A Personal Narrative

A well written narrative is the result of clear thinking easily seen in good paragraphs. Kids need to develop an understanding of how to articulate their ideas in an organized way, especially when they are writing about real events. In a creative story paragraphs develop naturally with the plot. But in a personal narrative, it’s harder for kids to hone in on a few important points and expand on each of them. My goal for this week’s writing lesson, then, was to teach kids how to write a personal narrative in which their ideas were organized into traditional paragraphs. I did this lesson over two days.

The topic: My Best Friend
This tied into the Reading unit we just finished which focused on the theme of Friendship.

To start the lesson I handed each student a planning paper on which were four squares. Three of the squares were for drafting out paragraphs and the fourth was for a concluding sentence or two.  In each square there was a line for the main idea. Below that there were bullets for the details to go with each main idea. I used my document camera for modeling the lesson. After explaining the writing assignment I asked the class for input. We are going to write three paragraphs in our narrative. What should our three main ideas be?
The kids responded with the following ideas:
1. Description of your friend
2. How we met
3. Activities we do together

We wrote these main ideas on each top line of our four square planning paper. Then I asked the kids to suggest details for each idea. I selected responses to model, but reminded them that they could use their own details. Once I put up an example or two they were able to figure out details that were appropriate for them.

Now that we had a plan for the narrative, it was time to write out the three paragraphs. I reminded them that we needed a topic sentence followed by details.

We need to start with a sentence that introduces our best friend and also leads to a description. Any suggestions?
Silence. Sure they were thinking, but I could tell that they were struggling. So, on my modeling paper, I wrote:
My best friend, Jessica, is beautiful in every way.
This led to a little more excitement and a few kids raised their hands. Here’s a sample of their responses: Ryan is a wonderful friend in every way. Alice is my fantastic, best friend. John is kindhearted every single second.

After more ideas were shared everyone was able to get their first topic sentence written. I told them to look at the planning sheet and write out sentences for the details.

The next two paragraphs were accomplished in pretty much the same fashion. When I wrote out a topic sentence for the second paragraph, and asked for their own suggestions, I got no response. Not good. My sentence was: I met Jessica at my grandma’s house when I was four years old..
I resorted to my time tested strategy: bribery. I keep a jar of cookies in a cabinet for flat times in the classroom, such as now!
Okay, I’m looking for someone who can come up with a topic sentence that is better than mine. The class will vote and if they think it is better, you’ll get a cookie.
I could see some serious thinking suddenly going on. In a minute or so hands shot up.
I was two years old when I met John at his house.
Ann and I met on the first day of kindergarten.
Brooke and I met in first grade and we’ve been best friends ever since.

Everyone who shared, got a cookie!

We worked through the paragraphs quite efficiently. I modeled a concluding sentence and then encouraged them to come up with their own to end the narrative.

Often, when a teacher models to the extent that I did on this assignment, it is tempting for kids to just copy what they see. In this particular case I found that some kids did indeed write most of what I had written, but made sufficient changes to make it appropriate for them. I think a topic like this, though not wildly exciting like writing a Greek myth, is an excellent way to get kids comfortable with some essential writing skills. Since they were writing about something that they could easily relate to, it was easy for them to take a model and work with it to apply to themselves.

I think it’s fine for developing writers to copy good writing. It lowers their anxiety, but trains their brain to think like a writer.

I always try to edit the first draft of each kid before they do their final draft. I was very fortunate this time to have the help of a mom who had a lot of editing experience. Another wonderful thing that happened was that one of my four struggling writers didn’t need me! I partnered her with one of my strongest writers and this partner pretty much played my role. I was quite impressed with the result. So, by the end of the second session, most kids had finished writing their final drafts.