sivretmr
- Feb 15, 2020
- 5 min read

Week #5: Writing Workshop: Personal Narrative

Updated: Feb 20, 2020

Establishing a writing community in the classroom is key

students have a voice
ownership
failure is okay
students are reinforced for being creative
respect between teacher/student and student/student
peer feedback and support

Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming and a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, uses the equation: WRITING=HOPE x CHANGE to share how literature inspires hope and change.

http://bcove.me/ha3dz491

http://www2.ncte.org/national-write-in/

Baseline Writing Assessment for Narratives

Before you begin writing with students, it is so important that on week one, you invite students to demonstrate what they know about narrative writing. This will give you as the teacher, a reference point on what students know, as well as, provide a baseline to show growth during the year. It is great to not only do baseline writing for narratives, but all genres you will be learning (narrative-opinion-informational).

Here is an example of how you can administer a baseline assessment in 2nd Grade: "Teachers say to students, I am so excited to understand what you can do as writers! Today I’m going to give you a booklet. You will use the booklet to draw and write a true story about one experience. Make this an example of the best true-story writing you can do. I’m not going to be helping you today—instead I’ll be working away writing my own true story and taking notes that will help me teach you and understand you as writers. Do the best job you can. This isn’t for a grade. It just helps me see what you already know how to do as a writer and what new things I might be able to teach you" (Frye, 2020, slide 6).

What does a personal narrative unit look like?

Read narrative books and your own stories to students to give them both examples and mentor texts of narratives and get them excited and interested in narrative writing.
Develop anchor charts for personal narratives

START out your unit by allowing students time to explore a variety of personal narrative books. THEN, come back together and ask students: what did you notice about all of these books? Use this as a starting point to begin developing anchor charts about what makes a personal narrative. Below are some examples.

https://www.pinterest.com/bethf0094/personal-narrative-resources/

(Hanson, 2016)

(Klohn, 2012)

(Reed, 2015)

3. Draft & compose in front of your students.. show them HOW to write. "Generate a list of good writing topics/territories that you will want to write about. Choose a topic. Generate small moments associated with that topic. Choose one small moment story and write about it. Draft an entry, revise, publish, and share it" (Frye, 2020, slide 27). When writing, include true and exact details, use senses, write with emotions, show don't tell, and ask questions to develop writing.

(huffelementary, 2017)

What are qualities to look for in good personal narrative writing?

(Frye, 2020, slide 18).

Growing a narrative from beginning to end

Beginning: Good beginnings typically consist of "creating the mood by establishing the setting; information about the main character that reveals his or her hopes, thoughts, and feelings; and at least a hint of the problem, or direction of the story" (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, pg. 117). Some tips from Dorfman & Cappelli's chapter on creating strong beginnings are listed below:

introduce the character through the setting (2017, pg. 120).
using weather as the lead is a good place to start, pulling in the reader through descriptive and visual words (2017, pg. 121).
using onomatopoeia, snapshot settings, snapshot character, foreshadowing, similes, questions, thoughtshot, suspense, metaphor, exclamation, personification, appeal to the sense, quote, creepy statement, controversial statement, or taking the reader into the past are great ways to pull readers in (2017, pg. 123-124).

Going back and revising leads is an important step in the writing process. Using mentor texts is a great way to analyze authors' work and then pull their techniques into your own writing (Calkins, 2006, pg. 3). In the classroom, it is important to spend time analyzing a variety of leads so when students are readings on their own, they can learn to recognize strong leads and use these ideas in their own writing. Strong leads are the first thing readers read, pulling them into your story and making it exciting to read.

Middle: The middle of the story is a bridge paragraph, or "a way to ease into the part of the story where all the action is instead of leaping ahead" (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, pg. 125). We want to teach students how to start with the beginning paragraph and work their way to the middle, where all the anticipation and action happen, before closing out their writing with the ending.

Ending: There are many ways that writers can end their story but "the important thing is not only that the ending be connected to the story in some way and leave the reader satisfied but also that it be interesting and memorable (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, pg. 126). Below are some ways authors can end their writing from the chapter:

memory that lingers
hope, wish, dream
thoughts or feelings
accomplishments/discovery
starts all over again
bookends
lesson learned/decisions reached
final action

(Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, pg. 127)

Six word memoirs in the classroom:

How to use six word memoirs as a teaching tool:

Mentor Texts and Explanations of Six-Word Memoirs to guide students
The importance of word choice
Engaging in the writing process-- every word is on trial
Connecting writing to art
Adding words onto photographs
Publishing students' 6 word memoirs online

(Saunders & Smith, 2014, pg. 601-603).

My six word memoirs

Derived from Mentor Text by Dorfman & Cappelli

Your Turn Lesson #2:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qVHM_98FiOHnChg00OkWCt5eYE8xzqJvvYr0iskfhz8/edit?usp=sharing

Your Turn Lesson #3:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qDnNPEjmtLB5-vr-Q_wY__OAf_ehP_gIR6Jg-RWw9ZM/edit?usp=sharing

Your Turn Lesson #4:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bhnFHUSSkVis82ukuuUtpp5uHwBwCFBve3kskWbbmEE/edit?usp=sharing

"How Many More Times" Inspired by Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal:

On page 170 of Amy's midterm essay, she questions how many more times. We are not promised another day and for that, we must live life to the fullest and enjoy these little moments because we never know how many more times we will experience it.

Brown Girl Dreaming:

"If someone had taken that book out of my hand said 'you're too old for this' maybe I'd never have believed that someone who looked like me could be in the pages of the book..that someone who looked like me had a story". (Woodson, 2014, pg. 228).

This page really stood out to me and brought me back to thinking about the importance of providing students with books that serve as windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors. Students are more motivated to read when they see themselves reflected in books and I love how Jacqueline Woodson attests to this in Brown Girl Dreaming.

Useful links: