Celebrating Women’s History Month for Kids through Resources on Important Women in History
March is Women’s History Month where we pay special attention to women who have broken from the status quo in order to make progress in their fields, improve the lives of women, or simply change the world. However, we can and should celebrate these women and their accomplishments any time! Who are these women? Some women make every list while others are on some lists and not others. If you are looking for a way to create a unit study on important women in history for kids, we are here to help. Check out these resources:
|Some Important Women in History for Kids|
|Books about Extraordinary Women in History for Kids||Lesson Plans and Activities about Women and Their Accomplishments for Kids|
*Although most of the resources listed here are free, those marked with a $ have a cost or require a fee/subscription in order to access the full range of materials.
Facts about Famous Women in History for Kids
If you are just starting on your exploration of important historical women for kids, you may want to begin with some general resources. These sites provide trends, discuss the groundbreaking achievements of women in certain fields, and highlight the accomplishments of featured women. Try these resources as you begin your unit study:
11 Women Who Did Groundbreaking Things that Men Got the Credit for | HuffPost
“This goes out to all the ladies who’ve ever had their ideas mansplained back to them.” Read about these eleven women who never really got credit for their accomplishments.
20 Famous Women in History for Kids | Lottie
Here are brief summaries, links to biographies, and free printable coloring pages for learning about women like Kim Campbell, first Prime Minister of Canada; Deborah Sampson, American Revolutionary War heroine; and Jeanette Rankin, first woman elected to the US Congress.
4000 Years of Women in Science
Explore this collection of women in science that spans over 4000 years. Read biographies, browse photographs, or use the reference list for further research.
Biographies of Famous Canadian Women
Search through the biographies of famous women leaders across politics and law, entertainment, sports, journalism, and more.
Celebrating America’s Women Physicians
This site “celebrates the lives and careers of some of America’s extraordinary women physicians. Their stories begin in the 19th century. Their impact transcends time. Each woman has a unique story to share.” Learn “about their lives—what inspired them to become doctors, who their mentors were, and why medicine is important to them.”
Early Women in Broadcasting | University of Maryland
“A number of talented women rose to the upper echelons of their fields in the early years of broadcasting. World War II had a significant impact on some women’s opportunities, as many stations on the “home front” found themselves suddenly dependent on female labor. After the war was over, many of these women were able to retain their jobs, or to move on to others in the field, based upon the abilities and the skills that they had acquired.” Read about four of these famous women here.
Featured Angels | My Hero Stories
Enjoy this feel-good collection that uses media “to celebrate the best of humanity.” While there are also men featured on this spot, you will find many, many women and young girls who have been inspirational, affected the lives of others, or even changed the world.
Notable Women of Early America | Varsity Tutors
Featured here are brief biographies of Abigail Adams, Catherine Ferguson, Dolly Madison, Lucretia Mott, Mary Philipse, Molly Pitcher, Betsy Ross, Catherine Sedgwick, Mercy Warren, Martha Washington, Mary Ball Washington, and Phillis Wheatley.
Women and the Holocaust – A Cyberspace of Their Own
For mature students only…. This is a site that is dedicated to the women who were lost or who persevered through the horrific period of the Holocaust. While their bravery needs to be celebrated, the descriptions are graphic, so please avoid sharing with young children.
Women in Aviation History
“Since the Wright Brothers took flight in 1903, women have made a significant contribution to aviation. The following is just a small sampling of the contributions women have made to the field of aviation.”
Women’s History | National Women’s History Museum
This comprehensive site will keep you busy for hours! Browse through biographies, view original documents, enjoy online exhibits, or listen to songs and speeches. You can even set up a virtual field trip.
Some Important Women in History for Kids
Let’s meet some of these game-changing historical women! Included in this list are autobiographies from some of our famous women because what better way to learn about them than through their own words. Perhaps your homeschooler will pick one or two to research, or the two of you may want to jump around and learn a little about each together. Of course, you may also have your favorites or discover a new incredible woman who should be on this list. We couldn’t include them all (and mean nothing by any exclusions!), but please add your ideas in the comments. Here is simply a start:
Abigail Adams | National First Ladies’ Library
Read about this famous homeschooler and first lady, the first to live in the White House. Wife of John Adams, Abigail Adams accomplished much on her own. Find out more here by reading this juvenile/educational biography designed for younger readers.
Ada Lovelace | Computer History Museum
Read about this famous mathematician and “first programmer.” She was the first person “to express the potential for computers outside mathematics.”
Amelia Earhart | This is Amelia: Read the Story of Amelia Earhart (Time for Kids)
Amelia Earhart traveled the world as a child and built her own roller coaster before she was 10. No wonder she was destined to fly! Read her fascinating story here.
Anne Frank | Anne Frank House
Discover the story of Anne Frank during the Holocaust and read about the Secret Annex and her now internationally-known diary.
Catherine the Great | Britannica Kids
Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796, Catherine the Great remains one of the most famous monarchs ever. Read this short biography for kids. For a longer biography for older children, click on “students.”
“Co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement.”
“Dorothy Vaughan was a mathematician, a human computer, and an electronic computing pioneer who helped send satellites into space and put the first man on the moon.”
Haben Girma | Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law $
Audiobook Read by Haben Girma (Author)
“Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities. Haben takes listeners through a thrilling game of blind hide-and-seek in Louisiana, a treacherous climb up an iceberg in Alaska, and a magical moment with President Obama at the White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating memoir is a testament to one woman’s determination to find the keys to connection.”
Helen Keller | The Story of My Life $
Audiobook by Helen Keller (Author), Cindy Hardin Killavey (Narrator)
“Before she was two years old, a serious illness destroyed Helen Keller’s sight and hearing. At seven, alone and withdrawn, she was rescued by Ann Sullivan, her teacher and friend. By the time she was 16, Helen could speak well enough to attend preparatory school. Later she went to Radcliffe, from which she graduated with honors in 1904. Enthusiastic and untiring, Helen Keller’s life is deservedly inspirational and stands before all of us as an example of what we can accomplish, given fortitude and purpose.”
Helen Keller | Helen Keller Kids Museum Online
Learn about Helen Keller’s childhood, education, life as a young woman, and work as a champion of the blind and world leader.
Hillary Clinton | Living History $
Audiobook by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Author, Narrator)
“The only First Lady to play a major role in shaping domestic legislation, Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled tirelessly around the country to champion health care, expand economic and educational opportunity and promote the needs of children and families, and she criss-crossed the globe on behalf of women’s rights, human rights and democracy. She redefined the position of First Lady, and helped save the presidency from an unconstitutional, politically motivated impeachment. Intimate, powerful and inspiring, Living History captures the essence of one of the most remarkable women of our time and the challenging process by which she came to define herself and find her own voice – as a woman and as a formidable figure in American politics.”
Hillary Clinton | National First Ladies’ Library
Read about Hillary Clinton’s life as both a first lady and politician in her own right. Discover a timeline, lesson plans, and a bibliography focusing on this famous lady.
Ida B. Wells | Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells $
By Ida B. Wells (Author)
“Ida B. Wells is an American icon of truth telling. Born to slaves, she was a pioneer of investigative journalism, a crusader against lynching, and a tireless advocate for suffrage, both for women and for African Americans. She co-founded the NAACP, started the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, and was a leader in the early civil rights movement, working alongside W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, Mary Church Terrell, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony. This engaging memoir, originally published 1970, relates Wells’ private life as a mother as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight for equality and justice.”
Indira Gandhi | Biography (Mocomi)
“Indira Gandhi was a famous Indian politician and the third Prime Minister of India. She was the daughter of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru. Her charismatic personality and intelligence made her a powerful statesperson and extremely popular amongst the common people.” Read about her life and successes here.
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis| National First Ladies’ Library
Here is a biography of the famous first lady, and you can also find links to a timeline of her life, lesson plans, and a bibliography.
Joan of Arc | Activity Village
Joan of Arc led the French against the English at the age of 17! Learn some fun facts, read a short biography, and then grab some Joan of Arc printables.
Kamala Harris | The Truths We Hold (Young Readers Edition): An American Journey $
Audiobook by Kamala Harris (Author), Robin Miles (Narrator)
“With her election to the vice presidency, her election to the US Senate, and her position as attorney general of California, Kamala Harris has blazed trails throughout her entire political career…. In this young readers edition of Kamala Harris’ memoir, we learn about the impact that her family and community had on her life and see what led her to discover her own sense of self and purpose. The Truths We Hold traces her journey as she explored the values she holds most dear – those of community, equality, and justice. An inspiring and empowering memoir, this book challenges us to become leaders in our own lives and shows us that with determination and perseverance all dreams are possible.”
“Katherine Johnson loved math. Early in her career, she was called a “computer.” She helped NASA put an astronaut into orbit around Earth. And then she helped put a man on the Moon.”
Madam C. J. Walker
“Sarah Breedlove–who later would come to be known as Madam C. J. Walker–was born on December 23, 1867 on the same Delta, Louisiana plantation where her parents, Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, had been enslaved before the end of the Civil War. This child of sharecroppers transformed herself from an uneducated farm laborer and laundress into one of the twentieth century’s most successful, self-made women entrepreneurs.”
“Learn how Malala began her fight for girls—from an education activist in Pakistan to the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate—and how she continues her campaign through Malala Fund.”
Margaret Bourke-White | Portrait of Myself $
By Margaret Bourke-White (Author)
“This is the story of the internationally acclaimed American woman Margaret Bourke-White, who for over thirty years made photographic history: as the first photographer to see the artistic and storytelling possibilities in American industry, as the first to write social criticism with a lens, and as the most distinguished and venturesome foreign correspondent-with-a-camera to report wars, politics and social and political revolution on three continents.”
Margaret Sanger | The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger $
By Margaret Sanger (Author)
“While working as a nurse amid the squalor of New York’s Lower East Side in the early twentieth century, Margaret Sanger witnessed the devastating effects of unwanted pregnancies. Women already overwhelmed by the burdens of poverty had no recourse; their doctors were either ignorant of effective methods of birth control or were unwilling to risk defying the law. Sanger resolved to dedicate her life to establishing birth control as a basic human right. Her battles brought a world of troubles — arrest, indictment, and exile among them — but ultimately she triumphed, opening the first American birth control clinic in 1916 and serving as the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1953.”
Margaret Thatcher | Margaret Thatcher: Britain’s ‘Iron Lady’ (Social Studies for Kids)
Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister of Britain, she served for eleven years. Discover her story here.
Marie Curie | Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity
Maria Sklodowska-Curie became the first person from Poland to receive a Nobel Prize. She discovered the element radium, which changed the way scientists thought about matter and energy. Read all about her life and accomplishments.
Mary Winston Jackson
“Mary Winston Jackson was an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.” She then became NASA’s first black female engineer in 1958.
Michelle Obama | Becoming $
Audiobook by Michelle Obama (Author, Narrator)
“In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As first lady of the United States of America – the first African American to serve in that role – she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the US and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.”
Michelle Obama | National First Ladies’ Library
Learn about this first lady’s life and accomplishments, and access lesson plans and a bibliography specific for further study of this famous woman.
Mileva Marić Einstein | The Forgotten Life of Einstein’s First Wife
“She was a physicist, too—and there is evidence that she contributed significantly to his groundbreaking science.” Find out about her work and how it was overshadowed by the work of her husband.
Olympe de Gouges | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The “only woman executed for her political writings during the French Revolution, Olympe de Gouges wrote The Rights of Women, also known as The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, in 1791. Learn about her early life, intellectual pursuits, and legacy.
Oprah Winfrey | Kids Fun Facts
What do you know about this famous American female talk show host? Discover 15 fun facts you might not know!
Rosa Parks| Rosa Parks: My Story $
By Rosa Parks (Author), Jim Haskins (Author)
“Rosa Parks is best known for the day she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, sparking the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. Yet there is much more to her story than this one act of defiance. In this straightforward, compelling autobiography, Rosa Parks talks candidly about the civil rights movement and her active role in it. Her dedication is inspiring; her story is unforgettable.”
Rosa Parks: How I Fought for Civil Rights
In this teacher’s activity guide for grades 7-8, “Rosa Parks, ‘The Mother of the Modern-day Civil Rights Movement,’ describes her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helps students understand the importance of every individual citizen in a democracy.”
Sacagawea | Lewis and Clark History
Discover information about “the only Native American woman who served as an interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 and 1806.”
Shirley Chisholm | Unbought & Unbossed $
By Shirley Chisholm (Author)
“Unbought and Unbossed is Shirley Chisholm’s account of her remarkable rise from young girl in Brooklyn to America’s first African-American Congresswoman. She shares how she took on an entrenched system, gave a public voice to millions, and sets the stage for her trailblazing bid to be the first woman and first African-American President of the United States. By daring to be herself, Shirley Chisholm shows us how she forever changed the status quo.”
Sojourner Truth | History for Kids
Read about this important advocate for slaves and women. Discover how her life became the basis for her activism.
Sophie Germain | Math’s Hidden Woman (NOVA PBS)
Here is the true story of mathematician, Sophie Germain, “an 18th-century woman who assumed a man’s identity in order to pursue her passion — attempting to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem.”
Valentina Tereshkova | The First Lady of Space: In Her Own Words $
By Valentina Tereshkova (Author)
“Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to travel into space, spending almost three days piloting Vostok 6 in 1963—twenty years before Sally Ride became the first American woman to reach orbit…. She spent almost three days in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times. During this single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. She became an inspiration to millions of women and was designated a ‘Hero of the Soviet Union.’ Inside is her story, told to us in her own words.”
Books about Extraordinary Women for Kids
Great books can make learning about famous historical women for kids easy. Just drop one of these into your ELA lessons! Read the books, discuss, and then do some writing about a favorite. There are so many choices; here are just a few:
100 Women Who Made History: Remarkable Women Who Shaped Our World $
By DK (Authors)
“Get ready to meet some of history’s wonder women. From super scientists like Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin to clued-up creatives like Emily Dickinson and J.K Rowling. Celebrate centuries of brave and brilliant women with this visual educational book.”
Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World $
By Cynthia Chin-Lee (Author), Megan Halsey (Illustrator), Sean Addy (Illustrator)
“Twenty-six amazing women; twenty-six amazing stories. From writers to scientists, sports figures to politicians, this diverse collection highlights women who changed the world. Celebrating twenty-six unique voices, visions, and victories, Amelia to Zora, introduces children to the scope of both the struggles and the achievements of women historically and globally. Beautiful and intricate collages bring these women’s stories and message to life in this collection that will bring young readers inspiration in each turn of the page.”
The Book of Awesome Women: Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes, & Female Firsts $
By Becca Anderson (Author)
“From the foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to today’s women warriors from sports, science, cyberspace, city hall, the lecture hall, and the silver screen, The Book of Awesome Women paints 200 portraits of powerful and inspiring role models for women and girls poised to become super women of the future.”
Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World $
By Kate Pankhurst (Author)
“Discover fascinating facts about some of the most amazing women who changed the world we live in. Fly through the sky with the incredible explorer Amelia Earhart, and read all about the Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole with this fantastic full colour book. Bursting full of beautiful illustrations and astounding facts, Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is the perfect introduction to just a few of the most incredible women who helped shaped the world we live in.” Get the corresponding activity book to make this a real learning experience.
Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women $
By Catherine Thimmesh (Author), Melissa Sweet (Illustrator)
“In kitchens and living rooms, in garages and labs and basements, even in converted chicken coops, women and girls have invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better. Their creations are some of the most enduring (the windshield wiper) and best loved (the chocolate chip cookie). What inspired these women, and just how did they turn their ideas into realities?”
Her Story: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World $
By Katherine Halligan (Author), Sarah Walsh (Illustrator)
“In this uplifting and inspiring book, follow the stories of fifty powerhouse women from around the world and across time who each managed to change the world as they knew it forever…. From astronauts to activists, musicians to mathematicians, these women are sure to motivate young readers of all backgrounds to focus not on the can’ts and shouldn’ts, but on what they can do: anything!”
Hidden Figures: Young Readers’ Editions $
By Margot Lee Shetterly (Author)
“This edition of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed book is perfect for young readers. It’s the powerful story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.”
Hidden Figures: The True story of Four Black Women and the Space Race $
By Margot Lee Shetterly (Author), Laura Freeman (Illustrator)
“Based on the New York Times bestselling book and the Academy Award–nominated movie, author Margot Lee Shetterly and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award winner Laura Freeman bring the incredibly inspiring true story of four black women who helped NASA launch men into space to picture book readers!”
Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World $
By Susan Hood (Author)
“In this book of poems, you will find Mary Anning, who was just thirteen when she unearthed a prehistoric fossil. You’ll meet Ruby Bridges, the brave six year old who helped end segregation in the South. And Maya Lin, who at twenty-one won a competition to create a war memorial, and then had to appear before Congress to defend her right to create…. Readers will also hear about Molly Williams, Annette Kellerman, Nellie Bly, Pura Belpré, Frida Kahlo, Jacqueline and Eileen Nearne, Frances Moore Lappé, Mae Jemison, Angela Zhang, and Malala Yousafzai—all whose stories will enthrall and inspire.”
Women in Art: 50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World $
By Rachel Ignotofsky (Author)
“A charmingly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Art highlights the achievements and stories of 50 notable women in the arts–from well-known figures like painters Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe, to lesser-known names like 19th-century African American quilter Harriet Powers and Hopi-Tewa ceramic artist Nampeyo. Covering a wide array of artistic mediums, this fascinating collection also contains infographics about artistic movements throughout history, statistics about women’s representation in museums, and notable works by women.”
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World $
By Rachel Ignotofsky (Author)
“A charmingly illustrated and educational book, New York Times best seller Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world…. The trailblazing women profiled include well-known figures like primatologist Jane Goodall, as well as lesser-known pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, the African-American physicist and mathematician who calculated the trajectory of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon.”
Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win $
By Rachel Ignotofsky (Author)
“A richly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Sports highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes from the 1800s to today, including trailblazers, Olympians, and record-breakers in more than forty sports. The athletes featured include well-known figures like tennis player Billie Jean King and gymnast Simone Biles, as well as lesser-known champions like Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a professional men’s league, and skateboarding pioneer Patti McGee.”
Lesson Plans and Activities about Women and Their Accomplishments for Kids
When you want something a bit more structured, you may want to use pre-planned lesson plans and other activities. Luckily, there are plenty of these on the Internet, too. Here are some to get you started:
14 of Our Favorite Women’s History Month Activities | We Are Teachers
This is a goldmine of engaging activities that honors women like Kate Sessions, the tree-loving woman who changed a city, and Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space. Discover resources like a PBS Makers video series and great books about women from history.
Celebrating Great Women in History in March | Time4Learning
Learn about great women in history with activities for various grade levels. Also includes a free printable with related Women’s History Month lesson plans across Time4Learning curriculum.
Celebrate Women’s History Collection | We Teach NYC
Find lessons, tasks and online exhibits, primary sources, activities, interviews, and articles designed to teach your homeschooler about key figures, events, and legislation related to the equal rights movement.
Digital Classroom Resources | National Women’s History Museum
This is a comprehensive collection of resources for you as you plan your lessons. Browse through lesson plans, biographies, primary sources, posters, videos, and more!
First Ladies Lesson Plans | National First Ladies’ Library
Find lots of resources here for teaching about any of America’s first ladies. Search a name and pick an age group. Then let the learning begin!
Top 15 Women’s History Month Activities | TeacherVision
Find lessons and activities to learn about Malala Yousafzai, Susan B. Anthony, Sally Ride and Christa McAuliffe, Nikki Giovanni, and more. Also find book discussion guides to Shaking Things Up and Amelia to Zora, among other activities.
What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?
Not all sheroes are famous throughout the world. Read these stories, written by high school students in Rhode Island, and then have your homeschooler interview a grandmother and write up her story.
Women in World History Curriculum
This is a great site to find educational materials for your middle/high school student. The collection includes lessons, thematic units, biographies, essays, and links to video documentaries and other resources.
Women’s History Month Lesson Plans and Activities | Education World
Try lessons on Honoring the American Woman, activities focused on important women in history, an Internet scavenger hunt or webquest, and more.
Women’s History Month Lesson Plans and Activities: Elementary and Middle School | HMH
Check out these six learning experiences like Power of Persuasion (using the words of Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony) and Lights, Camera, Action! (fusing research and art related to voting rights sheroes, female firsts, and women in STEM).
Women’s History Month Lesson Plans & Resources | Share My Lesson
Find an entire curated collection of related lesson plans, including Women as Aeronauts and Dolores Huerta: A Civil Rights Icon. There are also supporting materials on how to make Women’s History Month relevant and other topics. Just sign up for free access.
Women’s History Quizzes | National Women’s History Alliance
Finish your unit study on Women’s History with these quizzes: Women’s History Month Quiz, Women Who Worked for Peace Quiz, Women in Math and Science Quiz, Test Your Women’s IQ Quiz, Men Who Supported Women’s Rights Quiz, Black Women’s History 40-Question Challenge, and NWHP Women’s Equality Day Quiz.
Have a favorite important woman in history? Know some other resources about famous women in history for kids? Please share with us and with other families in the comments below….


Workshop 6 July 2021
Whether you’ve been writing stories for a while or are a relative newcomer, you will probably have come across the phrase UNRELIABLE NARRATOR. In this Workshop, I’m going to try to explain what this is, why it is used, when and how you might want to incorporate the device into your own writing.
There are quite a few definitions of an UNRELIABLE NARRATOR. Here are some of them:
- A narrator whose credibility is compromised.
- A narrator who is not trustworthy.
- A narrator who misleads readers, either deliberately or unwittingly
- A narrator whose perception is immature or limited through their point of view.
- A narrator whose account of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased or otherwise distorted.
- A character whose telling of the story is not completely accurate or credible due to problems with the character’s mental state or maturity.
So, basically, it’s a story being told by a character who isn’t telling the whole truth.
The trouble is, I could believe that of every character we read and write about and, indeed, about some of the people we meet! If we want our characters to be realistic, then they are not going to be perfect. And from the definitions above, sometimes the character knows he/she is being untruthful, but perhaps on other occasions, they are unaware that they are not telling the truth.
For example, take the case of an eyewitness to an accident. Lawyers do not like eyewitnesses. Surprising, you may think. But research has found that eyewitnesses can be extremely unreliable. They may be totally convinced that their version of events is exactly what happened. But the human memory is fallible, and a person’s viewpoint can be swayed, often subconsciously, by their age, gender, background, education, prejudices and mental state.
There is a well-known film clip used to illustrate the unreliability of someone witnessing an incident. This was used in a Guardian advert in 1986.
A businessman is walking along the pavement, carrying a briefcase. Suddenly, we see a young man rushing up behind him and pushing him.
- He could be going to snatch the briefcase.
- Actually, he is pushing him out of the way of falling scaffolding.
A narrator taking the first point of view here is making assumptions, probably based on what they see and hear on the news, and maybe based on age and their own prejudices. How wrong can they be? A narrator using the second scenario has taken in the whole picture.
Why use an UNRELIABLE NARRATOR?
- To create tension, suspense or intrigue in a story.
- To create a story with multi layers.
- To keep the reader guessing as to who is telling the truth.
- To create complex characters.
All those reasons are perfectly viable and can be used to great effect in fiction writing. I have just read, coincidentally, TWO books that both used the unreliable narrator. I can’t tell you which books they were because that would be giving the game away! They were both written by well-known writers and in both stories, SECRETS and REVELATIONS were left quite late, well into the second half of the books. They also employed a lot of FLASHBACKS, in both cases employing three different time settings: just a little bit confusing until I got into each book.
If not done well, an unreliable narrator can:
- confuse the reader and
- leave the reader feeling they have been misled or cheated.
UNRELIABLE NARRATORS are most frequently written in the first person ie the closest point of view which gets the readers right into the mind of the character. So, when the secrets, lies and revelations are revealed, it is as though a close friend has not been telling you the truth! Unreliable narrators can be written in the third person, but then it’s a narrator telling the story of an unreliable narrator ie a step further away from the intimacy of the first person.
So, could an UNRELIABLE NARRATOR work for your stories?
Yes, if you have a story that involves intrigue, suspense, secrets and lies, and complex characters.
I would recommend you:
- PLOT your story well before starting and
- CREATE detailed PROFILES for the characters you want to be unreliable.
I would also recommend :
- Practising and getting feedback from a writing buddy, writing group or tutor.
- Reading books that have one, or more, unreliable narrators to see how the authors blend truth and lies. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a really good example.
- If you’re reading a novel with an UNRELIABLE NARRATOR, make notes as to where different secrets or revelations are placed. Are there are any clues before those revelations?
- Write a conversation between two people, one of whom has a secret that the other is trying to prise out of them.
- Write a scene, similar to the Guardian’s POV film, where someone’s actions are misconstrued.
If you’d like to send me up to 450 words on one of these exercises, please do: firstname.lastname@example.org
Workshop 5 June 2021
Let’s start by remembering one thing – every writer is different.
- Some will have the ending to their story crystal clear in their mind (or on paper) before they write their first sentence.
- Others start writing without any idea of how their story will end.
- And others, mostly crime writers, plot their stories in reverse – knowing when, where and how the murderer is caught, and then working backwards in order to place all the clues and red herrings in the right place!
So, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to how and when you write the last lines of your story, whether it’s a short story or a novel. And. of course, you are not going to please all your readers all of the time with your endings.
As a self-confessed PLANNER, I tend to favour the first option above. But even if that’s not your preferred method, I hope I can give you a few ideas to make endings a little easier.
(1) REALISTIC, BELIEVABLE and SATISFYING.
It probably goes without saying that the conclusion of your story should be realistic and believable – if not, then your reader is certainly going to feel cheated. And they should also be satisfying. That doesn’t mean that every story has to end happily-ever-after. Nor does it mean that everything has to be neatly tied up.
One of my writer friends says she loves it when a story finishes open-ended ie without a specific resolution. She likes thinking about the story and deciding for herself what might have happened, giving her a choice of endings! Other people I know find that sort of ending most frustrating, even calling the writer lazy and indecisive! But even if you decide to have an “open” ending, you must still be true to your readers and give them all the information they need to construct their own version of a realistic and believable ending.
(2) Endings should answer the QUESTION set by your protagonist’s driving motivation
eg Did Romeo get Juliet? Did Scarlet get Ashley and save Tara? Does the hero get his revenge? Does the heroine find true love? Does the businessman secure that lucrative deal?
If you are a non-planner, you might get near the end of your story and discover you don’t have an over-riding question to answer. Go back to the beginning and set your protagonist a goal.This does NOT mean your protagonist has to achieve their goal. Apart from the open ending, there are four outcomes to any story:
The protagonist achieves their goal and realises it is not what they wanted or needed
The protagonist achieves their goal and is happy
The protagonist doesn’t achieve their goal and is happy
The protagonist doesn’t achieve their goal and realises it is not what they wanted or needed
(3) Endings should complete the NARRATIVE ARC of the protagonist. Has your main character CHANGED during the course of the story? Has your main character been ACTIVE throughout the story? Does the ending fit your character’s PERSONALITY? (profiling helps here).
(4) As a writer, you want your reader to remember your story and one of the best ways to do that is to end with a strong IMAGE. Lovers holding hands on the beach in the setting sun is a cliché. But I think you get my drift!
(5) Short stories can be very effective if they have a CIRCULAR structure ie beginning and ending in the same way. An example would be starting with your protagonist starting a new job at the beginning of the year – and finishing it with another new job, in a year’s time. Or your main character decides to leave home but actually ends up back at home, hopefully happier! Or a Christmas gathering that sets off the plot and ends the following Christmas.
(6) NEVER EVER USE DEUS EX MACHINA
In Ancient Greek theatre, a popular, and accepted, technique was,whenever everything looked hopeless for the characters, to have a god come down from on high (by a special device/machine) and solve all the problems of the play in a split second.
You might think this would be a totally outmoded technique but, sadly, COINCIDENCE is the modern equivalent. AVOID. DO NOT USE. BANNED!
(7) THE LAST 20 MINUTES
There’s a saying in Hollywood that “movies are about their last 20 minutes”. I’m quoting from Robert McKee’s epic book Story in which he says for a film to have a chance in the world “the last act and its climax must be the most satisfying experience of all. For no matter what the first ninety minutes have achieved, if the final movement fails, the film will die over its opening weekend.”
Translating that to fiction writing, it means that the end of your story needs to be the most dramatic and conclusive, otherwise the story will have failed. In a short story of 3000 words, that’s the final 300 words.
(8) DON’T LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS
William Golding, who wrote Lord of the Flies, said “the key to all story endings is to give the audience what it wants but not in the way it expects.”
And Mary Flannery O’Connor (American novelist, short story writer and essayist) said endings should be totally right and totally unexpected.
Your reader should not be able to identify the ending too early in the story. In a murder mystery, there will be clues and red herrings, but the final outcome should not be too predictable. In a psychological thriller, we sometimes know who the killer is and the story is then all about the WHY?
There’s a Quiz this month on Last Words. Click here. See if you can match the endings of those well-known novels to one or more of the ideas above.
- Have a go at creating a new ending for a well-known fairy story, such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, the Pied Piper etc.
- Take a look through some of your own stories. Can you improve on any of the endings?
- Try the reverse approach! Think of an ending and work backwards.
- Have a closer look at the endings of books that you have read recently. Do they meet some of the above criteria? Are they satisfactory for you?
- Does your ending answer your protagonist’s question/problem/goal?
- Is it realistic and believable?
- Can the reader see that your protagonist has changed?
- Have you left your reader with a lasting image?
Dominoes!Have you ever noticed how, in life, something always leads to something else? You break the speed limit, the cameras catch you and you are fined! It’s a bit like a conversation: one person says something, and another person responds to what they have just said.
Whether it’s actions or words, this is known as CAUSE and EFFECT and it’s a really good device to use when writing stories. It’s also known as CAUSALITY or CAUSATION or, my favourite, THE ZIG-ZAG. But I think DOMINOES works really well too!
You’ve probably heard this example before:
The King died and the Queen died.
That’s not a story, merely a statement of two events.
The King died and the Queen died of a broken heart is
CAUSE and EFFECT.
There’s an old proverb that illustrates this really well:
For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For the want of a horse, a rider was lost.
For the want of a rider, the message was lost.
For the want of the message, the battle was lost.
For the want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Another example is There’s a hole in my bucket, but you can Google that for yourselves!
In Will Storr’s excellent book The Science of Storytelling*, he says:
Cause and effect is the natural language of the brain. It is how we make sense of our world. Something happens and as a result of that, something else happens.
The first thing that happens in your story is the inciting incident which should dramatically affect your protagonist. The effect of the inciting incident on your protagonist MUST be immediately clear to your readers. Otherwise, why should they be interested? This will then be followed by a chain of events that are all linked by CAUSE and EFFECT.
The Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet was involved with the TV drama The Unit. He became frustrated with his writers producing scenes with no cause and effect – scenes were there simply to deliver information. His memo:
Any scene which does not both advance the plot and stand alone is either superfluous or incorrectly written. The scene must be dramatic. It must start because the hero has a problem, and it must culminate with hero finding himself either thwarted or realising that another way exists.
Quite often, when I ask a writer what their story is about, I get a long, involved explanation that has plenty of
… and then this happens, and then that happens, and then …
Instead of and then, we need “because”.
Another way of thinking about CAUSE and EFFECT, is always to think WHY? something is happening. For example: a car breaks down as a couple are escaping from the spooky castle. Coincidence? No! The reader should already know that the car has been tampered with, or the couple cancelled the annual car service so they had money to go on holiday. If things just happen in isolation, they are not realistic and won’t sit well with your reader.
So, keep asking WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY? For example:
- Patti didn’t set the alarm that night.
- What happened? She was late for work.
- And what happened because she was late for work?
- She was ticked off by her team leader.
- And what happened because of that?
- A co-worker came to sympathise and asked her out for a drink!
In this example, you can also work backwards by asking the question WHY?
- Why didn’t Patti set the alarm?
- Because she’d had too much to drink.
- Why had she had too much to drink?
- Because she’d had a row with her boyfriend.
- Why had she rowed with her boyfriend? ……..
As above, work on one of the scenarios below, going forwards in time but also backwards. When practising, the more bizarre the better! Free your mind!
- Billy brings home the class hamster for the holidays
- There’s a power-cut at 3pm at the office (or school)
- It rains on her wedding day
- She leaves her phone at home
- The new boy at school is a rebel
- The new boss likes a drink
- He puts the decimal point in the wrong place
- His/her mother has a stroke
This device can also be used if you get stuck in a story. Instead of thinking of just ONE cause or ONE effect, make a list of four, five or more reasons why or consequences eg
Billy brings home the class hamster for the holidays: Why?
- Because he was naughty, and the teacher said it was a punishment.
- Because he has a crush on his teacher, and he was the first to volunteer.
- Because his younger brother is at home ill and he wants to cheer him up.
- Because he likes a girl down the street who likes animals.
- Because he’s lonely in the holidays and needs a friend
I can’t guarantee that Line of Duty uses this method 😊 but, there was a lot of CAUSE and EFFECT there too!
As you get out and about a bit more now, notice how CAUSE and EFFECT works in everyday life. Then use it for your stories!
*The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr is currently £7.59 on Amazon. It’s quite a deep & hefty read, but if you like reading about writing, it’s one of the best books I’ve found.
How close is your reader?
I’m sure, like me, you’ve read books in which you are absolutely fixated on what the protagonist (hero or heroine) is going to do next. You are living the action with them, in their head, urging them to do this or that, not following in their footsteps but actually in their shoes!
When it comes to your own writing, is that the feeling YOUR readers get? Our aim as writers should be to create an empathy between your reader and your protagonist. You want your reader to care enough about your protagonist to go on reading, right to the end. The lawyer, Atticus Finch, summed it up well in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
To create this empathy, I recommend using:
Deep Point of View
This is where a story is written as though the reader is the main character. Deep point of view ignores the narrator’s voice, experiencing everything as though they were the main character.
This works whether you are writing in the first person or the third: I’ll be giving examples here in the third person.
For Deep POV to work really well, you need to know EVERYTHING about your protagonist, particularly what their goals in life are and what drives them. These features will form part of a CHARACTER PROFILE.
(I’ll be looking at CHARACTER PROFILING in a future workshop. In the meantime, there is a whole chapter on the subject in my book 😊)
- Avoid using dialogue tags. When we write: He said we are telling the reader that someone has said something. It’s far better to show the person in question doing something as he/she is speaking. For example: “I don’t want to go out with you,” Maria said, clearly exasperated at his persistence.
Instead: “I don’t want to go out with you.” Maria turned her back on him. Hadn’t he got the message yet?
- Use internal dialogue. You can get into the head of your point-of-view character so that the reader knows exactly what they are thinking. This is shown in the example above: Hadn’t he got the message yet? This could be carried on: Didn’t he realise he was the class dork and that no-one wanted to be his prom date? Well, she wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. She already had a date, the captain of the school rugger team!
- Don’t name emotions. That is telling the reader what emotion a character is exhibiting. Far better to show. For example: John was furious: that was the third time this year he’d been passed over for promotion.
Instead: John screwed the memo into a ball and chucked it towards the bin; it missed. Three times this year he’d been overlooked. And now that idiot was going to be his team leader.
- Avoid filter words. A bit like he said, she said, filter words are those used by a writer to tell a reader what is going on in a character’s head. For example: As she reached into her handbag, Penny realised she had left her phone at home.
Instead: Penny scrambled in her handbag. Where was it? Oh, no! Fiddlesticks! She’d left her phone at home.
- Other filter words to avoid: noticed, felt, saw, heard, smelled, thought, knew, noted, wondered. For example: How was it, Patsy wondered, that Maggie always got picked as team captain?
Instead: Once again Maggie had been chosen as team captain: Patsy was going to find out why.
- Use your character’s voice, not yours. Each person’s vocabulary is different, depending on such factors as age, gender, culture, background, class, education, environment and situation. A teacher, for example, will use different tones and vocabulary when talking to her students than when she is talking to her younger children
A detective will use different words when talking to his colleagues, talking to a victim’s family and talking to a criminal.
- When describing people, places, objects and events, use words that your character would use, not you or a narrator. Be as specific as you can. For example: Jill couldn’t stop looking at him. He was the best-looking bloke in the room. He was tall, broad-shouldered, dressed in a smart suit, his shoes shining. He was just the sort of man she was looking for.
Instead: She must stop staring. Someone was going to notice. But she couldn’t. He was Brad Pitt gorgeous, in an Armani suit and St Laurent shoes – ostrich leather, weren’t they? As far as she was concerned, he was IT.
If you’d like to look at this topic in greater detail, I recommend The Writer’s Guide to Deep POV by S. A. Soule, currently available from Amazon for £5.13 on Kindle and £12.85 paperback and from e-Bay and Abe books from £7+.
Exercises on Deep POV
- Take a look at one of your recent stories or flash fiction. Can you get rid of dialogue tags, emotion words and filter words? Can your descriptions be more specific? Are you using your character’s vocabulary rather than yours? Rewrite all or part of your story and then READ IT OUT ALOUD. You will hear the difference.
- Write a story (or part of a story) in 450 words, using one of the following scenarios and Deep POV
(a) A student nurse seeing someone faint in a supermarket.
(b) A police officer, on the verge of retirement, facing a man with a gun.
(c) A woman (or man) catching their partner kissing someone else.
(d) A teenager being offered drugs.
If you’d like your story posted for feedback, or if you’d like a paragraph from me, please do send (no more than 450 words) to email@example.com
The workshop for March is all about TIME.
- Think of three or more reasons why a Flashback might be used in a story,
- and two ways in which a Flashback might not work.
Part 1: What is your story’s Time Frame?
Novels, particularly sagas, can cover hundreds (sometimes thousands) of years. James Michener’s epic history Hawaii begins when the earth was formed by volcanic activity, thousands of years before people came along. And they say writers should introduce their protagonist as soon as possible!
Short stories, though, are a completely different matter as far as Time is concerned. By short stories here, I’m talking about both Flash Fiction, which can be anything from 100 to 800 words and short stories which can vary from 1000 words to 8,000+. In a short story, it is advised that you keep your time frame short, continuous, and the plot limited to a single conflict.
For example, an incident at a party (wedding, funeral, meeting etc); someone achieving their goal in the course of a single day (yes, I know James Joyce’s Ulysses at 265,000 words takes place in one day!). This can be expanded to a week or two weeks but, for the sake of clarity for the reader, it’s not recommended you take any more time.
Occasionally you may read phrases like later that summer or the next Christmas. And you might be tempted to cover a greater time frame with four years later he got his expected first at Oxford and landed the job he’d always wanted. But people, and characters, change over the course of a year or more and realistically capturing such changes cannot be done well in a short story.
I remember a story written by a member of one of my writing groups a few years ago. It all took place in an auction room, in the space of just one item being sold. The story was structured around each successive bid for the item, with backstory and character development inbetween. Clever. (I think that was yours, TS. Hope you are well and still writing).
A limited time frame can be used this way as a device to ratch up tension and suspense, such as knowing the bomb will go off in four hours, or the train leaves in an hour, or it’s a week til the wedding.
So, you’ve decided on your time frame but find you still need to let your readers know something of what happened to your protagonist, or antagonist, in the past. Which brings us to …
Part 2: The Flashback
This is a section of a story that goes back in time. It is also known as ANALEPSIS. Looking forward, like a prophecy, is known as PROLEPSIS.
A flashback should only be used to add information that is important/vital to the PRESENT-DAY STORY, such as:
- to show and develop your protagonist’s character;
- to give backstory that is vital to the present-day story;
- to add tension/suspense to the present-day story.
Flashbacks, wrongly used, can:
- stop the flow of the main story which can be anything from mildly annoying to really intrusive;
- overshadow the main story;
- confuse (or bore) the reader.
In novels, flashbacks can be anything from one or two pages up to chapter length. In short stories, they can be one or two sentences long, or a section, such as five or six paragraphs. They must be relevant and interesting, but don’t let them take your reader away for too long from the main, present-day story.
In order to make it clear when your story is going back in time, it is a good idea to use TRIGGERS. These are something that the protagonist comes across that reminds them of a memorable time in the past. Triggers are often related to our senses.
Think of three triggers that take you back to different memories in your past.
Mine: The smell of vanilla essence takes me back to my mother teaching me to make a Victoria sponge; the smell of autumn always reminds me of Ireland and the sight, smell and taste of snails takes me back to a day-trip to Paris!
Use a trigger to take your protagonist back in time and, if at all possible, use the same trigger to bring them back to the present day.
One more thing to watch when you write flashbacks – the tense of the verbs. If your main story is in the present tense, then the flashback is written in the simple past tense.
Jimmy hears the whistle of the train and it takes him back to the time when he missed the train by seconds and he never saw his dad again.
If the main story is in the past, then the flashback should be in the pluperfect tense ie the smell of an open fire brought back memories of when he had been a child, when he had played with his friends in the woods, when he had seen the two men fight.
Unfortunately, this tends to result in rather ‘clunky’ writing with lots of repetition of the word had. What you can do, especially if you have a longish flashback, is to use the pluperfect just a couple of times and then slip into the simple perfect:
Jimmy heard the whistle of the train and it took him back to the time when he had missed the train and he had never seen his dad again. His childhood was tough. He was teased for not having a dad around, bullied even. They called him a Mummy’s boy and he was often in trouble for fighting. As the whistle sounded again, he knew he wasn’t going to let his son suffer the same way. He got on the train – he was going back to make sure.
Try this exercise, choosing one of the scenarios below.
Initially, just make notes on:
- A present-day story for the main character;
- A trigger to take them back in time;
- Back in time when something important happened;
- A trigger back to the present day.
If you’d like to expand your idea, write up to 450 words and mail it (in the email, not as an attachment, please) to firstname.lastname@example.org. I will send you a paragraph of feedback and, if you want me to, post it on this website.
- A bride on her wedding day remembers playing weddings with her parents as a child.
- A teacher remembers his own teacher recognising he was being abused at home.
- An elderly woman remembers the first time she met the love of her life.
- A police officer remembers what a tearaway he had been as a teenager.
January Workshop: SETTING
Warmup exercise, no more than three or four minutes.
- Think of three places where you feel comfortable or happy or confident. Why have you chosen those?
- Think of three places where you feel uncomfortable or unhappy or shy or nervous. Why do you feel like that in those places?
Now read my article. If you’re with a writing buddy or in a group, you could have a discussion before going onto the exercises.
WHERE you set your story is just as important as your characters and their conflicts. If you get the setting wrong, it could, and probably will, detract from the characters and their story. If you get it right, your readers con’t notice as it will seamlessly blend with all the other elements to provide a story that is real and believable.
The two biggest problems with settings in fiction are:
1. There’s too little,
2. There’s too much!
A question I’ve often been asked is: “How much research should I do?” And the answer? As much as is needed.
I’ve just finished reading a new novel from a very well-known writer. I’m not going to name them as I don’t want my opinion to impact on your enjoyment of the book. But I was so disappointed to find that his style has changed somewhat and that we get detailed (and I mean DETAILED) descriptions of every room the hero enters, entry street he drives down, every person he meets. The book itself was also quite repetitive in action, resolution, action …. Perhaps he didn’t have quite enough plot points to fill the word count!
Another book I’ve read recently was almost the opposite. It was set on an island off the coast of Britain that I happen to have visited. The descriptions took me back there and I could picture exactly where the action was taking place. But, I believe, if someone who didn’t know the island read the book, then there was enough, but not over-done, description to allow them to build a good impression of the place.
So, what do you need to think about when deciding on a place, or places, for your story?
- What does this place mean to your protagonist? Is he/she at home here, perhaps in charge, or are they anxious or nervous? A dentist is in charge, a patient often anxious.
- What will your protagonist notice about the place, rather than you, the writer? A potential burglar will be looking at easy access points and what they can steal; new first-time home-owners will be euphoric with the newly-fitted kitchen; a D-I-Y fanatic will be looking at what needs doing.
- Can you use the senses to describe (through your protagonist’s pov) the setting? What can they hear through the thin walls of the new apartment? What does a detective smell on entering the scene of a crime? Almonds? What memories does the feel of an old quilt bring back for an elderly person?
- How does the setting contribute to the conflict in a scene?
If your protagonist is in a strange building in the dark, trying to find the light-switch can increase the suspense.
Trying to escape from a kidnap attempt, does your protagonist know about the narrow alley just ahead where the car cannot follow?
Going back to old childhood haunts, they often feel smaller and less intimidating when you’re older.
- Can you be specific enough to draw your readers in? This is where knowledge and/or research comes in. If you know a place well, be careful not to use all that information – only what your protagonist would know and notice. If you’re researching a place, make sure whatever you find out relates to your characters, particularly your protagonist.
If you are writing a short story, you may only need one, two or three different settings. They don’t all need the same amount of description.
If you are writing a novel, you’ll need many more. It pays to spend time on each setting, taking note of whose “domain” each setting is, who’ll be spending time there, what will be happening there, what you need to include and what is superfluous.
The final question I’m going to pose about setting is this:
Why this particular place?
Does it have a particular significance for your protagonist?Is the setting a metaphor for the theme of your story? A garden that hasn’t been tended for years like the couple’s marriage.
Is the setting man against the elements? Jungles, deserts, the sea, a storm.
Examples include The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway; Moby Dick by Herman Melville; The Lord of the Flies by William Golding; The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
Choose one of the scenarios below. Then write 100 – 200 words, describing the place from each of the three characters’ point-of-view. You can use either the first person or third person pov.
You should notice differences between your pieces as each pov person will see different things, because of their personal situation ie age, gender, happy, sad, desperate, apprehensive etc.
- A crowded beach: a mother who can’t find her child; a homeless teenager; an elderly man/woman visiting their childhood holiday resort.
- A motorway service station: a young woman/man on their way to university or a new job; a woman/man who has just left their partner; an escaped prisoner.
- A pub: a thirty-something woman/man on a first date; an undercover police officer looking for a drug deal; a man who’s just lost his job.
- A courtroom: A solicitor on his/her first case; a judge who knows he/she is about to be arrested; a witness who is scared to be giving evidence.
- A wedding in a church: The happy bride; the groom who’s expecting his ex to turn up; the ex who’s sitting at the back.
I’ve included some pictures here. You can always find your own but don’t forget the other senses.
“Homework” and opportunities for feedback
- Choose one of the above scenarios and one point of view. Write a story, or part of a story in no more than 450 words. If you’d like a paragraph of feedback from me, please send it.
- If you’d like me to post it on this website for comments from other writers, I’m happy to do that too.
For any comments about my blog or other pages on this website, please use the Leave a Reply box at the bottom of the page. To send in your stories for feedback and/or posting on this website, please copy and paste them into the main body of an email (no attachments, please) and send to: email@example.com


TESOL 101Free Preparation Courseby OnTESOLTABLE OF CONTENTSChapter 1: Methods and ApproachesChapter 2: Why The Communicative Approach?Chapter 3: Using Authentic MaterialChapter 4: Teaching VocabularyChapter 5: Teaching ReadingChapter 6: Teaching SpeakingChapter 7: Teaching ListeningChapter 8: Teaching WritingChapter 9: Lesson PlanningChapter 10: Teaching Abroad
CHAPTER1- ‐METHODSANDAPPROACHES1.1The Grammar Translation Method (GTM)Main features and techniques1. Learning through memorization of the rules of traditional grammar and long lists ofvocabulary items.2. Main technique: translation from and into the target language.
3. No use of the target language; no emphasis on speaking the target language orlistening to it.4. Use of literary passages as good models to analyze and translate.5. Grammar is taught deductively – that is, by presentation and study of grammar rules,which are then practiced through translation exercises. Example: a new structure isgiven (present continuous), explained in the students’ native language; then,students repeat and translate into their mother tongue.6. Teacher’s role: active. The teacher explains the rules, provides information on thepattern and corrects 100% of student errors.7. Students’ role: passive. Students learn the patterns and vocabulary, repeat after theteacher and translate into their native language.1.2 The Direct Method (DM)Main features and techniques1. Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language. Notranslation into the students’ mother tongue allowed.2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught: What is this? This is a book./What are you doing? I am writing.3. New teaching points were introduced orally. Oral communication skills were built up ina carefully graded progression organized around questions-and-answer exchangesbetween teachers and students. Grammar was taught inductively with a directassociation of the target language to the situation. For example:T: (Showing an object) ‘This is a book. What is this?’S: ‘This is a book.’Another example:T: (miming to teach the present continuous) ‘I am walking.’T: (showing a picture of someone walking) ‘He is walking.’S: Repeat4. Use of gestures, miming and visuals to present the grammar topics and vocabulary.5. Focus on speaking and listening by repeating questions and answers as describedabove.6. Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.7. Teacher’s role:active. The teacher shows the new language by using gestures,miming, visuals, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, etc, providing a good model of thenew language and corrects 100% of student errors.
8. Students’ role: active. Students learn the patterns and vocabulary inductively, andrepeat after the teacher.1.3 Communicative Language TeachingMain features and techniques1. Meaning is paramount.2. Dialogues, if used, enter around communicative functions and are not normallymemorized.3. Contextualization is a basic premise. (Meaning cannot be understood out of context.Teachers using this approach will present a grammar topic in a meaningful context.Example: If the new topic to teach is Present Continuous, the teacher will not mimethe action of ‘walking’ and ask: What am I doing? I am walking. Instead, the teacherwill show, say, pictures of her last trip and tell the students something like: I havepictures of my vacation. Look, in this picture I am with my friends. We are havinglunch at a very expensive restaurant. In this other picture, we are swimming at thebeach.4. Language learning is learning to communicate and effective communication is sought.(When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies forlanguage acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use thelanguage.)5. Drilling may occur, but peripherally.6. Comprehensible pronunciation is sought.7. Translation may be used where students need or benefit from it.8. Reading and writing can start from the first day.9. Communicative competence is the desired goal (i.e., the ability to use the linguisticsystem effectively and appropriately).10. Teachers help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language.11. Students are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pairand group work, or in their writings.
CHAPTER2- ‐WHYTHECOMMUNICATIVEAPPROACH?The Communicative Approach is based on the idea that learning language successfullycomes through having to communicate real meaning.In the Communicative Approach the main objective is to present a topic in context asnatural as possible.2.1 Principles of the Communicative ApproachLanguage learning is learning to communicate using the target language.The language used to communicate must be appropriate to the situation, the roles ofthe speakers, the setting and the register. The learner needs to differentiate betweena formal and an informal style.
Communicative activities are essential. Activities should be presented in a situation orcontext and have a communicative purpose. Typical activities of this approach are:games, problem-solving tasks, and role-play. There should be information gap, choiceand feedback involved in the activities.Learners must have constant interaction with and exposure to the target language.Development of the four macroskills -- speaking, listening, reading and writing -- isintegrated from the beginning, since communication integrates the different skills.The topics are selected and graded regarding age, needs, level, and students’ interest.Motivation is central. Teachers should raise students’ interest from the beginning of thelesson.The role of the teacher is that of a guide, a facilitator or an instructor.Trial and error is considered part of the learning process.Evaluation concerns not only the learners’ accuracy but also their fluency.Teaching Grammar Using the Communicative Approach: Functionsvs Structure2.2The word ‘function’ is a term we use from the time the Notional/Functional syllabus was bornand it continued to be used in Communicative Language Teaching. When we say something, wesay it to communicate that particular thought to the listener. Every single sentence – andsometimes single words- has a function (i.e. meaning that the speaker is trying to convey). Eventhe word “yes” with falling intonation expresses detachment, non-involvement. Or, a word like‘Tea?’ with rising intonation may mean an offering.Why do we need to understand the concept of functions and exponents as English teachers?Well, when we teach grammar communicatively, we teach our students how to express what theywant to say, and how to combine words to express those intentions.When we understand that language is used to communicate and that to communicate we need touse a specific combination of words, we realize that this concept can even be introduced on thefirst day of a beginner class. The important part of Communicative Language Teaching is thatwe can teach our students to communicate right from the beginning by presenting the targetlanguage through context. We do not need to teach English using the students’ mother tongue (asin the Grammar Translation method) and get the students to memorize sentences as othergrammatical oriented methods do.For example, imagine the following dialogue is on the first page of the textbook.-Hello! My name is Susanne. What’s your name?-Hi! I’m Harumi.– Hi, Harumi, Nice to meet you.– Nice to meet you, too.
– Where are you from?– I’m from Japan.What do you think the functions of these sentences are? Let’s review. There is ‘greeting’in Hello, Hi, Nice to meet you. You will be teaching how to greet someone for the first timeinformally or neutrally. There is also introducing oneself by saying one’s name and asking for thelistener’s name in My name is Susanne. What’s your name? I’m Harumi. And then, you willcontinue teaching asking and answering about origin with the question Where are you from? andthe answer I’m from Japan.What is the grammar involved in these exponents or sentences?The verb be in the present form: My name IS Susanne. What’S your name? I AM Harumi.And, the preposition ‘from’ when asking and talking about origin. So, from the grammaticalpoint of view, you will be teaching:Subject is/are/am nameWh- questions: What IS (noun)?Where is/are subject from?Subject am/is/are FROM (country).From the functional point of view, you will be teaching greetings, introductions and asking andanswering about origin.Let’s see other examples of functions and how they are connected to specific grammaticalstructures.If you ask this type of question, Can you drive?, you will be asking a question using modal verbCAN, which follows a specific pattern:CAN (modal verb) pronoun (you) main verb in base form (drive)?This combination of words is essential to the meaning, the intention you are trying tocommunicate to the listener. But, what are you communicating? What is the function of thisquestion?The function is ‘asking about ability’, the ability to drive; if the person knows how to drive. Thiscould be a question asked in the context of a job interview.Contextualization is one of the main features of Communicative Language Teaching. A sentencesaid in different contexts can change the function radically. Yet, in some cases, the grammaticalpattern remains the same. Let’s see some other examples.“Can you drive? I’ve drunk a couple of beers”
The speaker is not asking about the ability the listener has to drive a vehicle, or if he has adriving license. He is requesting, asking for a favor.What about this other example? Two women are talking about rules in a foreign country and oneasks to the other woman, who is from Saudi Arabia: Can you drive? The context clearly showsthat the question refers to ‘permission’; if the person is allowed to drive.Sometimes a change of pronoun or adding a word can change the function. Imagine that a groupof friends are planning a trip to the forest. They have a map and they have to decide how to get totheir destination. One looks at the map and asks Can we drive there?The grammatical pattern is still the same: Modal CAN pronoun verb in base form? But thespeaker is surely asking about how possible it is for them to get to their destination by car.All these examples show that the same grammatical pattern or structure in context willcommunicate different things. Same structure, different functions.Modal verb Can refers to different functions: AbilityRequestPermissionPossibilityWhen choosing a grammar topic to teach, make sure that you can identify the pattern orstructure, and the function so that you can create a good context, or situation to present thegrammar topic communicatively.WATCH VIDEO: Teaching Grammar Communicativelyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v -nqBKrN-o U
CHAPTER3- ‐USINGAUTHENTICMATERIALAuthentic material gives the students the opportunity to see and hear real language asused by native speakers. Authentic workaseffectivelyaspossible.3.1 WHAT IS AUTHENTIC MATERIAL?Anything that was written or recorded in English without the purpose of teaching English as asecond language is authentic material. The following is a compilation of authentic material
sources; however, it is not an exhaustive list, since more and more material gets created on adaily basis. Ad Banners, advertisements, billboardsCatalogues, college and university brochures, flyers, travel brochuresMovies, scripts, commercialsRadio shows, newspapers, Internet websites, magazines, TV showsSocial media, You Tube, PhonebooksTicket stubs, manuals, menus, mapsGreeting cards, horoscopesThe English used in authentic material is natural and its sole purpose is communicating whateverthe material was created for, rather than teaching a particular structure. This can make the overalllanguage in the material a little challenging, especially for students in beginner or lowerintermediate classes; however, authentic material is an excellent source of new vocabulary. Infact, the interest level rises so much when students are presented with authentic material, thattheir need for comprehension compensates for the difficulties they encounter.3.2 LEVELSSome people argue that authentic material should be used with higher-level students only, but amenu, flyers or even a newspaper (if you only focus on the headlines or certain words) can beused with beginner students. The key is to make sure that the instructions and activities are aimedfor the correct level. A simple ‘word search’ where students have to find words they alreadyknow and highlight them, or cut them out of a magazine for example, can expose beginner orlower intermediate students to authentic material in a successful way.3.3 SUPPLEMENT THE TEXTBOOKAuthentic material can be used in many different ways.MaterialActivity / TaskLevelFlyers & CataloguesVocabulary and Bingo gamesBeginnersMenuPractice ordering / Role-playBeginner – Low-intermediateHoroscopesFuture Tense / ConditionalsIntermediateTicket stubs & TravelBrochuresWriting a travel journal or ashort storyHigh intermediate
MaterialActivity / TaskLevelAdvertisementsReading Comprehension,Vocabulary and Media studyAdvancedInconclusion, authentic materials have an indefinite number of uses for all kinds of lessons andlevels. When we include authentic material in our ESL lessons, the way students learn is morenatural and resembles acquisition of the language rather than forced learning of certaingrammatical structures.3.4 CONTEXT IS KINGOk, so what do we mean by contextualization? Basically, all materials should be contextualizedto the syllabus they are intended to address. When designing your material, the objectives of thesyllabus must be kept to the fore. Although we’re not suggesting you stick rigorously to aparticular vocabulary list or to one or two specific syllabus objectives, these should neverthelessbe among your preliminary considerations.In addition to the content of your syllabus, materials should match the context in terms of theexperiences, daily realities, and even the first languages of the learners. This essentially refers tounderstanding the ‘socio-cultural appropriacy’ of things such as the material maker’s own styleof presenting material. In its simplest terms, this might mean making adjustments from what youconsider to be a good piece of supplementary material to what learners think is good. This mightmean, for instance, making materials more serious then you’d like and cutting down on the funaspect.Finally, contextualization refers to the kinds of topics and themes that can provide meaningful,purposeful uses for the target language. Relevance and appropriateness are key here; for manylearners this will actually mean sticking to tried and tested topics such as family, holidays, ormoney. One action is vital here: find new angles on those topics! Having done that, the next thingis to develop activities which ensure purposeful production of the target language or skills.Key questions for your materials What is it in your material that will make it compelling to your teaching context?Is there anything in your material that will be totally unknown or inappropriate?3.5 USING VIDEOVideos are one of the richest authentic materials because of the context, visuals, sounds, andvariety of themes they provide. Let’s look at seven ESL activities and tasks that students cancomplete before, during, and after watching a video.
1) Fill in the BlanksThis is the most common kind of activity. As a teacher you can listen to the movie and prepare apart of the script and blank out some of the words for students to listen and complete. Very oftenthe script can be found online as well. To make this activity a little more challenging you can askthe students to guess the word or phrases that have been blanked out using the context around it;and to make it simpler you can provide the first letter of the word or phrase or just provideoptions in a box for students to choose from.2) Spot the WordAnother fun listening activity is to give the students a set of words or phrases that they have tolisten for and check them off on a handout. This can be even set up as a bingo card and studentscan yell ‘Bingo’ when they have them all.3) Spot the Still ImageSimilar to the activity described above, you can provide the students with a set of still imagesfrom the movie and as the scene takes place they must let you know they’ve recognized it. Thisis ideal for lower level students and to ensure they pay attention while watching.4) Match the Dialogue to the CharacterAnother listening activity would be to give the students a dialogue that has been mixed up andthey have to match the sentences to the characters who say them. An extension to this activitywould be to ask the students to pretend to be those characters and read out the dialogue trying toimitate the way the characters speak. This extension can actually be applied to many otheractivities and it helps develop fluency and intonation.5) Silent WatchingAnother activity is to watch a scene without any sound and ask students to guess what ishappening and why. For more advanced students they can even be challenged to guess what thecharacters are actually saying and re-create the dialogue. As an extra challenge, you could askthem to read the lines they created as the movie plays silently. This is a great activity to helpdevelop more speaking fluency through practice.6) ComprehensionWhen watching a full movie, or full episode, comprehension questions in short answer form ormultiple-choice form can help you check how much the students understood. Even students who
are not good at listening skills tend to do better with movies or TV shows because the contexthelps them to comprehend more.7) Write a Summary or a ReviewYou can ask students to write a summary in order to recommend the movie to their friends; or towrite a review pretending to be a critic. Ideally you could let them read some reviews of othermovies so they can understand the style in which to do it.Other Creative ActivitiesDepending on the level of the students they can also interact with the plot by changing orpredicting the ending if they haven’t seen it before. They can write interviews to the characters oreven add ‘deleted’ scenes that they can even act out as a special project or extension of theactivity.Possible DrawbacksYounger students, children and teenagers, will definitely welcome this kind of activity and take itas a treat or special event. You must make the most of the students’ engagement, but also becareful that they do not tune out and start doing something else because they consider it anunimportant moment in the class.Older students could question the validity of such a fun activity, especially if they have grown upin an educational system that was quite strict and used only direct instruction. Therefore, youmust make sure the aim of the lesson is clear at all times and they know that they are not justwatching for fun, but also for a reason3.6 USING luableresource.Thanks to globalization and the ever present media in our lives, music in English is popular all around the world andreadily available through a number of sources. In fact, students often listen to music in English – and sometimeseven sing along – without knowing the language yet.Another reason why it’s beneficial to bring music and songs into ESL classes is because it can set a better pace and abetter mood for everyone in the class. Improving the overall atmosphere of the class by using a song can have longlasting benefits for everyone involved.Last but not least, songs can be easily adapted to fit different goals or aims in a lesson. Once the song is chosen, theteacher can easily adapt it according to the level of the students, and the need of the lesson.
WhentoIncludeSongsinTheLessonSongs can be added to any part of a lesson. If a teacher is using the Presentation-Practice-Production model, songscan be used mostly as part of the presentation and practice stages, and even the production stage if the students inthe class are very creative.With a Test-Teach-Test model songs can be used in any of the test stages and even the teach stage if the song talksabout the language point being taught and practiced in class, or if the teacher can create a song about the rules ofgrammar.If a Task-Based approach is used for the lesson, songs can also fit in several stages during the class. They can beused as pre-tasks, as the main listening task, and even during the language focus stage if the song discusses theconcepts necessary to understand the language point being taught and practiced.TipsforSuccessFirstly, there are certain things to bear in mind when deciding which song to use and how. Teachers need to do somedetective work to find out what kind of songs their students like and what they don’t like at all. Of course classes arenot “a-la-carte”, but if we can cater to students’ interests the motivation factor will always create a more lastingmemory and a better experience for everyone.Secondly, timing is also very important. Songs will change the pace of a lesson and the right type of song can beused to liven up a group of students who are slowly getting disengaged, or to calm a rambunctious group down whenit is needed.Having the right handout for the lesson is key as well because a handout with too many blanks can becomefrustrating for students. Once the handout is created the teacher should try to complete it or ask someone else tocomplete it before using it in the classroom in order to make sure it is neither too challenging nor too easy for thelevel of the students in this particular class.Finally, it is also important to bear in mind the noise level in and around the classroom when working with a song.On the one hand, the volume of the song needs to be loud enough to be clear for all students, but not too loud todisturb other classes. On the other hand, the noise level outside the classroom should be taken into account becauseit can become a hindrance when working with a song. For example, if the lesson happens to coincide with a momentor a day when there is construction nearby, the teacher will have to change the lesson plan and save the song portionof the lesson, or maybe the whole lesson for another moment or another day.Interes8ngandUsefulWebsitesThe website lyricstraining.com is a great free online resource with a varied database of songs and videos forstudents to practice and work on either in class or at home. On this website students can choose a song to work onand as it plays they have to fill in the blanks. The level of difficulty can be chosen and it is also interesting that eachsong includes the type of English it uses.As the song progresses students can complete the blanks. If they are running behind, the song is automaticallypaused and restarts when they complete the word or skip it by pressing the tab key.Finally, the website runs on a timer and it keeps track of how many words were completed correctly in order to givestudents a score at the end of the exercise.This website can be used as part of a lesson in class or it can be assigned for students to do on their own at home tocontinue practicing.Furthermore, it is believed that when students listen to music and / or sing about what they must learn, auditorylearners especially, and all students in general have a higher chance to succeed. To this effect, the websiteeducationalrap.com was created and it provides a variety of raps that can be purchased and downloaded for use inthe classroom.
These raps can be used as part of the presentation in a PPP lesson, or the language focus stage in a task based lesson.They can also be edited and blanks can be added to be used as the practice stage in a lesson.FromGrammarClozestoDebatesWith popular songs, one of the typical ways of including them in the classroom is to edit the lyrics and add blanks,making the song a cloze exercise for students to complete. For instance, some songs lend themselves well to beturned into exercises on verb tenses by just blanking the verbs and asking students to listen and complete. If theteacher decides to leave the base form of the verb in the lyrics between brackets, students can be asked to try to fillin the blanks before listening and use the listening portion of the exercise to check their answers. If the blanks do notinclude the verbs in base form, students would have to listen and complete the blanks and then take up answers witha classmate or as a whole class.Apart from tenses, more complex structures can also be taught or practiced with the aid of songs. The fact that oftenphrases are repeated in songs becomes a somewhat natural way of drilling a structure students need to learn.Furthermore, there are many songs that deal with interesting themes and topics that can spark great discussions inthe class. These can be used for excellent lessons focusing on listening and speaking skills in which students can beencouraged to discuss their opinions.Current events are frequently the inspiration for popular songs, and these songs can spark great debates. Whenincluding controversial topics, however, it is important to be well aware of the kinds of students in the class and besure to avoid offending anyone.In conclusion, songs can be used for a very wide variety of lessons in ESL; such a versatile resource should not bewasted!3.7 USING COMICSESL teachers can find comics on newspapers and online. This is a simple and very interesting authentic material thatmany ESL teachers often overlook. Comics can be exploited in similar ways to regular text and they have the addedelement of fun and humour to attract the students’ attention. Different comics can be used for the oints–TeachEnglishwithComicsStudents are used to grammar being a ‘boring’ topic in English class and they often dread learning new grammarpoints or practising what they have already learned. A great way to surprise them in a favorable way is to use acomic strip to do this.When presenting a new grammar point, you must make sure that the use is very clear through the context of thecomic strip. Avoid using a comic strip that has the new grammar point as part of the punchline, since comprehensionof the grammar point is tied to understanding the punchline and it could become too difficult for the students. On theother hand, if the grammar point or structure is in fact part of the punchline or even is the key part of the punchline,the comic strip becomes a perfect tool to practice this particular grammar point once your students have alreadyunderstood it completely.When you use the comic strip to present new grammar, highlight it and use eliciting questions to lead the students tounderstand its meaning and use. If, on the other hand, you use the comic strip to practice the grammar point, you canblank it out or ask more challenging comprehension questions about its meaning and use in the comic strip.
IntroducingaDiscussionComic strips are concise and to the point by nature, thus they can be used to introduce a discussion for a speakingclass in a direct, yet creative way.The fastest way to start a discussion would be to use only one comic strip and lead a whole class discussion. Thiscan be effective if it has a different kind of follow up, or if the aim of the class is not to have the students talking fora long period of time. If the aim is to make the students practice their speaking skills, it is better to divide them intogroups, or pairs, to ensure more students practice speaking at the same time. After they discuss in groups or pairs,you can ask them to share a conclusion per group or pair as well.IntroducingorPrac8singVocabularyAs comics are almost always based on dialogue, they are an excellent source of vocabulary that is used frequently.Also, they often include many idiomatic expressions.The images in comic strips can often provide a reliable contextfor students to infer the meaning of the new vocabulary words.CharacterStudyIf students are presented with a series of comic strips once or twice a week, they begin to develop an understandingof the characters in the comic that is similar to that of a character study in a novel. For students who can’t read anovel yet, this is a great precursor activity that will help them learn the basics of this literary activity.TeachingWri8ngAfter students have read different comic strips, they can be encouraged to create their own by filling in the speechbubbles of a comic strip that has been blanked out; or by creating the images to go with speech bubbles that arealready provided by the teacher. This kind of creative writing is less daunting than writing a short story, but just aschallenging – or more challenging sometimes, depending on what the students are accustomed to. If students findthis particularly difficult, working in pairs or groups is a great way to start.Awordofcau8on Humour is very different in each culture and at the beginning it might be difficult for students to find comics inEnglish funny unless their culture is similar to that of the English-speaking country where the comic strip originated.As a teacher, you will often have to explain the punchline, and sometimes that makes the comic strip less funny, butdon’t be discouraged, with time and more exposure students will
Wh- questions: What IS (noun)? Where is/are subject from? Subject am/is/are FROM (country). From the functional point of view, you will be teaching greetings, introductions and asking and answering about origin. Let’s see other examples of functions and