Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Writing: Social Commentary Short Fiction”

In this activity, students will write a social commentary short story on an issue they believe contemporary society faces.

Although Tolstoy focuses his narrative on the development of a single protagonist, his short story is a general commentary on the relationship between greed and land ownership for humanity. In this activity, you will select an issue you believe is pervasive in contemporary society and create a short narrative commenting on its negative impact. Use the following questions to guide your drafting process:

• What is your “issue?” How do you feel about it?
• Who is your protagonist? How is this character “tempted?”
• Who is this antagonist? How does this character “tempt?”
• What is the setting of the story?
• What is the message you would like to share with your audience?

Share your story with the class and consider the different themes representative in your peers’ commentaries.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity invites students to consider the structure of social commentaries in the form of a creative writing assignment. Students should use the format of Tolstoy’s story (i.