Learning and Leading

Use Fan Fiction with Elementary Students

You are trying to get your stu- dents to write a ;ctional story, but they resist. Instead of ;nding joy in the activity, they struggle to create characters, a setting, and a plot that would be interesting and exciting for them. You want to sca;old their learning and ;nd a way to make it easier for them. Have you considered fan ;ction?

Fan ;ction is the creation of stories and novels that make use of characters and settings from other people’s creative works. It involves taking characters already developed by someone else and placing them into a new adventure. Instead of creating the entire story from scratch, students use prede;ned characters and settings and focus on the action and dialogue.

Fan ;ction is a tool teachers have used for a long time. Perhaps you’ve unwittingly used it yourself. Every time your students have written an alternative ending to a story, composed a tale from another character’s point of view, or predicted what would happen next, they have created fan ;ction.

By Debra Sprague

Benefits to Using Fan Fiction

For many students, creating fan ;ction eliminates the drudgery of writing. Students choose stories they are familiar with and characters they love. ;is gives the story personal meaning for them. Also, to write good fan ;ction, students need to read the literary work they are basing their stories on, and they need to become familiar with the rules of that literary universe, known as the canon.

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Fan ;ction may seem to make writ-
ing easier, but it still has rules writers
need to follow, and the biggest rule
is following the canon. ;is means
students can write about Harry Potter
attending Hogwarts, but they cannot
place Hogwarts on the moon. Attending
Hogwarts is part of the canon of the
Harry Potter books, but Hogwarts is
in England, not on the moon. Staying
within the boundaries of the canon
can be challenging for students, but it
is a necessity, especially if they share
their stories with other fans. ;ese
fans will notice discrepancies and will
point them out to the author of the
fan-;ction story.

Fan ;ction is the creation of stories and novels that make use of characters and settings from other people’s creative works.

Horn Book Magazine, Becca Scha;-ner wrote, “In many ways, online fandom ful;lls the librarian’s or teacher’s deepest desire: It’s an entire community of people who can’t stop talking and thinking and sharing about books.”

Concerns about Using Fan Fiction

Teachers who are concerned about copyright violation should keep in mind that fan ;ction falls under fair use guidelines as long as writers are not pro;ting from the revised work. In other words, you can post their stories on the internet, but you cannot sell them.

Some authors frown on fan ;ction and do not want their characters used in other people’s stories. For example, Orson Scott Card, who writes the popular Ender series, has publicly stated he does not approve of anyone writing stories based on his characters. If the author objects, then remove the story from the internet. ;e idea is to become part of a community and to write stories, not o;end the author whose work you admire.