Imagine trying to write a scary story… in just two sentences.
The approach to Halloween is the perfect time for juniors at Parsons High School to take on the challenge in their English class of writing Two Sentence Horror Stories.
Preparing to start her short story unit with students, just as spooky season nears, is a prime opportunity for Sally Clay to engage students in this scary challenge.
Two Sentence Horror Stories became a series on Netflix in 2017, inspired by online fan fiction. Examples can be found in numerous places on the Internet.
“Two of the elements of figurative language that we cover are foreshadowing and irony in short stories, and so in a two-sentence horror story, the first sentence is foreshadowing, and the second sentence is irony,” Clay said.
Students are challenged to create a sentence that foretells of things to come. In that, Clay talks to them about tapping into imagery, which is tapping into the five senses. Then the second sentence brings a twist, with whatever irony they decide to use.
“So, we are talking about the different types of irony because there is dramatic irony, situational irony, verbal irony," Clay said.
To give students an idea, they watch one episode of Two Sentence Horror Stories streaming online. In those, the episode starts with the first sentence, then they do a 22-minute episode and end with the second sentence.
“We talk about how it all ties together,” Clay said. “So, basically, they are writing a whole short story in two sentences, and then they must find two images to reflect the tone and the mood of their short story and make a slide show.”
For the first time, this year Clay added a competition piece. She allowed students to vote on their favorite one Two Sentence Horror Story. The slides are posted anonymously, so students don’t know whose slide show they are voting for.
The winner gets a Boo Basket, filled with goodies.
“It’s fun and it kind of gets them engaged,” Clay said, of the timing for the unit.
Some of the students were very creative and really got into the assignment.
Serenity Dill’s submission The Other Mother is a prime example: “I hear mom calling me into the kitchen. As I’m heading down the stairs I hear a whisper from the closet saying, ‘Don’t go down there honey., I heard it, too.”
The winner this year is Saylah Rea with her submission Forest: “I heard rustling in the trees behind me. When I looked back, that’s when I saw it.”
Happy Halloween!