Title – Suspense Street: Building Tension with Sensory Details
By – Marcy Winograd
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Language Arts
Grade Level – 5-9
Standard: Write fictional narratives that create suspense through movement, gestures, and sensory details.

Objective: Students will learn how to create suspense by slowing down a moment to include sensory details.

Goal: Students will write a short scene packed with suspense.

Anticipatory Set: When was the last time you found yourself clenching your teeth during a movie? What made that scene so suspenseful? How did the movie director slow down the moment of doubt?

Materials Needed: List of prompts (see below)

Procedure:
1) Discuss the anticipatory set about suspenseful movie scenes.

2) Read a few suspenseful passages from core literature and invite students to analyze how the author created the tension.

3) Brainstorm methods used to create suspense: characters working against a deadline; conflict; readers knowing more than the characters; characters experiencing moments of doubt or confusion; slowing down the moment when the main character is in doubt; using sensory details to create an air of mystery; adding an element of surprise.

4) Share the standard/objective/goal of the lesson.

5) Explain that you will prompt the students as they create a short suspenseful narrative that uses sensory details to explore what a character is thinking, feeling, and experiencing during a moment of doubt.

Guided Practice

6) Provide students with the following prompts as they write and periodically share their responses. First, give everyone the same starter sentence; He (or she) thought he heard someone in the house. Next, prompt their writing with the suggestions below:
a) What was the disturbing sound he heard?
b) What was the character thinking? Write down a question that was going through his mind?
c) What did the character smell that was out of the ordinary?
d) What memory did the scent remind him of?
e) Connect that memory to the present moment.
f) Have the character notice something different in the house, something also out of the ordinary.
g) Raise another question in the character’s mind.
h) What does this character really want to do right now? Perhaps he is afraid to do it …
i) Have the character do something, take action.
j) Put an obstacle in his path; make him retreat for a breath.
k) Go back to the memory again and let it give him the courage to go forward.
l) Let the character move closer to the disturbing sound/scent/sight.
m) Let the character discover what’s really going on. Perhaps it’s nothing to sweat about, or maybe it is …

Check for Understanding

7) Periodically, invite students to share what they are writing to make sure everyone is clear about the purpose of the prompts.

8) Students exchange papers, giving each other feedback based on the rubric below:

4: slowly builds a lot of suspense; uses rich sensory details; includes elements of surprise; reveals compelling details about the main character’s personality.

3: builds suspense; uses sensory details; includes an element of surprise; reveals the main character’s personality.

2: builds some suspense; uses some sensory details; may be somewhat predictable; may reveal something about the main character’s personality.

1: builds little, if any, suspense; uses few, if any, sensory details; may be very predictable; reveals few, if any, details about the main character’s personality.

9) After students revise, engage them in scoring their own papers and justifying their scores by providing evidence of having met the criteria in the rubric.

Independent Practice

10) Students write another suspenseful scene for homework, using sensory details to create an air of mystery.

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