Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will compose a variety of nonfiction narratives, following established guidelines.
• Students will write narratives to develop real experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
• Students will engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters. (Ideas, Organization)
• Students will create a smooth progression of experiences or events. (Organization)
• Students will use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. (Voice, Organization)
• Students will use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole. (Sentence Fluency)
• Students will use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole. (Sentence Fluency)
• Students will provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative. (Ideas, Organization)

• Teachers provide a variety of nonfiction narrative writing tasks.
• Teachers provide guidelines for success for each narrative writing task, which may include student contributions.
• Teachers model or provide models of how to create narratives.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to practice using descriptive and figurative language.
• Teachers encourage students to try different story elements in their narrative writing to experience how their story can change with different elements  
• Teachers explain the relationship between the conclusion and the rest of the narrative.
• Teachers encourage students to try different techniques in their narrative writing to experience how their story can change with a different technique used.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on their writing that relates specifically to:
• organization, diction, syntax, and style
• flow and transitions
• fit of the conclusion with the narrative
• ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, and word choice

Supporting Resources

Teacher Insights

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

• As noted above, this writing mode is a Grade Level Focus for 9th grade.

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

• Ideas/Content

• Organization

• Vocabulary

• Sentence Fluency

• Grammar/Mechanics

• This standard officially introduces nonfiction narratives for the first time at this grade level.

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

• A personal narrative is a particular kind of narrative nonfiction in which a writer tells a story about herself or himself. The scope is small, usually happening over the course of a day or less.

• A memoir is a type of autobiography that usually focuses on a single time period or historical event. The scope is big, usually happening over the course of months, even years.

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

•  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)

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.