Workshop held at the 2019 National Forum for English Studies at Malmö University, 10-12 April, 2019. This workshop introduces participants to the use of fanfiction for language and literature teaching. Participants engage in learning-through-doing modules developed by the FanTALES Erasmus+ project, including an overview of fan fiction and common genres and tropes, tools and in-class short-form fan fiction writing. This workshop was designed for training in-service and pre-service language teachers, particularly those working at the secondary and upper secondary level, but introduces materials and techniques that can be used for different student populations. No previous experience with fanfiction is necessary

1. Workshop on Fanfiction for Language
Teaching
Swedish National Forum for English Studies
10 April 2019
Shannon Sauro
Malmö University

2. @fanTALES_EU
Overview
 Welcome
 What is Fanfiction?
 Fanfiction for Language &
Literary Learning
 Flash Fiction Workshop
 FanTALES.eu
Art: Foxestacado

3. Welcome

4. @fanTALES_EU
Introductions
 Tell us your name and why
you’re interested in this
workshop
 Please sign the sheet going
around.
Art: Foxestacado

5. Introduction to Fanfiction
What is this anyway?

6. @fanTALES_EU
What is Fanfiction?
 Watch the video and be
prepared for a think-pair-share
activity.
 There is also a short quiz at the
end of the video for a quick
review.
Art: FoxestacadoImage: Shannon Sauro

7. @fanTALES_EU
Think – Pair - Share
1. What did you know about
fanfiction before this video?
How is your perspective
different now?
2. What experience do you
have reading fanfiction?
3. What experience do you
have writing fanfiction?
Art: Foxestacado

8. Fanfiction for Language & Literary
Learning
Research from the University Classroom

9. @fanTALES_EU
Case studies of ESL learners’
use of fanfiction in anime
fandoms to transition from
novice writer in English to
successful writer, and the
bilingual fanfiction writing
practices of Finnish fans of
American TV shows to index
multilingualism and global
citizenship.
(e.g. Black, 2006; Lepännen et al, 2009)
Fanfiction and Autonomous
Language Learning

10. @fanTALES_EU
A collaborative story of a missing
moment from The Hobbit:
• Story outline and map
• Collaborative roleplay
fanfiction - each group
member to write from the
perspective of one character
from the novel
• Reflective paper
(Sauro & Sundmark, 2016)
The Blogging Hobbit

11. @fanTALES_EU
“this writing activity has
influenced my language
skills…. During this project I
have been able to expand my
repertoar [sic] of English words
which are not so commonly
used in everyday English
anymore.”
(Sauro & Sundmark, 2016, p. 420 )
Vocabulary Development

12. @fanTALES_EU
“I felt it unfair to work with
The Hobbit on such a
project since a big part was
to connect with a character
from the book and write
from that perspective. To
choose a book with
absolutely no women at all
made me not wanting to
take neither Tolkien nor this
assignment to heart.”
(Student Reflection,
Cohort 2014)
Not Always Motivating

13. @fanTALES_EU
“…restorying can also characterize
the complex ways that
contemporary young people
narrate the word and the world...
In other words, as young readers
imagine themselves into stories,
they reimagine the very stories
themselves...”
(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016, p. 323)
Figure 1. Forms of Restorying
(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016, p. 319)
Looking to Fans Restorying

14. Collaborative mystery
writing with a choice:
1. Retell a Sherlock
Holmes mystery or tell
an original mystery but
in an alternate
universe.
2. Tell an original
Sherlock Holmes
mystery in the original
context.
A Study in Sherlock

15. @fanTALES_EU
Holmes in Sweden
The Hound of the
Baskervilles set in
Norrland.

16. @fanTALES_EU
“…my interest in Doyle and
the Sherlock Holmes world is
still at an intermediate level….
On the other hand, my
knowledge of the Scooby Doo
universe is far greater and I
could enter that verse much
easier than the universe of
Sherlock Holmes.”
(Student 18, Cohort 2015)
Nowhere to Hyde

17. @fanTALES_EU
“First off, I am highly
Americanized in my English use,
and I blame Hollywood. It has
been a welcomed challenge to
write in British. My biggest
inspiration has once again been
the BBC show.…I truly enjoyed
using the word ‘foggiest’ in a
text, and it is now a part of my
vocabulary. My American is
being invaded, ‘the British are
coming!’”
(Student 54, Cohort 2015)
Art: Foxestacado
Vocabulary Use Beyond
the Classroom

18. @fanTALES_EUArt: Foxestacado
The Potter Project
Collaborative fan fiction using
at least one of four common fan
fiction genres/tropes:
1. Alternate Point of View
2. Prequel or Sequel
3. Missing Moment
4. Alternate Universe

19. @fanTALES_EU
Teacher’s Point of View
Although still in agony, Quirrell felt
a glimpse of hope as he looked
the Potter-boy in the eyes and
raised his wand. The killer-curse
was on his lips, when the
expression on the boy’s cunning
face suddenly changed. He leapt
forward and dug his hands into
Quirrell’s cheeks. The pain hit him
like the Hogwarts Express, and
then … there was nothingness.
The Curious Case of Quirinus Quirrell
(Cohort 2017)

20. @fanTALES_EU
Punctuation Awareness
“This project made me pay
attention to grammatical
aspects in the Harry Potter
books. For example, Rowling
doesn’t use a lot of transitional
words, which we just used a lot
in academic writing, but rather
she uses colons. I have never
used colons before in my
writing so that was fun to
learn.”
(Student 44, Cohort 2017)
Art: mudblood428

21. @fanTALES_EU
Depicting Dialect
“The next thing was to try to mimic
Rowling’s verison of Hagrids dialect.
For example, he does not say “for”
he says “fer”. There is no alteration
to the language, or the spelling or
the language when anyone else
speaks in the book, it is only with
Hagrid.”
(Student 41, Cohort 2017)
Image: Shannon Sauro

22. @fanTALES_EU
Point of View Awareness
”As I reread the first book I paid
close attention to how JK Rowling
writes, how Harry talks, and what
kind of characteristics the different
characters have. I found that even
though we only follow Harry as a
character, meaning we don't get
scenes where Harry does not
appear, there are a lot of other
main characters that help the story
become so special. We don't
actually know what the other
characters are thinking and feeling
but through JK Rowling's detailed
descriptions we find out anyway.” Art: pennswoods

23. @fanTALES_EU
Instructions for the 3 Fanfiction Projects
A Study in Sherlock
https://www.academ
ia.edu/31246935/A_
Study_in_Sherlock_2
016_
The Potter Project
https://www.academ
ia.edu/35272669/Po
tterProjectInstructio
nAE.pdf
The Blogging
Hobbit
https://www.academ
ia.edu/18097722/Th
e_Blogging_Hobbit_
2014_

24. Flash Fiction Workshop
One of the in-class activities used to introduce students to fanfiction.

25. @fanTALES_EU
Purpose
 The goal of this small
group activity is to practice
fanfiction writing in class
and to help students
experiment with creative
writing in response to
prompts. It is based on a
writing activity created by
fanfiction writer Emma
Grant, who often holds
writing workshops for fans
interested in getting
started in fanfiction
writing. Image: Shannon Sauro

26. @fanTALES_EU
Instructions Part I
Find a partner (or two) who
has enjoyed
reading/watching a book,
movie or tv show you also
like and wants to write
fanfiction about it.
OR
 Work with the people sitting
near you to identify a book,
movie, tv show or game you are
all familiar with and want to try
writing fanfiction about.
Art: pennswoods

27. @fanTALES_EU
Instructions Part II
1. Select one person from your group to come to the front and pick
up four cards, one from each set.
2. The different color cards contain different prompts (character,
setting, object, dialog).
3. Take a few minutes to look over your group’s cards and to ask
questions or generate ideas.
4. Then using the story/movie/tv show you selected, begin writing
(in a flash) whatever comes to you for 15 minutes. Don’t worry about
editing. Just write!
5. When time is up, stop writing, even if you’re in the middle of a
sentence.
6. Afterward, I’ll ask for volunteers who want to share their group’s
prompts and stories with everyone.

28. FanTALES
Multilingual Digital Storytelling for Fans in the Language Classroom
FanTALES is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the
European Union (grant agreement number: 2017-1-BE02-KA201-
034792).

29. @fanTALES_EU
Project FanTALES
Fan Fiction
Multilingualis
m
Games
(Interactive
Fiction)
Tele-
collaboration

30. @fanTALES_EU
The searchable catalog of
source texts will provide
teachers with information
about texts, movies,
digital games, tv shows
and other media that lend
themselves to fanfiction
projects.
(https://www.fantales.eu/)
Catalog of Source Texts

31. @fanTALES_EU
The aim of the Fanfiction –
Learning Through Doing
Module is to familiarize
language teachers (both
student teachers and
practising teachers) with
fanfiction
The module is comprised of
lesson plans, videos,
handouts, selected readings
and questions for reflection
and discussion.
Fanfiction Module

32. @fanTALES_EU
Fix-it fic is fanfiction which fixes
something in the source
material that a fan did not like.
For instance, it is common for
fix-it fic to bring a beloved
characters back to life, to fix or
explain an inconsistency in a
character's behavior or to fix a
hole in the plot. For this option,
you will identify something in
the source text you do not like
and write a story where you fix-it
and explore what happens as a
result.
Task Instructions
Art: Foxestacado

33. @fanTALES_EU
The fanfiction component of
the rubric framework is
designed to help teachers
evaluate the learning
outcomes (related to
fanfiction) for these tasks.
(https://www.fantales.eu/)
Rubric Framework

34. @fanTALES_EU
Fantales.eu

35. @fanTALES_EU
Fanart Acknowledgements
Fox Estacado of The Art of Fox Estacado:
Fine Fan Art and Geekery
(artbyfox.storenvy.com). All rights reserved
and used in this presentation with
permission.
Mudblood428 of Potter on Paper
(http://www.mudblood428.com). All rights
reserved and used in this presentation with
permission.
Pennswoods
All rights reserved and used in this
presentation with permission.
Art: mudblood428

36. @fanTALES_EU
References
Black, R.W. (2009). Online fan fiction and critical media literacy. Journal of Computing in
Teaching Education, 26(2), 75-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402454.2009.10784636
Black, R.W. (2006). Language, culture, and identity in online fanfiction. E-learning, 3, 180–184.
Brunel, M. (2018). Les écrits de fanfiction dans la classe. Le Français aujourd'hui n° 200 (1), 31-
41. Available from http://www.revues.armand-colin.com/lettres-langues/francais-
aujourdhui/francais-aujourdhui-ndeg-200-12018/ecrits-fanfiction-classe
Curwood, J.S. (2013). The Hunger Games: Literature, literacy and online affinity spaces.
Language Arts, 90(6), 417 – 427.
Lepännen, S., Pitkänen-Huhta, A., Piirainen-Marsch, A., Nikula, T., & Peuronen, S. (2009).
Young people’s translocal new media uses: A multiperspective analysis of language choice and
hetero-glossia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 1080–1107.
Sauro, S. (2017). Online fan practices and CALL. CALICO Journal, 34(2), 131-146.
https://doi.org/10.1558/CJ.33077
Sauro, S., & Sundmark, B. (2019). Critically examining the use of blog-based fan fiction in the
advanced language classroom. ReCALL. 31(1): 40-55,
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0958344018000071
Sauro, S., & Sundmark, B. (2016). Report from Middle Earth: Fan fiction tasks in the EFL
classroom. ELT Journal, 70(4), 414-423, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccv075
Thomas, E.E., & Stornaiuolo, A. (2016). Restorying the self: Bending toward textual justice.
Harvard Educational Review, 86(3), 313-338.
References
Art: Foxestacado
Fantales.eu l mah.academia.edu/ShannonSauro l shannon.sauro@mau.se