worksheet – Describing settings from favorite books and/or movies
• 1 x Where are you now? worksheet – Using sensory information to describe a location
• 1 x Setting Transitions worksheet (using transitional sentences and phrases to link and alter settings)
• 1 x Change the Setting worksheet (writing paragraphs with setting transitions)
• 1 x Paint a More Interesting Scene worksheet (re-creating scenes with more interesting, descriptive words)
• 1 x Find and Describe a Setting worksheet (describing a selected visual image)
• 1 x Create a Setting worksheet – (using a provided set of adjectives to create a setting)

*Sample response sheets for the worksheet tasks have been included.

3. Spinning Wheels (Interactive PowerPoint – Prompting Tools)

• 1 x spinning wheel that focuses on Place
• 1 x spinning wheel that focuses on Time
• 1 x spinning wheel that focuses on Atmosphere

Students can use these spinning wheel PowerPoints for ideas when creating their own story settings. They can use one wheel or all three at the same time. Teachers can also use these wheels in front of their classes to generate story setting ideas for larger groups of students.

*Instructions on how to open and use the spinning wheel PowerPoints are included.