Teaching with Frankenstories

You can use the ideas from Frankenstories (and Writelike) as a shared framework for text analysis.

For example, when analysing narratives:

• What are the key story elements?
• How are they combined and recombined?
• How do they change?
• What's the platform? What's the tilt?
• How do characters adapt to the tilt?
• How does that create meaning in the story?

Or when analysing arguments:

• What is the issue?
• Who is making the argument, to whom, and why?
• What types of claims are being made?
• Why types of reasons and evidence are being given?
• How defensible are any of these elements?

The skills and concepts in Frankenstories are accessible and practical, and once students learn them, they'll see them in action everywhere.

If you want to take it further, Frankenstories can be a powerful tool in the writing process, especially in creative fiction and nonfiction.

For example:

• Play the game as a group brainstorming activity, then each player chooses an idea and writes an individual story.
• Play a game to create a rough shared story, then each player revises and polishes their own final version.
• Play a game to create a rough story, but then use it as a springboard to write distinct variations based on personal preferences and style.

Each approach creates different results.

In general, Frankenstories is great for ideation and exploration, and it can reduce the anxiety associated with creating something new.

There are several ways to get writing out of Frankenstories.

To download a completed story

When viewing a completed story, click Copy text > Copy final story, then paste to a document.

Note that this only copies the final story text, not the alternate replies for each round. Players can choose to copy just their own replies from a game using Copy my replies.

To export all student replies in all your groups

You can export all your game data from Class Admin by clicking Export Writing.

(You can also export all replies for a story in the Teacher View of games you've moderated.)

The data will export as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file which you can open in Excel or Google Sheets and filter and explore as you wish. (Hint: Format > Row > Auto-height is handy!)


To export all writing from a specific Group or Student

You can also drill down to a specific story, group or student in Class Admin and click Manage Group or Student to export the data for only that group or student.