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Reading and Writing 6-8 / Week 03 / Press Day
6/6
Week 03 · Plot and Character

Press Day

Press Day: Two Masters
// One story, five days, up the mountain and down
⏱ about 20 min

Press Day: Two Masters

The third issue of The Signal is the thickest yet, and every copy is folded by nine in the morning.

On the porch steps, Rocket reads the repair day story aloud from the rewritten top half, without a shake in his voice.

Priya and Biscuit are in the front row. When Rocket reaches "It is our ramp," Biscuit barks once, and everyone laughs.

Pinned above the Signal Desk, the torn and streaked sheet flaps a little in the breeze.

Nova hovers beside it, her light warm and gold. "Problem, climb, peak, resolution," she says. "You lived one this week."

Raven hands the last copy to the gardener with the gray braid. Then she tucks the blue folder, with its spare, under a heavy book.

"Next week," she says, "we stop asking what happens and start asking how it sounds. Word choice."

  1. A plot unfolds in episodes: problem, rising action, turning point, resolution.
  2. The setting shapes what characters can do: weather, time, place.
  3. A line of dialogue or an incident can propel the action, reveal character and provoke a decision.
  4. Compare a character at the start and at the end to see how they changed.
  5. Cite a line from early and a line from late for every change you claim.
◇ READ IT ALOUD
Read your Writing Lab paragraph about the turning point aloud to someone at home.
Ask them for one compliment and one question about your evidence.
Swap roles: they tell you the plot of a story they know, and you ask, "Where is the turning point?"
Try it
Fold a sheet of paper in half twice to make a four-page booklet.
On the front, draw a small story mountain. Inside, write your piece about The Missing Master.
PRESS DAY CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
A reader says, "The story has no turning point." What should Raven ask?
You want to show a character changed. What do you cite?
Which is part of the setting in The Missing Master?
StatementTrue or false?
Rocket read the rewritten story aloud without his voice shaking.?
The spare master is kept loose on the porch rail.?
Next week the course turns to word choice.?
WHY THIS EXERCISERaven tucks the folder and its spare under a heavy book. Raven says next week is word choice.

Write it: finish your piece

Issue three is out, with a spare in the folder. Next week: word choice and tone, or how a story sounds.

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