Make 2: Creating your own story

For my second make, for Series of Unfortunate Events, I decided to have a little fun with it and make an alternate ending. And this lesson is what I would do with my students in the future as well. Since this series in particular is a little, well darker than most, I wanted to let my students (and myself) make a new ending into something each person would like !

So for my ending, I chose a little bit of a twist. So as many of us know, the series starts with a fire, which sadly kills the parents of the 3 children. With that in mind, for my ending, I decided to make it a little unpredictable. Although I haven’t read every book in the series, I chose the last book to end on maybe a little higher note. So through the series, the children have to get themselves out of some really crazy situations. With that in mind, leaving all the twists and turns of the series as they are, I decided to make the ending where the parents somehow ARE alive. We all know Count Olaf wants their fortune because of their parent’s passing. Well in my ending, they FINALLY beat Olaf at his own game and discover their parents are ALIVE, but they were just kidnapped and held by Count Olaf. Huge twist right ? I haven’t worked out all of what would go down, but ultimately, I wanted this dark series to have a meaning. That the kids went through all these crazy ups and downs, to end back where they started, with their parents.

 

As a lesson, I would let me kids do exactly what I did. After reading enough to get a general idea of the story line and what’s happening, they can choose any way they want it to end. Then they would share to the class and then they would write a short story on their ending and make their own little published “book” to show off and be proud of.