Here is an example of a correctly formatted document.
1. Save all your documents here, in your folder. Look at my folder to see examples of how all these rules are done correctly.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JjgfSfQkqDxGx73mw-0o-LzpBpbAYakl?usp=sharing
2. Put your initials and title of the story in the appropriate column of ContentChecklist.xlsx (We can only have 8 per a subject area). I'm going to make this first come first serve.
3. Feel free to write as may books as you like. Submissions will be open until we get 100 stories for this round.
4. In YOUR Name.csv add the Title of the story and Grade Level. The SEQ is always 1.
*Aim for a 2nd grade reading level but if the content seems hard for comprehension, bump it to 3rd. In my example, I Lost the Moon has some hard to understand scientific facts, so it's 3rd. We will be adjusting grade level after we receive the AREA scores.
5. Save the story file as a .txt file. The name needs to be the same as the Excel document.
6. When you are writing the story Use the [page] symbol to break up clusters. (One cluster will be shown at a time in the app). Clusters should all communicate one idea together, kind of like tiny paragraphs. Breaks should appear at the end of the app. You need to always put a break before a question.
7.Please separate each sentence that should be separated in Wonder Stories as a new line. This makes each sentence pop up one at a time, which we want at this level. (Note in Amira, new lines don't exist. So avoid making lists separated by new lines)
8. We cannot use Dialog Boxes
9. The final question dilema. Each story needs to conclude with a question. For mysteries it should be the concluding "Solve the problem" question. In all of Amira's stories, the question will be the last thing a child does reading a text.
However, in our app, we almost always end with a resolution after the question. For example, for surprise party:
I opened the door. I hear "Surprise!"
[page]
Jose and Riley are holding a surprise <BLANK/> for me. (
*Party
There are Riley, Jose, and all of my friends. They are throwing a surprise birthday for me.
In the Amira story, that last line: "There are RIley..." will be omitted. But still include it as we'll add it to Wonder Stories.
In some stories the resolution is too much a part of the story to remove. Especially if it's multiple lines. (Try to avoid this). In the case where this happens, add a question at the end of the story so those lines can be kept.
For example, in Mustache Day:
Dad says, "You will never guess who put those mustaches on you!"
[page]
Question: <blank/> put the mustache on me? (Answer=Dad) (This is the big question)
I reply, "You put the mustache on me Dad!"
Mom and I both take out black markers.
We draw the silliest mustache on Dad.
Dad looks like a pirate now.
[Image - Dad with a drawn on pirate mustache. He looks bewildered but not angry. He might be about to laugh. He squints one eye to look more like a pirate. SB Dad - Walk the plan you two.]
Mom and I started laughing. We were a mustache family now.
Question: Mom and I were laughing at Dad's silly <blank/>.
*Mustache
I added that last question (What were we laughing at) so I could keep the 4 line resolution after the big question (Who put the mustache on me?) Try to avoid doing this unless really necessary.
10. Stories should have a minimum of 2 questions.
11. Questions should look like this.
Question: Jimmy ate the <BLANK/> last night.
*Ham
*Cheese
*Whole Thing
And do not count towards word count.
12. Question answers can only be 12 characters long including spaces. We can only have 3 answers.Use <blank\> to indicate blank. Please only do fill in the blank questions.
13. Amira will not use images, but we will. To that extent, please include 2-4 image descriptions in your story just like the other stories. Take note that the story needs to make 100% sense without the images. Use the same format [Image - ]. The description does not need to have 2nd grade vocab and does not count towards word limit. Try to have a Speech Bubble dialog in as many pictures as you can.
14. Please write in first person PRESENT tense for these. We’re doing present tense as it makes the words have less syllables.
15. Always have a line that says Big Question: Who stole the ham? - this makes it a mystery.
16. Avoid using the repeat what you just read question:
Dad made lunch for me.
Question: <blank/> made my lunch.
*Dad
Try to avoid questions that don't require inference and critical thinking. Kids should have to think to answer, not just remember.
A rule of thumb I'm using for my own stories is ask questions when you need to make sense of a clue:
CLUE means ANSWER
e.g.
The spilled beans means [somebody else] was in the kitchen.
or make a decision based off of the clues.
The burglar had pasta sauce on his mouth.
I should look around the [kitchen].
Good mysteries naturally create these moments (figuring out your friend is a robot, is a good example of this).
17. Link to guidelines from Amira:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11vy92OAWX08_F_aFrMPPPkxg43DnXeM60SWY2uPrVc8/edit?ts=5f4d2582