Plot Building: Classroom Ready Materials for Teaching Writing and Literary Analysis Skills in Grades 4 to 8

by Arlene F. Marks, Bette J. Walker

The Let Them Write Series is a classroom-tested, teacher-friendly resource for Language Arts teachers of grades 4 through 8. The program is organized in nine sections, each presenting a buffet of from five to nine 1- or 2-week modules. Each classroom-ready module consists of a series of comprehensive, easy-to-follow lesson plans complete with reproducible handouts and cross-curricular extensions, together creating a proven successful template for the teaching of writing and literary analysis skills. Let Them Plot Building focuses on conflict, suspense and narrative structure. Students practice first-drafting, editing, polishing and sharing original scenes and stories built around these three important elements of storytelling.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 16, 2015

About the author

Born and raised in Toronto, Arlene F. Marks found her muse at the age of 6. Her first written story was a fantasy about a tiny boy who did everything backwards and rode around on a dragonfly. She has been writing and sharing her stories ever since.

Arlene's dual passions are writing and teaching, and she has indulged them both liberally over the years, chalking up publishing credits in multiple fiction and nonfiction genres between stints in the high school classroom. She retired officially from teaching in 2012 and now devotes herself full-time to writing (and teaching writing workshops), which is keeping her even busier than she was before.

Currently working on Sic Transit Terra, a series of space opera novels set at the turn of the 25th century, Arlene F. Marks lives with her husband on the shore of Nottawasaga Bay, where she happily reads, crochets, works logic problems and collects owls of every description.