Micro Flash Fiction Education

An education focused-spinoff of @MicroFlashFic, offering daily student-friendly stories, questions, and prompts. Suitable for ages 10 and up.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

NOTE TO PARENTS: This is a spinoff account of @MicroFlashFic aimed at parents who are suddenly homeschooling their kids. Each day I'll post a self-contained 280-character story, followed by some discussion questions, and a prompt for kids to continue the story on their own. 1/6

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

@mariafranceline You’re welcome.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

***
I’m mothballing this account for the foreseeable future. The good news is that if you’re a teacher, this account already has more than enough material for you to do a different story each week for a school year, and of course you can still adapt stories from the main account.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

@BlckwngdOrcl I'm just refocusing on the main account (@MicroFlashFic) which is similar but doesn't have discussion questions and is rated more like PG-13.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

@KelL5E That’s wonderful to hear. My hat is off to them.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q4: Pretend you are the daughter in the story, and you've decided to try to draw the sword from the stone. Write a few sentences about that experience.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Before dawn, he crept across the field to the stone. He slid the blade in and walked away.
The farmer’s daughter saw it all.
”Why?” she asked. ”The land needs you!”
”The land needs a leader. And the leader will need the sword. Now you’ll know where to find it when you're ready.”

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q3: The man in the story acts before dawn, which suggests he wanted his actions to be secret. Why do you think he did this? Do you agree with his decision? How does the intervention of the farmer’s daughter change the story?

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q4: Pretend you are the witch with the magic jars. Write a few sentences about the advice you would give to people who come to you asking to speak to their younger selves. How can they be ‘more persuasive?’ Is it possible for them to change their fate?

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

The voice is always telling you what to do. You hate it so much.

The voice stops eventually. By then you’ve made a lot of choices. They no longer feel like victories.

“Talk into the jar and your past self can hear it,” says the witch. You’ll try to be more persuasive this time.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q3: Stories that address the reader directly as ‘You’ are called 2nd person stories. If the story were written in the 1st person (‘I hear a voice’) or 3rd person (‘They heat a voice’) would it feel different? How? Why do you think this story was written this way?

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q4: Write a few sentences about the day the speaker in this story finally manages to make their point to the monsters. How will the monsters react?

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

"The monsters in the basement aren't scary, but they are a problem. For one thing, they eat down there and don't clean up, so now we've got ants. When I try to talk to them about it, they roar and show their teeth and leap about. I can't them to stop long enough to listen to me."

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q3: Why hasn't the speaker in the story done something to get rid of the monsters? Do you think they can't remove them? Or don't want to? Or some other reason?

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q4: Pretend you are someone at the Clone Camp you described in question 3. Write a few sentences about you meeting the Ned from the story for the first time.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

”It’ll be OK. Just be the best you that you can be,” they told him at dropoff. That made Ned think. What did his best self look like? If he got too good at being himself, would he become someone else? What if someone else was better at being him? Clone Camp was going to be tough.

[Micro Flash Fiction Education @MicroFlashEdu]

Q3: What do you think Clone Camp is? What does it look like? What goes on there? Is Ned right to be worried?