Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

12.3.W.1 NARRATIVE Students will write narratives embedded in other modes as appropriate.

The following statements are elements of a narrative piece of writing. 

While composing, teachers and students need to keep in mind the writing process (12.2.W), word choice (12.4.W), and language (12.5.W).

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will continue to include pieces of narrative writing in other modes.
• Students will continue to recognize how these narrative pieces affect their writing.

• Teachers provide examples of narrative writing that can be included in other modes.
• Teachers provide guidelines for narrative writing.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on their narrative pieces.
• Teachers show how these narratives impact the piece of writing.

Supporting Resource

Teacher Insights

• Purdue Online Writing Lab - Narrative Essays (webpage)
•  Roane State OWL - Narrative/Descriptive (webpage)

• In writing any composition students should keep in mind the following writing traits:

• Ideas/Content

• Organization

• Vocabulary

• Sentence Fluency

• Grammar/Mechanics

• Narrative writing is writing that tells a story. This writing is experiential, personal, and/or biographical.

• Effective narrative writing tells a story in such a way that the audience learns a lesson or gains insight (theme) in a way that enables the audience to connect with the narrative.

• Narrative writing should include literary elements (the essential parts used in storytelling in almost all types of literature including setting, plot, characters, theme, conflict, and archetypes).

• Narrative writing may include literary devices (figurative language, irony, foreshadowing/flashback, dialogue, imagery, symbolism, etc.).  

• More information on these can be found at literarydevices.com.

• There are many different ways to write narratives; here are two references that explain how to get started: Purdue OWL  and  Roane State OWL.

• Authentic writing often involves blending multiple modes of writing (argument, informative, narrative) in order to achieve a specific purpose.

• Narrative writing can be a part of argumentative writing because the insight into one person’s life actually presents a new perspective to an issue that readers had not previously considered. Someone’s personal story can make an appeal to pathos as readers empathize with the writer, and the readers are considering a new point of view and/or receiving a clear, direct story--an example--as evidence for a claim.

• Narrative writing can be blended into an informational mode if the writer decides to incorporate a story in order to illustrate a major concept.

• Example prompt: Think about something that happened to you that you’ll never forget. Write about what happened, who was involved, and where it happened. Make sure you capture what makes that event hard to forget. (More example prompts)

Activity

• Quickwrite (timed):

• Give students a claim on an arguable topic and instruct them to respond (agree or disagree) with a narrative (experiential, personal, and/or biographical).  

• For example, a politician wants to include more standardized in schools.  Students need to write a response supporting or refuting more testing by including a narrative element.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.