A New Model for Teaching Narrative Writing

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A New Model for Teaching Narrative Writing

• Jon Weldon, Concept Schools Director of English
  Education

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Why teach narrative writing?

• Every student has a story to tell we all have
  stories
• Become better readers
• Easy to transfer the skills to other types of
  writing beginning point for other writing
• Concept Writing Contest!!!

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Students need the how, not the what

• Strategies
• and activities

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Parts of Writing

1. Getting Started
2. Details and Figurative Language
3. Creating Dialogue
4. Feelings and Sensations
5. Smell, Touch, Sound
6. People and Action
7. Scenes and Settings

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1. Getting Started Where are your students?

• Pretest with a simple prompt
• Write a story about an event that is important to
  you for some reason. Write about it in as much
  detail as you can so that someone reading it will
  be able to see what you saw and feel what you
  felt.
• Collect and rate for groups
• Save to combine with post-test

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Model Show an example

• Richard Wright piece
• Discuss and dramatize it
• Outline the events
• What initiates the action?
• What is the character trying to do?
• What are the results of the action and attempts?
• Examine specific details

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Getting Story Ideas

1. Read the model story.
2. Share!
3. Show them the 8 questions.
4. Have them brainstorm their own ideas.
5. In groups, each student shares best two ideas.
6. Students give feedback on best idea.
7. Students ask pointed questions.

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My stories

• the time I got in trouble in preschool for peeing
  in the corner of the playground
• the summer I had athletes foot so bad that I
  could not swim, wear shoes, or stand up too long
• the time I snuck out of my friends house. We had
  to push his car down the road so his parents
  wouldnt hear him start it and drove to the next
  town to go to a warehouse rave.
• When I set the state record for the mile in high
  school.
• During my two years living in Oakland when I saw
  a rockabilly fight in a warehouse

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• What experiences have made you feel really happy
  or very sad?
• What experiences have been very alarming or
  really frightening?
• What experiences have made you feel proud of
  yourself?
• What have been the most difficult tasks you have
  had to undertake?
• What contests or games have you tried hard to
  win?
• What experiences have made you feel ashamed of
  yourself?
• What experiences have made you realize that you
  truly care about someone?
• What experiences have made you laugh?

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Questions to ask

• What needs to be explained about setting?
• What do we need to know about characters?
• What initiates or begins the action?
• What does main character attempt to do?
• What are the results?
• How does the character respond?
• What do characters say to each other?

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2. Details and Figurative Language

• The Seashell Game
• Object of the game Describe a shell so well that
  another student would be able to pick it out from
  a class set of shells.
• This game is about incorporating detail

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1. Model one especially impressive shell.
2. Write responses on board as a class
3. Seashell Game
4. Give each person (group) two shells. Tell them to
   choose one and describe it as best they can.
5. Pass the description and shells to another person
   (group).
6. They must choose which one the other wrote about.
7. The second reader underlines the details that
   helped him/her identify the shell.
8. Note best details.

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Frame the Description The Paragraph

• (write out the notes in a paragraph)
• Hand out yesterdays notes
• Discuss opening and closing statements.
• Use only one word to describe the shell.
• Encourage variety in sentence structure.
• Write it in paragraph form as a class.
• Grammar Time!
• In groups, they revise their particular shell.
• Share.

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On Their Own

• Students select their own shell and write a
  descriptive paragraph about it.
• Another student finds it among all 30-40 shells
  based on the description.
• Create a class display or museum.

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Things to keep in mind

• Need 6 to 8 pairs of similar shells but different
  in species
• For group work, shells should be more than 2
  inches long
• Avoid colors like green and purple, that are
  uncommon among shells
• Resources for shells
• www.shellworld.com
• www.seashellcity.com

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Seashell Game Reflections

• Compare their 1st and 2nd paragraphs
• Effective learning begins with a concrete
  experience
• Develop criteria for judging the work in order to
  assess your teaching
• Focus on the procedural knowledge (process)
• Observations ? paragraph ? revision
• Teacher ? Group ? Individual
• Use activities that allow students to interpret
  data (details, opening) themselves

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3. Creating Dialogue

• I go you be trippin
• He goes na you shouldna said that
• Im like you better get outta my face
• And then he goes Im through wit you and walks
  off
• I started yellin like Im gonna tell everyone
  what you did

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Introduce the concept

• With Wright piece, ask students to underline
  every place a character says something.
• Have a short discussion about the dialogue.
• Consider the story without dialogue.
• Give a scenario and create dialogue as a class.
• Characters
• Stage directions, as a play
• Model how to on the board
• Distribute scenario sheets and create dialogue in
  groups.
• Each member copies down the dialogue.
• Collect copies to assess

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• Give short lesson on writing needs
• Use previous class dialogue as model
• Grammar Time!
• Example Review stage and actor directions.
• Scaffolding sentence structure.
• She enters. ? She enters on tiptoe, sneaking up
  to David like shes about to strangle him.
• Practice lesson in groups with previous dialogue
• Practice dialogue
• Act out the dialogue.
• Strong readers go first.

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From Scripts to Narratives

• Distribute dialogue and discuss how this could be
  made into a story.
• Distribute rules for punctuation and read over
  them.
• Create the narrative dialogue as a class
• Keep it present tense
• Encourage analogies for characters speech
• Encourage creative comparisons animal sounds
• Complete the rest of the narrative independently.

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Working Independently

• Students choose a story idea with dialogue and
  write it first as a script.
• Correct the script dialogues focused
• Have students read theirs and get feedback
• Discuss how it can be changed to a narrative
• Write dialogues as narratives
• Focus on building out sentences
• Example From She says to Tipping her head to
  the side and squinting her eye, she says

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4. Sensations Describing Sounds

• Perhaps the best example of sound in a passage is
  Poes A Tell-Tale Heart. Provide a copy to the
  students and ask them to find all the
  descriptions of sound.
• Create a list of the sounds.
• Develop a sound script a list of sounds and
  when they are used in the story, as if it was a
  movie.
• Students can be assigned sounds to bring in. Or,
  you can find them at www.freesound.org
• Each student is responsible for at least one
  sound.
• Write the sound directions in the margins by the
  appropriate places.

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Describing Sounds

• Indicate the source of the sound.
• Use words that imitate the sound.
• Break complicated sounds into parts.
• Describe the character and texture of the sound.
• Comparisons Use figurative language or
  analogies to describe the sound.

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• Automatic dishwasher
• Automatic ice-cube maker
• Someone taking a shower
• Basketball player playing alone in a gym
• Gas-powered lawn mower
• Late-night sounds near your house
• Screen door slamming
• Sawing a plank in half
• 18-wheeler truck
• A sound of your choice
• (The sound of silence)

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Crossing Senses

• Odors
• Fresh cut grass
• Exhaust fumes
• A beach
• A forest
• A locker room
• A bakery
• A shoe store
• Favorite food
• Color
• Shape
• Weight
• Temperature
• Sound

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Color Relay Game

• Get color swatches from the paint store.
• http//www.hessler.com/PANTONE28R2920color20br
  idge28TM2920CMYK20PC20copy.pdf
• Write a color on the board ie orange and
  have all the students think of synonyms for that
  color.
• Examples burnt orange, neon orange, basketball
  orange, tiger orange
• Independent (HW) work. Choose two other colors
  and list 9-10 synonyms of that color.
• Do not include generic terms, like light, dark
  etc
• Color Relay Game Students have to find as many
  synonyms as possible for each color.
• set up stations with swatches of a particular
  color.
• In groups of 3 or 4, they travel to each station,
  making lists of their color synonyms.

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5. Writing About People

• Begin by showing a characterization of someone.
• Discuss. What do you see? What does this say
  about the person?
• What other details do you notice?
• What about his face?
• What do you think he thinks of other people?

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Writing About People
A Voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion
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• 3. Group Work
• What do all these details suggest about the
  habits of this man?
• How would you describe his character?
• What would it be like to visit this man? How
  would he treat you?
• 4. Individual Work
• Imagine you have gone to visit the Prince of
  Wales. Write a letter to one of your friends
  about the experience. How did he behave? Be
  specific. Include thoughts and sensations.
  Include dialogue.
• 5. Final Assignment Writing about a person in
  your story

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6. Describing Scenes and Settings
The Massacre of the Innocents, Peter Brueghel
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• Have students describe a part of this scene.
• List responses.
• An excellent moment for combining sentences.
• Provide a model scene in a story.
• Example Richard Wright excerpt
• What senses does he appeal to?
• What comparisons does he make?
• Overall, what do you think he thought about this
  time in his life?
• What is your feeling after reading this?

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• Students choose their own event they remember
  with great pleasure and write a series of images
  about it.
• In groups they share.
• How do you think the writer wants you to feel?
• What details are most effective?
• What parts are not clear?
• What questions could the writer answer with more
  detail?

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Conclusion

• Write a narrative using one of the following
  prompts
• The monster under the bed
• The monster with a bad cold
• The monster with a silly hat
• The monster who wouldnt brush his teeth
• The monster and the sticky chewing gum
• Write a fictional narrative using the follow
  prompt
• The Big Old House What Secrets does it Hold?
• Write a narrative using one of the following
  prompt
• And here I stand the last warrior.
• And here I stand the lone survivor.
• And here I stand exhausted but safe.
• And here I stand proud to be an American.
• And here I stand happy to be alive.