A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

July 29, 2018

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“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”  This proverb, attributed to the Hopi Indians, is one I wish I’d known a long time ago, because I would have used it when teaching my students the craft of storytelling. With a well-told story we can help a person see things in an entirely new way. We can forge new relationships and strengthen the ones we already have. We can change a law, inspire a movement, make people care fiercely about things they’d never given a passing thought.

But when we study storytelling with our students, we forget all that. Or at least I did. When my students asked why we read novels and stories, and why we wrote personal narratives and fiction, my defense was pretty lame: I probably said something about the importance of having a shared body of knowledge, or about the enjoyment of losing yourself in a book, or about the benefits of having writing skills in general.

I forgot to talk about the  power of story. I didn’t bother to tell them that the ability to tell a captivating story is one of the things that makes human beings extraordinary. It’s how we connect to each other. It’s something to celebrate, to study, to perfect. If we’re going to talk about how to teach students to write stories, we should start by thinking about why we tell stories at all . If we can pass that on to our students, then we will be going beyond a school assignment; we will be doing something transcendent.

Now. How do we get them to write those stories? I’m going to share the process I used for teaching narrative writing. I used this process with middle school students, but it would work with most age groups.

A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?

When teaching narrative writing, many teachers separate personal narratives from short stories. In my own classroom, I tended to avoid having my students write short stories because personal narratives were more accessible. I could usually get students to write about something that really happened, while it was more challenging to get them to make something up from scratch.

In the “real” world of writers, though, the main thing that separates memoir from fiction is labeling: A writer might base a novel heavily on personal experiences, but write it all in third person and change the names of characters to protect the identities of people in real life. Another writer might create a short story in first person that reads like a personal narrative, but is entirely fictional. Just last weekend my husband and I watched the movie Lion and were glued to the screen the whole time, knowing it was based on a true story. James Frey’s book  A Million Little Pieces  sold millions of copies as a memoir but was later found to contain more than a little bit of fiction. Then there are unique books like Curtis Sittenfeld’s brilliant novel American Wife , based heavily on the early life of Laura Bush but written in first person, with fictional names and settings, and labeled as a work of fiction. The line between fact and fiction has always been really, really blurry, but the common thread running through all of it is good storytelling.

With that in mind, the process for teaching narrative writing can be exactly the same for writing personal narratives or short stories; it’s the same skill set. So if you think your students can handle the freedom, you might decide to let them choose personal narrative or fiction for a narrative writing assignment, or simply tell them that whether the story is true doesn’t matter, as long as they are telling a good story and they are not trying to pass off a fictional story as fact.

Here are some examples of what that kind of flexibility could allow:

  • A student might tell a true story from their own experience, but write it as if it were a fiction piece, with fictional characters, in third person.
  • A student might create a completely fictional story, but tell it in first person, which would give it the same feel as a personal narrative.
  • A student might tell a true story that happened to someone else, but write it in first person, as if they were that person. For example, I could write about my grandmother’s experience of getting lost as a child, but I might write it in her voice.

If we aren’t too restrictive about what we call these pieces, and we talk about different possibilities with our students, we can end up with lots of interesting outcomes. Meanwhile, we’re still teaching students the craft of narrative writing.

A Note About Process: Write With Your Students

One of the most powerful techniques I used as a writing teacher was to do my students’ writing assignments with them. I would start my own draft at the same time as they did, composing “live” on the classroom projector, and doing a lot of thinking out loud so they could see all the decisions a writer has to make.

The most helpful parts for them to observe were the early drafting stage, where I just scratched out whatever came to me in messy, run-on sentences, and the revision stage, where I crossed things out, rearranged, and made tons of notes on my writing. I have seen over and over again how witnessing that process can really help to unlock a student’s understanding of how writing actually gets made.

A Narrative Writing Unit Plan

Before I get into these steps, I should note that there is no one right way to teach narrative writing, and plenty of accomplished teachers are doing it differently and getting great results. This just happens to be a process that has worked for me.

Step 1: Show Students That Stories Are Everywhere

Getting our students to tell stories should be easy. They hear and tell stories all the time. But when they actually have to put words on paper, they forget their storytelling abilities: They can’t think of a topic. They omit relevant details, but go on and on about irrelevant ones. Their dialogue is bland. They can’t figure out how to start. They can’t figure out how to end.

So the first step in getting good narrative writing from students is to help them see that they are already telling stories every day . They gather at lockers to talk about that thing that happened over the weekend. They sit at lunch and describe an argument they had with a sibling. Without even thinking about it, they begin sentences with “This one time…” and launch into stories about their earlier childhood experiences. Students are natural storytellers; learning how to do it well on paper is simply a matter of studying good models, then imitating what those writers do.

So start off the unit by getting students to tell their stories. In journal quick-writes, think-pair-shares, or by playing a game like Concentric Circles , prompt them to tell some of their own brief stories: A time they were embarrassed. A time they lost something. A time they didn’t get to do something they really wanted to do. By telling their own short anecdotes, they will grow more comfortable and confident in their storytelling abilities. They will also be generating a list of topic ideas. And by listening to the stories of their classmates, they will be adding onto that list and remembering more of their own stories.

And remember to tell some of your own. Besides being a good way to bond with students, sharing  your stories will help them see more possibilities for the ones they can tell.

Step 2: Study the Structure of a Story

Now that students have a good library of their own personal stories pulled into short-term memory, shift your focus to a more formal study of what a story looks like.

Use a diagram to show students a typical story arc like the one below. Then, using a simple story—like this Coca Cola commercial —fill out the story arc with the components from that story. Once students have seen this story mapped out, have them try it with another one, like a story you’ve read in class, a whole novel, or another short video.

narrative writing extension activities

Step 3: Introduce the Assignment

Up to this point, students have been immersed in storytelling. Now give them specific instructions for what they are going to do. Share your assignment rubric so they understand the criteria that will be used to evaluate them; it should be ready and transparent right from the beginning of the unit. As always, I recommend using a single point rubric for this.

Step 4: Read Models

Once the parameters of the assignment have been explained, have students read at least one model story, a mentor text that exemplifies the qualities you’re looking for. This should be a story on a topic your students can kind of relate to, something they could see themselves writing. For my narrative writing unit (see the end of this post), I wrote a story called “Frog” about a 13-year-old girl who finally gets to stay home alone, then finds a frog in her house and gets completely freaked out, which basically ruins the fun she was planning for the night.

They will be reading this model as writers, looking at how the author shaped the text for a purpose, so that they can use those same strategies in their own writing. Have them look at your rubric and find places in the model that illustrate the qualities listed in the rubric. Then have them complete a story arc for the model so they can see the underlying structure.

Ideally, your students will have already read lots of different stories to look to as models. If that isn’t the case, this list of narrative texts recommended by Cult of Pedagogy followers on Twitter would be a good place to browse for titles that might be right for your students. Keep in mind that we have not read most of these stories, so be sure to read them first before adopting them for classroom use.

narrative writing extension activities

Click the image above to view the full list of narrative texts recommended by Cult of Pedagogy followers on Twitter. If you have a suggestion for the list, please email us through our contact page.

Step 5: Story Mapping

At this point, students will need to decide what they are going to write about. If they are stuck for a topic, have them just pick something they can write about, even if it’s not the most captivating story in the world. A skilled writer could tell a great story about deciding what to have for lunch. If they are using the skills of narrative writing, the topic isn’t as important as the execution.

Have students complete a basic story arc for their chosen topic using a diagram like the one below. This will help them make sure that they actually have a story to tell, with an identifiable problem, a sequence of events that build to a climax, and some kind of resolution, where something is different by the end. Again, if you are writing with your students, this would be an important step to model for them with your own story-in-progress.

narrative writing extension activities

Step 6: Quick Drafts

Now, have students get their chosen story down on paper as quickly as possible: This could be basically a long paragraph that would read almost like a summary, but it would contain all the major parts of the story. Model this step with your own story, so they can see that you are not shooting for perfection in any way. What you want is a working draft, a starting point, something to build on for later, rather than a blank page (or screen) to stare at.

Step 7: Plan the Pacing

Now that the story has been born in raw form, students can begin to shape it. This would be a good time for a lesson on pacing, where students look at how writers expand some moments to create drama and shrink other moments so that the story doesn’t drag. Creating a diagram like the one below forces a writer to decide how much space to devote to all of the events in the story.

narrative writing extension activities

Before students write a full draft, have them plan out the events in their story with a pacing diagram, a visual representation of how much “space” each part of the story is going to take up.

Step 8: Long Drafts

With a good plan in hand, students can now slow down and write a proper draft, expanding the sections of their story that they plan to really draw out and adding in more of the details that they left out in the quick draft.

Step 9: Workshop

Once students have a decent rough draft—something that has a basic beginning, middle, and end, with some discernible rising action, a climax of some kind, and a resolution, you’re ready to shift into full-on workshop mode. I would do this for at least a week: Start class with a short mini-lesson on some aspect of narrative writing craft, then give students the rest of the period to write, conference with you, and collaborate with their peers. During that time, they should focus some of their attention on applying the skill they learned in the mini-lesson to their drafts, so they will improve a little bit every day.

Topics for mini-lessons can include:

  • How to weave exposition into your story so you don’t give readers an “information dump”
  • How to carefully select dialogue to create good scenes, rather than quoting everything in a conversation
  • How to punctuate and format dialogue so that it imitates the natural flow of a conversation
  • How to describe things using sensory details and figurative language; also,  what  to describe…students too often give lots of irrelevant detail
  • How to choose precise nouns and vivid verbs, use a variety of sentence lengths and structures, and add transitional words, phrases, and features to help the reader follow along
  • How to start, end, and title a story

Step 10: Final Revisions and Edits

As the unit nears its end, students should be shifting away from revision , in which they alter the content of a piece, toward editing , where they make smaller changes to the mechanics of the writing. Make sure students understand the difference between the two: They should not be correcting each other’s spelling and punctuation in the early stages of this process, when the focus should be on shaping a better story.

One of the most effective strategies for revision and editing is to have students read their stories out loud. In the early stages, this will reveal places where information is missing or things get confusing. Later, more read-alouds will help them immediately find missing words, unintentional repetitions, and sentences that just “sound weird.” So get your students to read their work out loud frequently. It also helps to print stories on paper: For some reason, seeing the words in print helps us notice things we didn’t see on the screen.

To get the most from peer review, where students read and comment on each other’s work, more modeling from you is essential: Pull up a sample piece of writing and show students how to give specific feedback that helps, rather than simply writing “good detail” or “needs more detail,” the two comments I saw exchanged most often on students’ peer-reviewed papers.

Step 11: Final Copies and Publication

Once revision and peer review are done, students will hand in their final copies. If you don’t want to get stuck with 100-plus papers to grade, consider using Catlin Tucker’s station rotation model , which keeps all the grading in class. And when you do return stories with your own feedback, try using Kristy Louden’s delayed grade strategy , where students don’t see their final grade until they have read your written feedback.

Beyond the standard hand-in-for-a-grade, consider other ways to have students publish their stories. Here are some options:

  • Stories could be published as individual pages on a collaborative website or blog.
  • Students could create illustrated e-books out of their stories.
  • Students could create a slideshow to accompany their stories and record them as digital storytelling videos. This could be done with a tool like Screencastify or Screencast-O-Matic .

So this is what worked for me. If you’ve struggled to get good stories from your students, try some or all of these techniques next time. I think you’ll find that all of your students have some pretty interesting stories to tell. Helping them tell their stories well is a gift that will serve them for many years after they leave your classroom. ♦

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including slideshow mini-lessons on 14 areas of narrative craft, a sample narrative piece, editable rubrics, and other supplemental materials to guide students through every stage of the process, take a look at my Narrative Writing unit . Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

narrative writing extension activities

What to Read Next

narrative writing extension activities

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

50 Comments

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Wow, this is a wonderful guide! If my English teachers had taught this way, I’m sure I would have enjoyed narrative writing instead of dreading it. I’ll be able to use many of these suggestions when writing my blog! BrP

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Lst year I was so discouraged because the short stories looked like the quick drafts described in this article. I thought I had totally failed until I read this and realized I did not fai,l I just needed to complete the process. Thank you!

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I feel like you jumped in my head and connected my thoughts. I appreciate the time you took to stop and look closely at form. I really believe that student-writers should see all dimensions of narrative writing and be able to live in whichever style and voice they want for their work.

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Can’t thank you enough for this. So well curated that one can just follow it blindly and ace at teaching it. Thanks again!

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Great post! I especially liked your comments about reminding kids about the power of storytelling. My favourite podcasts and posts from you are always about how to do things in the classroom and I appreciate the research you do.

On a side note, the ice breakers are really handy. My kids know each other really well (rural community), and can tune out pretty quickly if there is nothing new to learn about their peers, but they like the games (and can remember where we stopped last time weeks later). I’ve started changing them up with ‘life questions’, so the editable version is great!

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I love writing with my students and loved this podcast! A fun extension to this narrative is to challenge students to write another story about the same event, but use the perspective of another “character” from the story. Books like Wonder (R.J. Palacio) and Wanderer (Sharon Creech) can model the concept for students.

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Thank you for your great efforts to reveal the practical writing strategies in layered details. As English is not my first language, I need listen to your podcast and read the text repeatedly so to fully understand. It’s worthy of the time for some great post like yours. I love sharing so I send the link to my English practice group that it can benefit more. I hope I could be able to give you some feedback later on.

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Thank you for helping me get to know better especially the techniques in writing narrative text. Im an English teacher for 5years but have little knowledge on writing. I hope you could feature techniques in writing news and fearute story. God bless and more power!

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Thank you for this! I am very interested in teaching a unit on personal narrative and this was an extremely helpful breakdown. As a current student teacher I am still unsure how to approach breaking down the structures of different genres of writing in a way that is helpful for me students but not too restrictive. The story mapping tools you provided really allowed me to think about this in a new way. Writing is such a powerful way to experience the world and more than anything I want my students to realize its power. Stories are how we make sense of the world and as an English teacher I feel obligated to give my students access to this particular skill.

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The power of story is unfathomable. There’s this NGO in India doing some great work in harnessing the power of storytelling and plots to brighten children’s lives and enlighten them with true knowledge. Check out Katha India here: http://bit.ly/KathaIndia

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Thank you so much for this. I did not go to college to become a writing professor, but due to restructuring in my department, I indeed am! This is a wonderful guide that I will use when teaching the narrative essay. I wonder if you have a similar guide for other modes such as descriptive, process, argument, etc.?

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Hey Melanie, Jenn does have another guide on writing! Check out A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing .

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Hi, I am also wondering if there is a similar guide for descriptive writing in particular?

Hey Melanie, unfortunately Jenn doesn’t currently have a guide for descriptive writing. She’s always working on projects though, so she may get around to writing a unit like this in the future. You can always check her Teachers Pay Teachers page for an up-to-date list of materials she has available. Thanks!

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I want to write about the new character in my area

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That’s great! Let us know if you need any supports during your writing process!

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I absolutely adore this unit plan. I teach freshmen English at a low-income high school and wanted to find something to help my students find their voice. It is not often that I borrow material, but I borrowed and adapted all of it in the order that it is presented! It is cohesive, understandable, and fun. Thank you!!

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So glad to hear this, Nicole!

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Thanks sharing this post. My students often get confused between personal narratives and short stories. Whenever I ask them to write a short story, she share their own experiences and add a bit of fiction in it to make it interesting.

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Thank you! My students have loved this so far. I do have a question as to where the “Frog” story mentioned in Step 4 is. I could really use it! Thanks again.

This is great to hear, Emily! In Step 4, Jenn mentions that she wrote the “Frog” story for her narrative writing unit . Just scroll down the bottom of the post and you’ll see a link to the unit.

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I also cannot find the link to the short story “Frog”– any chance someone can send it or we can repost it?

This story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. You can find a link to this unit in Step 4 or at the bottom of the article. Hope this helps.

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I cannot find the frog story mentioned. Could you please send the link.? Thank you

Hi Michelle,

The Frog story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. There’s a link to this unit in Step 4 and at the bottom of the article.

Debbie- thanks for you reply… but there is no link to the story in step 4 or at the bottom of the page….

Hey Shawn, the frog story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link Debbie is referring to at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit and you would have to purchase that to gain access to the frog story. I hope this clears things up.

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Thank you so much for this resource! I’m a high school English teacher, and am currently teaching creative writing for the first time. I really do value your blog, podcast, and other resources, so I’m excited to use this unit. I’m a cyber school teacher, so clear, organized layout is important; and I spend a lot of time making sure my content is visually accessible for my students to process. Thanks for creating resources that are easy for us teachers to process and use.

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Do you have a lesson for Informative writing?

Hey Cari, Jenn has another unit on argumentative writing , but doesn’t have one yet on informative writing. She may develop one in the future so check back in sometime.

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I had the same question. Informational writing is so difficult to have a good strong unit in when you have so many different text structures to meet and need text-dependent writing tasks.

Creating an informational writing unit is still on Jenn’s long list of projects to get to, but in the meantime, if you haven’t already, check out When We All Teach Text Structures, Everyone Wins . It might help you out!

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This is a great lesson! It would be helpful to see a finished draft of the frog narrative arc. Students’ greatest challenge is transferring their ideas from the planner to a full draft. To see a full sample of how this arc was transformed into a complete narrative draft would be a powerful learning tool.

Hi Stacey! Jenn goes into more depth with the “Frog” lesson in her narrative writing unit – this is where you can find a sample of what a completed story arc might look. Also included is a draft of the narrative. If interested in checking out the unit and seeing a preview, just scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the image. Hope this helps!

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Helped me learn for an entrance exam thanks very much

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Is the narrative writing lesson you talk about in https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/narrative-writing/

Also doable for elementary students you think, and if to what levels?

Love your work, Sincerely, Zanyar

Hey Zanyar,

It’s possible the unit would work with 4th and 5th graders, but Jenn definitely wouldn’t recommend going any younger. The main reason for this is that some of the mini-lessons in the unit could be challenging for students who are still concrete thinkers. You’d likely need to do some adjusting and scaffolding which could extend the unit beyond the 3 weeks. Having said that, I taught 1st grade and found the steps of the writing process, as described in the post, to be very similar. Of course learning targets/standards were different, but the process itself can be applied to any grade level (modeling writing, using mentor texts to study how stories work, planning the structure of the story, drafting, elaborating, etc.) Hope this helps!

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This has made my life so much easier. After teaching in different schools systems, from the American, to British to IB, one needs to identify the anchor standards and concepts, that are common between all these systems, to build well balanced thematic units. Just reading these steps gave me the guidance I needed to satisfy both the conceptual framework the schools ask for and the standards-based practice. Thank you Thank you.

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Would this work for teaching a first grader about narrative writing? I am also looking for a great book to use as a model for narrative writing. Veggie Monster is being used by his teacher and he isn’t connecting with this book in the least bit, so it isn’t having a positive impact. My fear is he will associate this with writing and I don’t want a negative association connected to such a beautiful process and experience. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you for any information you can provide!

Although I think the materials in the actual narrative writing unit are really too advanced for a first grader, the general process that’s described in the blog post can still work really well.

I’m sorry your child isn’t connecting with The Night of the Veggie Monster. Try to keep in mind that the main reason this is used as a mentor text is because it models how a small moment story can be told in a big way. It’s filled with all kinds of wonderful text features that impact the meaning of the story – dialogue, description, bold text, speech bubbles, changes in text size, ellipses, zoomed in images, text placement, text shape, etc. All of these things will become mini-lessons throughout the unit. But there are lots of other wonderful mentor texts that your child might enjoy. My suggestion for an early writer, is to look for a small moment text, similar in structure, that zooms in on a problem that a first grader can relate to. In addition to the mentor texts that I found in this article , you might also want to check out Knuffle Bunny, Kitten’s First Full Moon, When Sophie Gets Angry Really Really Angry, and Whistle for Willie. Hope this helps!

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I saw this on Pinterest the other day while searching for examples of narritives units/lessons. I clicked on it because I always click on C.o.P stuff 🙂 And I wasn’t disapointed. I was intrigued by the connection of narratives to humanity–even if a student doesn’t identify as a writer, he/she certainly is human, right? I really liked this. THIS clicked with me.

A few days after I read the P.o.C post, I ventured on to YouTube for more ideas to help guide me with my 8th graders’ narrative writing this coming spring. And there was a TEDx video titled, “The Power of Personal Narrative” by J. Christan Jensen. I immediately remembered the line from the article above that associated storytelling with “power” and how it sets humans apart and if introduced and taught as such, it can be “extraordinary.”

I watched the video and to the suprise of my expectations, it was FANTASTIC. Between Jennifer’s post and the TEDx video ignited within me some major motivation and excitement to begin this unit.

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Thanks for sharing this with us! So glad that Jenn’s post paired with another text gave you some motivation and excitement. I’ll be sure to pass this on to Jenn!

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Thank you very much for this really helpful post! I really love the idea of helping our students understand that storytelling is powerful and then go on to teach them how to harness that power. That is the essence of teaching literature or writing at any level. However, I’m a little worried about telling students that whether a piece of writing is fact or fiction does not matter. It in fact matters a lot precisely because storytelling is powerful. Narratives can shape people’s views and get their emotions involved which would, in turn, motivate them to act on a certain matter, whether for good or for bad. A fictional narrative that is passed as factual could cause a lot of damage in the real world. I believe we should. I can see how helping students focus on writing the story rather than the truth of it all could help refine the needed skills without distractions. Nevertheless, would it not be prudent to teach our students to not just harness the power of storytelling but refrain from misusing it by pushing false narratives as factual? It is true that in reality, memoirs pass as factual while novels do as fictional while the opposite may be true for both cases. I am not too worried about novels passing as fictional. On the other hand, fictional narratives masquerading as factual are disconcerting and part of a phenomenon that needs to be fought against, not enhanced or condoned in education. This is especially true because memoirs are often used by powerful people to write/re-write history. I would really like to hear your opinion on this. Thanks a lot for a great post and a lot of helpful resources!

Thank you so much for this. Jenn and I had a chance to chat and we can see where you’re coming from. Jenn never meant to suggest that a person should pass off a piece of fictional writing as a true story. Good stories can be true, completely fictional, or based on a true story that’s mixed with some fiction – that part doesn’t really matter. However, what does matter is how a student labels their story. We think that could have been stated more clearly in the post , so Jenn decided to add a bit about this at the end of the 3rd paragraph in the section “A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?” Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

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You have no idea how much your page has helped me in so many ways. I am currently in my teaching credential program and there are times that I feel lost due to a lack of experience in the classroom. I’m so glad I came across your page! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks so much for letting us know-this means a whole lot!

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No, we’re sorry. Jenn actually gets this question fairly often. It’s something she considered doing at one point, but because she has so many other projects she’s working on, she’s just not gotten to it.

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I couldn’t find the story

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Hi, Duraiya. The “Frog” story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit, which you can purchase to gain access to the story. I hope this helps!

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narrative writing extension activities

Language & Grammar

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Digital Learning

Teaching narrative writing tips and activities.

narrative writing extension activities

Last week, I walked you through how I thought Opinion Writing should be taught! Today, you’re going to get teaching narrative writing tips. Like last week, I’m going to share best practices I think are best, mentor text suggestions, and even a closer look at Common Core expectations. I hope you can walk away with ideas, activities, and inspiration for your narrative writing lesson plans. All of the images you see below (except for the read-alouds) are part of my ELA writing units. The links to all grade levels are at the bottom!

Time to check grade level expectations from Common Core

Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, narrative, and today’s topic OPINION WRITING! It begins kindergarten and each year, gets progressively more in-depth and detailed. Here is a look at K-5’s expectations for opinion writing, according to Common Core.

Primary Standards:

  • Kinder: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.
  • 1st: Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
  • 2nd: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Intermediate (3rd and 4th) Standards:

  • 3rd: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. (a- Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.) (b- Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.) (c- Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.) (d- Provide a sense of closure.)
  • 4th: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. (a- Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.) (b- Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.) (c- Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.) (d- Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.) (e- Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.)

Outline of narrative writing teaching unit…

  • What is narrative writing?
  • Teaching the difference between big events and small moments
  • Write an introduction
  • Sequencing events
  • Teaching how to write conclusions
  • Tying it all together & practice opportunities

Stock up on your narrative writing mentor texts!

narrative writing extension activities

All of the pieces within this blog post should have a mentor text example along with it. Each time you teach your students about a component of narrative writing, use a strong example! Each of the book links below are affiliate links to Amazon.

  • What You Know First by Patricia Maclachlan
  • Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino
  • Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
  • Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
  • Bigmama’s by Donald Crews
  • Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
  • Roller Coaster by Maria Frazee
  • Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
  • When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
  • Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
  • The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
  • Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

Let’s begin… Start by teaching WHAT narrative writing is.

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

First, we are going to kick off our writing unit by teaching WHAT narrative writing is and how it’s different from the other big writing pieces. Since it is one of the three types of writing pieces, it’s important for students to understand what goes into personal narratives and fictional narratives. The big components I’m going to talk about in this blog post (focused on K-4) is an introduction, events (we will get more in detail later), and a conclusion. Students must understand all the pieces of that before they try writing their own.

Narrative Writing Lesson Plan activity

It is also important for students to recognize the difference between personal narratives and fictional narratives. Since they’re going to be asked to write both types of narrative writing pieces throughout their units (links below), they must know what goes into each one.

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

After you introduce narrative writing and teach the types of narrative writing, give them some activities to help them practice determining what parts of the story they’re listening to or reading. One activity is a story read aloud. The teacher will read aloud a sample personal narrative, and then he or she will reread it one sentence at a time. Then, students will turn and talk with a partner to identify if that sentence is part of the introduction, events, details, or conclusion. Another activity they can do is a fold-and-snip book where they lift a flap and write a sample sentence under each (or they can write the purpose of each personal narrative component).

Teach big events & small moments

Narrative Writing Lesson plan activity

Now it’s time to teach about big events and small moments. When you’re teaching narrative writing, it gets tricky for younger students to differentiate between big events that happened and smaller moments within those moments. For example, a big event would be taking a trip to Disney World. But focusing on a smaller moment within that event could be meeting Cinderella or riding the new Avatar roller coaster. This helps students focus in on writing more specific details, feelings, and actions when they’re writing their narratives.

Narrative Writing graphic organizer

Give the students lots of practice with big events and small moments. With partners and groups, give students an example big event and ask them to come up with sample smaller moments. First, give them specific big events on a smaller circle map. Then, ask them to come up with their own big event examples.

Move on to introductions

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

Students will now be ready to move on to introductions because you taught them components and small moments. They’re ready to start practicing! First, you need to introduce introductions (mouthful, right?) You’ll teach them the different ways that you can introduce their narrative and hook their reader. Then, you’ll let them practice identifying sample introductions. This will benefit them in two ways. One way is that they’re getting tons of exposure to different examples of strong introductions. Another way is that they’ll be comfortable with the different types of introductions, which are using dialogue, asking questions, giving details, giving facts, using onomatopoeia, and using emotion.

Narrative Writing graphic organizer

Once they’ve listened to mentor texts and practiced with strong examples, it’s time for them to start practicing coming up with their own. First, ask students to work with a partner to come up with a clever introduction when they see a picture card. Then, they can practice writing a sentence or two on a worksheet when given a topic.

Teach how to sequence events

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

After your students practice introduction, you can get into the bulk of your writing… the events. This is one of the hardest parts of teaching narrative writing because the majority of the story detail is in this piece of their writing. Within the body, students are going to cover the sequenced events, details, feelings, actions, and emotions.

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

One way to ask them to practice this is by showing them sequenced events on a picture strip. This shows details of a storyline that students can verbally discuss with a partner. After they study the pictures, they can try to create 3 sentences for each picture to describe the events. A big focus of this part of narrative writing is temporal words, or words such as first, next, then, and last. This will help students be able to organize their events in chronological order.

Narrative Writing graphic organizer

Another way to help kids with events is to show them strong mentor texts as examples. When reading aloud a story, such as Owl Moon, the teacher needs to stop and discuss when they find new events and details that the author has provided. Then, students can write about the ‘first, next, then, and the last events in the text they read.

Narrative Writing  graphic organizer

Don’t forget to include details when you’re teaching narrative writing. If you look at the Common Core standards listed above, you will see that second grade is the age which students are expected to start adding details. They’re expected to start using feelings and actions to help explain their story. Give them lots of practice opportunities to perfect adding these into a story.

Teaching narrative writing conclusions

Narrative Writing graphic organizer

And finally, we will move on to conclusions in narrative writing. When you’re teaching narrative writing, students must know the different types of conclusions, like giving a suggestion, asking a question, or describing a vivid image. First, you can read a few mentor texts’ conclusions to show examples. Then, you can ask them to come up with their own examples after learning about each specific type.

Narrative Writing Anchor Chart activity

After a few activities that show students different examples of all types of conclusions, let them practice coming up with their own when they’re given a topic.

Tying narrative writing together

Narrative Writing Lesson and graphic organizers

And now for the fun part!

Finally, you’ve taught all the pieces of your narrative writing unit. Therefore, it’s time to practice, practice, practice. Choose high-interest and engaging topics for students to write about. Give them lots of different prompts to pick from. Provide them with scaffolded graphic organizers that will help them brainstorm and pre-write. They’re going to rock those narratives!

Interested in Free Graphic Organizers for Your Writing Unit?

narrative writing extension activities

Grab a free set of narrative writing graphic organizers. One page for each grade level, perfect for differentiation or just grabbing what you need.

Or Do You Want Ready-Made Lesson Plans for Narrative Writing?

If you’re interested in getting your students to master writing without having to spend hours on planning and prep, I have all-inclusive units for you! These no-prep units have everything you need to teach opinion writing in your classroom!

narrative writing extension activities

Narrative Units come complete with anchor charts, lesson plans, graphic organizers, writing prompts, and more! Click the button for your grade level below:

Want more writing blog posts for ideas and tips?

  • How to teach opinion writing
  • Tying writing into your math block
  • Warming up for your writing block
  • How to make their writing interactive
  • Read more about: Common Core Aligned , Uncategorized , Writing Blog Posts

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narrative writing extension activities

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The Best Narrative Writing Activities with Astonishing Student Results

Narrative Writing Activity Roundup

Are you looking for an ENGAGING narrative writing activity for your kinder through third graders? Narrative writing doesn’t have to be the same personal narratives over and over again. Spruce up your writing with the addition of mentor texts and imaginative narratives with these fun narrative writing activity ideas.

narrative writing activity round up - road trip craft and project

My Rocking Road Trip

Where would your students travel if they could go ANYWHERE in the world? Would they take a trip to Paris? Visit Mickey at Disney? Go to the beach and swim? Let your students tell you about their dream vacation by having them write about a “rocking road trip” in which they detail different stops they make and different activities they do at each location. Students will love this project and it makes a great bulletin board for the hallway.

narrative writing activity round up - my summer craft and project

My Sun-Sational Summer

Sometimes students might struggle to find topics to write about, especially at the beginning of the year. One great way to get to know your students while simultaneously teaching them the skills of narrative writing is to have them write about what they did over the summer . They can either write about multiple events, or practice stretching out one topic into multiple events. Grab this fun project on my TpT store.

narrative writing activity round up - imaginary friend beekle craft and project

My Imaginary Friend

If you had an imaginary friend that could do ANYTHING, what would you do? Your students are sure to come up with some exciting events with their imaginary buddy, and will write some funny stuff during this project! It is a great way to learn more about your students and their imaginary sides while also being able to practice important narrative writing skills. You can snag this project on my Teachers Pay Teachers store .

narrative writing activity round up - my pet dragon craft and project

My Pet Dragon

If you had a pet dragon, what adventures would you go on? Would you fly somewhere? Perhaps you would visit a castle? Maybe having a dragon would cause some problems for you? Students will love writing about their adventures with their own pet dragon as much as they will love the craft and fun book that accompanies this exciting project.

narrative writing activity round up - my day with a leprechaun and tooth fairy craft and project

My Day with the Tooth Fairy/Leprechaun

We talk about catching magical creatures such as the Tooth Fairy and leprechauns with our students.. however.. what would students do once they actually grab hold of these mystical beings? Get students to think more critically and in a fun way about what would TRULY happen if they caught the tooth fairy or leprechaun. Snag this fun tooth fairy project or leprechaun project for your class, and see what amazing adventures they write about!

Flat teacher adventures digital imaginative narrative writing activity

Flat Teacher

What would your students do with YOU if they had the chance to take you anywhere? Let students write about some funny adventures with their flat teacher using this fun DIGITAL writing project. Digital writing projects make great centers, homework, independent stations, remediation/enrichment, passion projects and more for both in person and virtual classrooms.

The great stuffie adventure digital imaginative narrative writing activity

Stuffie Adventures

Students all have their favorite stuffed animals at home. Give students a chance to bring that joy into the classroom by having them w rite all about the adventures that these stuffies might have taken with them , or will take with them. Students can either bring these beloved stuffies to school or can spend a weekend taking pictures with their stuffed animals in order to complete this exciting narrative project.

One spooky night digital imaginative narrative writing activity halloween

Spooky Story (or Not So Spooky Story)

Are you looking to change up the normal writing that your classroom engages in? One way to spruce up the excitement is to have students write a SPOOKY (or not so spooky) story ! Let students’ imaginations run wild and see what spooky things they come up with during this digital writing activity.

narrative writing activity round up - the great turkey escape craft and project

Turkey Escape

If you found out that you were the main course for Thanksgiving dinner would you stick around or would you bolt? Students will love to imagine what a Thanksgiving turkey would do running around their house trying to escape. In the end, will their turkeys escape… or will they become dinner? The fate is in your students’ hands! Grab this fun project in my TpT store .

My snowy day winter digital imaginative narrative writing activity

Are you looking for a fun writing project during the long, snowy winter season? Students will enjoy this digital writing project in which they get to write about their IDEAL snowy day.

My night on the polar express digital narrative writing activity

My Trip on the Polar Express

The winter season is such a magical time, especially if you are able to talk about the holidays in your classroom. Get students engaged in their writing by having them write about their own magical journeys aboard the Polar Express . Students can come up with creative events and details laying out their adventures both aboard the train and at the North Pole. Grab this fun project and have your students start writing about their adventures today!

What is your favorite narrative writing activity? Drop it in the comments below!

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Literacy Ideas

Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students

Narrative Writing Exercises

What are the essential narrative writing skills?

Narrative writing demands a lot from our students.    It requires them not just to come up with a story worth telling but also to develop the necessary skills to make that story come alive through the written word.

No mean feat when we consider the diverse challenges of creating a compelling narrative within the two dimensions of the printed word.

 In this article, we’ll look at some of the most important skills your students will require to excel in narrative writing .

We’ll look at each of these skills in turn.

First, we’ll explore why each skill is important for narrative writing ability.

Then, we’ll suggest an activity or two you can use in the classroom to help your students develop each specific skill.

 Narrative writing Skills covered:

  • Reading Widely
  • Believable Characters
  • Cause and Effect
  • Effective Dialogue
  • Ending Well

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING NARRATIVE WRITING

narrative writing exercises | narrative writing unit 1 2 | Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students | literacyideas.com

Teach your students to become skilled story writers with this HUGE   NARRATIVE & CREATIVE STORY WRITING UNIT . Offering a  COMPLETE SOLUTION  to teaching students how to craft  CREATIVE CHARACTERS, SUPERB SETTINGS, and PERFECT PLOTS .

Over 192 PAGES of materials, including:

Engaging students in narrative writing exercises offers a myriad of educational and developmental benefits. Firstly, these exercises cultivate creativity by encouraging students to explore their imagination and construct compelling stories. The process of inventing characters, designing plots, and crafting settings foster a creative mindset that extends beyond the confines of writing, influencing problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Moreover, narrative writing exercises enhance language proficiency. Students refine their vocabulary, experiment with sentence structure, and learn to express complex ideas coherently. As they construct narratives, students naturally improve their communication skills, both written and verbal.

Narrative Writing Skill 1: Reading Widely

narrative_skills.jpg

This may seem a strange place to start. This article’s about writing skills after all.

Our students’ first experience of the written word is usually through reading. It is through reading well-written texts that they first begin to absorb the rules of language and structure.

After a time, they begin to apply some of the knowledge gained from their reading into their own early attempts at independent writing.

From the early focus on using phonics to decode unfamiliar words to building a diverse and expressive vocabulary, reading is where students begin to develop their writing chops. It’s where they see how it’s done.

Not only can students absorb some of the craft of narrative writing by reading fiction, but reading nonfiction can also serve to enhance their narrative writing too.

Reading nonfiction books helps students to understand the world around them.

This, in turn, helps them to create more plausible fictional worlds as they fill it with details and knowledge drawn from their nonfiction reading.

Suggested Narrative Writing Exercises:

There are many reading strategies to help students to develop higher-level reading skills that will inform their writing of narratives.

It’s impossible to cover everything here, but there are several comprehensive articles on this site-directed specifically at helping students to develop their reading comprehension skills.

However, one simple strategy you can use to assess student understanding of any text is The Retell strategy.

In The Retell , you simply ask the student to retell the story they have just read in their own words.

Obviously, students can’t be expected to recall the entirety of something they’ve read word for word.

Asking them to retell the story forces them to reconstruct the events from memory, put them in order, and express them in their own words. Something they’ll only be able to do if they’ve understood what they’ve read.

Narrative Writing Skill 2: Believable Characters

click to read article

One of the most common failings, when our students write stories, is to people their fictional worlds with flat characters.

You know the types (or stereotypes!) – A square-jawed hunk who can do no wrong, alongside the helpless damsel in distress waiting to be saved.

Save for writing fairy stories and the like, our students should strive to create believable characters that seem to live and breathe inside the pages of their stories.

To do this effectively our students need to do the following 2 things:

●      Create a Backstory

It may not be necessary to share the backstory with their readers, but students should have at least some idea about their main characters’ lives before the events of their narrative.

The backstory goes beyond the details of a physical description. It allows the writer to explore the character’s goals, motivations, and beliefs.

Suggested Narrative Writing Activity:

A simple way to explore a character’s backstory is to have the student write a short biography on the character’s life.

This needn’t be extensive. It could just be in the form of bullet points, for example. The aim here is to provide some depth to the character.

Another effective way to bring depth to a character is for the student to base them on someone famous or someone they know personally.

●      Make Characters Complex

The problem with the impeccable hero or defenseless damsel caricatures is that they don’t correspond to what we know of people in real life.

In real life, we are more than a single characteristic.

In one context we can display characteristics of bravery, while another situation may have our knees knocking.

Real people are complex, flawed, and even contradictory at times.

The simplest way to create complex characters is to make them flawed.

One way to do this is to give them a vice. This won’t necessarily make the character unlikeable by the reader, instead, it will give the character room for growth.

For this activity, organize the students into groups and ask them to list as many vices as they can e.g. arrogance, envy, anger, etc.

Then, challenge the students to come up with various scenarios where these vices can be turned into virtues.

For example, a young girl is very lazy. Her mother gets sick and needs expensive medical treatment. The young girl loves her mother very much. The young girl begins to work very hard. Through a series of ups and downs, she becomes very successful and wealthy and helps her mother.

Now we’ve got the beginnings of a story!

Narrative Writing Skill 3: Cause & Effect

click to read article

To avoid a meandering storyline that rambles aimlessly, students should plan out their narrative before they begin.

The essential elements of a story to consider include:

  • Rising Action
  • Falling Action

A story is a series of events connected by cause and effect. It is this cause and effect that gives meaning to a story. Readers need to know why each event occurs and how it relates to previous events.

A good way to practice cause and effect is to play And Then What?

For this game, organize students into pairs and suggest simple scenarios to them.

For example, A man stands under a tree. He is pacing up and down nervously. He glances at his watch every few seconds.

One student answers the question, “And then what?” by describing what happens next.

When they’ve finished describing the next event, they then ask their partner, “And then what?”.

They repeat this until they’ve worked through the problem, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Narrative Writing Skill 4: Effective Dialogue

writing_dialogue.png

Dialogue can be a fantastic tool and students should learn to use it well.

Beyond the mechanics of structure and punctuation, dialogue should do 3 things:

●      Move the story forward

●      Reveal character

●      Help the reader understand the relationships between characters.

If dialogue doesn’t achieve these 3 things, then it will need revising or deleting entirely.

A common mistake made in dialogue writing is that it goes on too long.

Often, students enjoy writing dialogue but if it is poorly written the reader won’t experience the same level of enjoyment in the reading of it.

To ensure the dialogue is tightly written, students should avoid small talk in their dialogue.

They should also eliminate pointless, long-drawn-out greetings and leave-takings between characters.

They need to get to the point quickly in their dialogue so as not to bore their reader.

It’s also important for students to avoid using dialogue as a means of info-dumping . That is, the Show, Don’t Tell rule is still in effect in dialogue.

Students should avoid the “As you know…” style of crow-barring exposition into the conversation. This makes dialogue sound awkward and unrealistic – this isn’t how people speak.

Dialogue can certainly be used to reveal backstory and character but it must be done subtly.

An excellent way for students to assess how authentic their dialogue sounds is for them to read it aloud when they have finished.

Students should pay attention to how their dialogue feels in their mouths when they speak the words.

Do the words come easily or are they stumbling over phrases?

Real speech is natural and flows. If this isn’t the case, things need to be looked at again.

Narrative Writing Skill 5: Tension

writing_tension.jpg

Tension in a story is what maintains the reader’s interest and keeps them reading right to the end.

Tension is all about anticipation. It causes an emotional response in the reader as they’re drawn into the lives of the characters and become invested in the outcomes of the story’s plot .

There are several ways students can create tension in their stories, these include:

  • Create characters with conflicting goals
  • Raise the stakes for the main character
  • Give the reader more information than the main character
  • Create questions in the reader’s mind.

The ticking clock is one-way that tension can be injected into a story. This is where a story’s timeline is compressed by some sort of deadline.

An excellent twist on the ticking clock idea can be seen in the 90’s movie Speed , where Keanu Reeves’ character must maintain a speed above 50 miles per hour to prevent a booby-trapped bus from exploding.

Organize students into groups for this activity. Challenge them to come up with story scenarios that employ a ticking clock strategy to build tension.

Narrative Writing Skill 6: Themes

writing_themes.jpg

Well-developed themes help the reader to derive meaning from a story. Unlike in most nonfiction text types, in fiction writing themes are usually stated implicitly.

For students to develop themes in their narrative writing, they’ll first need to secure a firm knowledge of what exactly a theme is.

Theme simply refers to the central idea or main topic that is explored in a story.

Common themes for stories include love, revenge, good vs. evil, redemption, courage, and coming of age.

Students will first need to decide what their story is about, thematically-speaking.

They will then need to develop their thematic statement. If the theme refers to what the story is about, the thematic statement refers to what the writer thinks about it.

The theme is what it’s about, the thematic statement is what it means to the writer.

A helpful way for students to begin to understand how to develop themes in their own writing is to get good at identifying them in the work of others.

For this activity, provide the students with a list of well-known fairy tales and fables .

Instruct students to work in groups to identify first the broad theme of each story and then to write a thematic statement expressing the writer’s perspective.

Narrative Writing Skill 7: Ending Well (Conclusions)

writing_a_narrative_conclusion.jpg

Few things can be as frustrating to a reader as an unsatisfying ending. After investing all that time in reading the story, the reader deserves a decent pay-off at the end.

For a student to give themself the best chance to create a satisfying story, they should know the ending from the outset.

This way, every major scene and major event in the story will be informed by a knowledge of the ending yet to come. The story will have drive and direction.

There are lots of competing demands on our attention these days and the ending should justify to the reader the energy they invested in reading the story.

The ending should be well thought out and unrushed. It should be unpredictable, but not absurd.

Ideally, the writer wants the reader to look back over the story and think that they should have seen the ending coming, but didn’t.

Organize students into groups and assign each group a well-known story. Traditional tales, myths, fairy tales, and fables would serve well for this activity.

In their groups, students rewrite their story’s ending together.

The challenge here is to create an ending that differs distinctly from the story’s original ending but still makes sense in relation to the preceding events of the story.

Students present their alternative endings to the class and discuss afterward how effective they think the new ending is when compared to the original ending.

Our Narrative Draws to a Close

As with all types of writing , students should take the time to edit and proofread at the end.

This is particularly true with narrative writing as it not only makes high demands on a student’s technical writing skills but also on their creativity and imagination.

With patience and practice, students will develop the necessary narrative skills to spin a tale that will engage a reader from exposition to resolution.

Teaching narrative writing effectively involves guiding students through the process of crafting engaging stories. Here are five key tips for successful narrative writing instruction:

5 Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing

Model the Writing Process:

  • Demonstrate the steps involved in crafting a narrative by modelling your writing. Share your thought process, decision-making, and revisions. This provides students with a tangible example of how to approach storytelling.

Provide Clear Guidelines and Rubrics:

  • Establish clear expectations for narrative writing assignments. Clearly outline the elements you want students to include, such as well-developed characters, a compelling plot, and descriptive language. Provide a rubric highlighting specific assessment criteria, fostering a better understanding of what constitutes a successful narrative.

Encourage Frequent Peer Review:

  • Foster a collaborative learning environment by incorporating peer review sessions. Encourage students to exchange drafts and provide constructive feedback on each other’s work. Peer review enhances the revision process and allows students to learn from each other’s strengths and challenges.

Incorporate Writing Prompts and Exercises:

  • Use a variety of writing prompts and exercises to stimulate creativity and critical thinking. These can include character development activities, plot-building exercises, or even group storytelling. Diverse prompts help students explore different aspects of narrative writing, preventing monotony and inspiring varied storytelling styles.

Emphasize the Revision Process:

  • Highlight the importance of revision in the writing process. Encourage students to revisit and refine their narratives, focusing on aspects like clarity, coherence, and the incorporation of feedback. By emphasizing revision, students develop a stronger understanding of the iterative nature of writing and the importance of refining their work.

Remember to tailor your teaching approach to the specific needs and skill levels of your students. Creating a supportive and creative environment that values individual expression while providing structured guidance will contribute to the success of your narrative writing instruction.

THE STORY TELLERS BUNDLE OF TEACHING RESOURCES

narrative writing exercises | story tellers bundle 1 | Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students | literacyideas.com

A MASSIVE COLLECTION of resources for narratives and story writing in the classroom covering all elements of crafting amazing stories. MONTHS WORTH OF WRITING LESSONS AND RESOURCES, including:

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20 Inspiring Narrative Writing Activities

February 9, 2023 //  by  Seda Unlucay

Help kids unleash their imagination and explore the world of storytelling with these twenty narrative writing ideas! From exciting adventures to heartfelt moments, these prompts will inspire them to create captivating and imaginative tales that will keep their readers engaged from start to finish. Whether they want to explore the fantastical or delve into real-life situations, these ideas are sure to spark their creativity and get their stories off the ground. 

1. Master the Craft of Storytelling with Short Stories

Explore the power of using graphic organizers to plan and develop a short story. The focus of this lesson is on using clear and concise language to effectively communicate ideas.  

Learn More: Apples and Bananas Education

2. Story Writing for Elementary Students

These colorful picture prompts provide a starting point for a captivating story filled with vivid descriptions and rich characters. It’s an opportunity to weave a tale that transports readers to a different world, where they can experience the thrill of adventure and the depth of emotions. 

Learn More: Raise The Bar Reading

3. Support Student Understanding with Drawings 

Drawing pictures to tell a story allows children to use their imagination and creativity to bring the story to life while improving their literacy skills and building their confidence. 

Learn More: Keeping My Kiddo Busy

4. Journal Writing for Reluctant Writers

Even reluctant writers are sure to enjoy keeping a diary by writing from the perspective of their favorite animal. Invite kids to grab their notebooks and let their imagination run wild as they become a lion, dolphin, or even a butterfly for the day!

Learn More: That Teaching Spark

5. Review Elements of Narrative Writing with a Video

This beautifully animated video features Tim and Moby who walk kids through the process of building a story by including details about their childhood, their family, and their hobbies.

Learn More: Brain Pop

6. How to Tell Memorable Stories

This Powerpoint presentation teaches kids about narrative writing through colorful slides, interactive activities, and clear explanations. It covers key elements of storytelling such as character, setting, plot, and resolution, as well as tips for avoiding common mistakes and improving their writing. 

Learn More: Twinkl

7. Self-Assessment for Components of Narrative Writing

This self-assessment for narrative writing allows students to reflect on their own work and evaluate their skills in areas such as plot development, character development, use of descriptive language, and overall coherence.

8. Once Upon a Picture 

This collection of lovingly curated pictures is sure to evoke emotions and stimulate imagination, helping kids create vivid and detailed narratives. They provide a visual reference point for setting, characters, and events, and can suggest themes, motives, and even plot twists! 

Learn More: Once Upon A Picture

9. Read Mentor Texts That Bring Characters to Life

Reading narrative writing mentor texts helps in improving writing skills, gaining inspiration and creative ideas, learning different writing techniques, understanding the narrative structure and character development, and enhancing vocabulary and syntax. By reading the works of successful authors, students can get a deeper insight into the writing process and develop their own unique voice.

Learn More: Mrs. Winter’s Bliss

10. Use an Anchor Chart to Build Daily Writing Habits

The benefits of using a narrative writing anchor chart include providing clear writing expectations while helping students understand the structure of a story. Additionally, they can serve as a visual reference for students to refer to during the writing process.

11. Descriptive Writing Activity

Sensory detail-based narrative writing help bring the setting, characters, and events to life, making the story more engaging and memorable. This activity can also help develop emotional intelligence and empathy, as it encourages the writer to think about how the world feels about their characters. 

12. Create Complex Characters

These character traits writing task cards are educational tools designed to help students identify and describe the personality traits of fictional characters. The cards provide prompts and writing exercises to guide students as they analyze the actions, thoughts, and behaviors of characters in a story. 

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

13. Roll and Write

Start by giving each child a piece of paper and a dice. Based on the number they roll, they are given a setting, character, or plot element to incorporate into their story. Why not have kids share their stories with the group, encouraging them to listen and appreciate each other’s creative expression?

14. Fold a Story

FoldingStory is a free online game where students write one line of a story and pass it on. They will be delighted to see how their simple idea turns into a wild tale! 

Learn More: Folding Story

15. Writer’s Notebook Bingo Cards

These writer’s notebook Bingo cards feature different prompts and ideas related to narrative writing, such as “Show, don’t Tell”, “Vivid Description”, “Point of View”, and more. Students will not only enjoy playing Bingo but learn how to apply these writing techniques to their own stories. 

Learn More: Corbett Harrison

16. Try an Online Visual Story

With Storybird, students can choose from a diverse collection of art to create their own unique stories. Each illustration is carefully selected to evoke emotion, spark imagination, and inspire creativity. The platform is user-friendly and intuitive, allowing anyone to easily create stories in minutes, without any prior experience.

Learn More: Story Bird

17. Try Story Cubes

Rory’s Story Cubes is an engaging game where players roll dice with symbols on them and use the symbols to come up with imaginative stories that they can write down or share aloud. It’s suitable for children of all ages and can be played solo or with friends.

Learn More: Story Cubes

18. Explore the Elements of Narrative Writing 

In this lesson, students will learn to develop characters, settings, and plots while using descriptive language and sensory details. By using a story map, students can see the structure of a story and learn to build tension, conflict, and resolution.

Learn More: Read Write Think

19. Focus on Character and Dialogue

For this hands-on sorting activity, students are given a set of jumbled words and asked to sort them into meaningful sentences to create effective narrative dialogue. 

Learn More: The Teacher Studio

20. Narrative Writing Pyramid

After reading a story, students can use this Narrative Pyramid to organize the characters, setting, and events. This activity helps to provide a clear understanding of the story’s structure and how the elements fit together to form a compelling tale. 

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Writing Curriculum

Teach Narrative Writing With The New York Times

This teaching guide, part of our eight-unit writing curriculum, includes daily writing prompts, lessons based on selected mentor texts, and an invitation for students to participate in our 100-word personal narrative contest.

narrative writing extension activities

By The Learning Network

Stories can thrill, wound, delight, uplift and teach. Telling a story vividly and powerfully is a vital skill that is deeply valued across all cultures, past and present — and narrative writing is, of course, a key genre for literacy instruction at every level.

When your students think “New York Times,” they probably think of our 172-year history of award-winning journalism, and may not even realize that The Times today is full of personal narratives — on love and family , but also on how we relate to animals , live with disabilities or navigate anxiety . If you flip or scroll through sections of the paper, you’ll see that personal writing is everywhere, and often ranks among the most popular pieces The Times publishes each week.

At The Learning Network, we’ve been posting writing prompts every school day for over a decade now, and many of them invite personal narrative. Inspired by Times articles of all kinds, the prompts ask students to tell us about their passions and their regrets, their most embarrassing moments and their greatest achievements. Thousands of students around the world respond each month, and each week during the school year we call out our favorite responses .

In this unit we’re taking it a step further and turning our narrative-writing opportunities into a contest that invites students to tell their own stories. Below, you’ll find plenty of ideas and resources to get your students reading, writing and thinking about their own stories, including:

✔ New narrative-writing prompts every week.

✔ Daily opportunities for students to have an authentic audience for their writing via posting comments to our forums.

✔ Guided practice with mentor texts that include writing exercises.

✔ A clear, achievable end-product (our contest) modeled on real-world writing.

✔ The chance for students to have their work published in The New York Times.

Here’s how it works.

Start with personal-narrative prompts for low-stakes writing.

narrative writing extension activities

Related Article | Related Picture Prompt

Every week during the school year we publish new narrative writing prompts on a vast array of topics via our Student Opinion and Picture Prompts columns. These prompts can be a starting point to help your students start reflecting on their lives and the stories they have to tell.

Each prompt is inspired by a Times article, which is free if you access it through our site, and all are open for comment for students 13 and up. Every comment is read by Learning Network editors before it is approved.

Teachers have told us they use our prompts as an opportunity for daily writing practice, a communal space where students can practice honing voice, trying new techniques and writing for a real audience. And if students are writing formal personal narrative essays, whether for college applications, for our contest or for any other reason, our prompts might serve as inspiration to help them find topics.

Student Opinion Questions

We publish a new Student Opinion question every school day, including many that invite personal writing. Students will read a related Times article and then respond to questions that help them think about how it applies to their own lives, like these:

“ What Cultural Traditions Are Important to You? ” “ Has Forgiving Someone Ever Made You Feel Better? ” “ How Do You Get Over Rejection? ”

You can find them all, as they publish, here . Or check out our collection of 445 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing for years-worth of evergreen questions, organized into categories like family, school, personality and childhood memories.

Picture Prompts

These accessible, image-driven prompts inspire a variety of kinds of writing and we publish them Tuesday through Friday during the school year. Each week we post at least one prompt that asks students to share experiences from their lives, such as this one that invites students to write about memories of their childhood homes , and one that asks them to tell a story about a moment from their lives inspired by an image, such as this one .

You can find all of our Picture Prompts, as they publish, here . At the end of each school year, we round them all up and categorize them by genre of writing. Take a look at our collections from 2017 , 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 and 2023 and scroll down to look for the categories like “What story does this image inspire for you?” and “Share experiences from your own life” to find many prompts that can inspire narratives.

A special “rehearsal space” for teenagers to experiment writing 100-word narratives.

To help with our Tiny Memoir contest, we posted a student forum last year asking, “ What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? ” In it, we lead students through a few questions, and provide a few examples, to show them how. It is still open for comment. We hope that as they search for topics and try out techniques, students will post their drafts here for others to read and comment on.

Read mentor texts and try some of the “writer’s moves” we spotlight.

The Times is full of wonderful writing that can serve as mentor texts for helping students look at the various elements of the genre and think about how to weave specific craft moves into their own writing. We have a couple of ways students can use them for narrative writing.

Mentor Texts Lessons

For our 2023 Tiny Memoir Contest for Students, in which students are invited to describe a meaningful true moment from their lives in 100 words or fewer, we have a set of mentor texts, all of which can be found in our step-by-step guide: How to Write a 100-Word Narrative: A Guide for Our Tiny Memoir Contest . The 25 texts we use can also be found in this PDF .

During the years when we ran a Personal Narrative Contest that allowed students 600 words to tell a story, we broke narrative writing into several key elements and spotlighted a mentor text that does a particularly good job at each. All of them are still applicable to our new contest, which spotlights the same qualities, just in miniature. They have also been woven in to our step-by-step guide :

Tell a story about a small but memorable event or moment in your life.

Use details to show, not tell.

Write from your own point of view, in your real voice.

Use dialogue effectively.

Drop the reader into a scene.

Tell a complete story, with a true narrative arc.

Reflect on the experience and give the reader a take-away.

After students read each of the mentor texts on this list and focus on a specific technique, we invite them to “Now Try This” via an exercise that helps them practice that element. Then, we provide additional mentor text examples, as well as a list of questions to consider while reading any of them. The goal is to demystify what good writing looks like, and encourage students to practice concrete exercises to use those techniques.

Annotated by the Author

But our favorite mentor texts to assign? The work of the teenage winners of our narrative contests. Here are the 2019 , 2020 and 2021 collections of our Personal Narrative Contest. And here are the winners of our first-ever 100-Word Narrative Contest . Which of these pieces do your students like best? What “writer’s moves” might they emulate in their own work?

We also invited three teenagers who won our 2019 contest to annotate their winning narratives for our “Annotated by the Author” series. In these pieces, they demystify their writing process and share ideas other students can try in their own essays.

Annotated by the Author: ‘Speechless’

Annotated by the Author: ‘Pants on Fire’

Annotated by the Author: ‘Cracks in the Pavement’

In addition, we have a piece annotated by the college-aged author of a winning Modern Love piece. In Annotated by the Author: ‘Why Can’t Men Say “I Love You” to Each Other?’ Ricardo F. Jaramillo tells us how to make your reader want to keep reading, how to balance scenes and ideas, why you can’t write a personal essay without “looking inside,” and much more.

Enter our “ Tiny Memoir” Personal Narrative Essay Contest .

At this point in the unit, your students will have practiced writing about their lives using our many prompts. They will also have read several mentor texts, and practiced elements of personal writing with each one. Now, we hope, they can produce a polished piece of writing that brings it all together.

For three years, we ran a personal narrative contest that asked for a “short, powerful story about a meaningful life experience” in 600 words or less. But last year, we debuted our Tiny Memoir Contest that challenged students to tell us a story from their lives in just 100 words. The results blew us away. Teachers told us it was one of the most engaging assignments they gave all year and that the word limit made students’ writing much more focused and powerful. So this year, we’re running it again. We hope this contest will be fun for your students, and a useful exercise if they are going on to write longer pieces, such as a college essay.

Beyond a caution to write no more than 100 words, our contest is fairly open-ended. We’re not asking students to write to a particular theme or use a specific structure or style; instead, we encourage them to experiment and produce something that they feel represents their real voice, telling a tale that matters to them.

All student work will be read by Times editors or journalists and/or by educators from around the country. Winners will have their work published on our site and, perhaps, in the print New York Times.

Though our 100-word contest is slightly different than the original, we still recommend that before students submit, they watch this two-minute video in which student winners from past years share advice on the writing, editing and submission process. Ask students:

What techniques did these students employ that helped make their entries successful?

What did these students gain from having entered this contest? What were some of the challenges they encountered?

What advice can your students use as they work on their own submissions?

This contest will run from Oct. 4 to Nov. 1, 2023. We will link the official announcement here when it publishes, but in the meantime, here are last year’s rules and guidelines , which will remain largely the same.

Additional Resources

While the core of our unit is the prompts, mentor texts and contest, we also offer additional resources to inspire and support teachers, including lesson plans and great ideas from our readers around personal narrative writing.

Lesson Plans

“ From ‘Lives’ to ‘Modern Love’: Writing Personal Essays With Help From The New York Times ”

“ I Remember: Teaching About the Role of Memory Across the Curriculum ”

“ Creative State of Mind: Focusing on the Writing Process ”

“ Writing Narratives With ‘Tiny Love Stories’ ”

“ Telling Short, Memorable Stories With Metropolitan Diary ”

Reader Ideas

“ Flipping the Script on the College Essay With Help From The New York Times ”

“ Teaching Great Writing One Sentence at a Time ”

“ Using the Modern Love Podcast to Teach Narrative Writing ”

“ Fostering Selfhood and Inspiring Student Writers Using ‘Metropolitan Diary’ ”

Teaching Narrative Writing With The New York Times (On-Demand)

Personal Narratives From the Newsroom to the Classroom (On-Demand)

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17 Super Awesome Snowman At Night Activities

Top 10 worksheets to practice writing the alphabet, 19 lively latitude and longitude activities, 9 brilliant activities to practice balancing chemical equations, 28 great teen christmas books, 23 vibrant children’s books about mexico, 12 fascinating forensic science activities for kids, 19 of the best books for toddlers with autism, 20 activities for autism awareness month, 20 enjoyable preschool jumping activities to increase flexibility, 20 inspiring narrative writing activities.

narrative writing extension activities

Narrative writing is an exciting way for students to explore their creativity and express themselves. It allows them to tell stories, imagine new worlds, and communicate their thoughts and feelings. However, coming up with ideas for narrative writing can be challenging. Here are 20 inspiring narrative writing activities that can make the task easier and more enjoyable for students:

1. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Show your students a compelling picture and ask them to imagine what happened before and after the picture was taken. Encourage them to write a story based on their thoughts and observations.

2. Create a Comic Strip

Comic strips are a fun and simple way to teach narrative writing. Take inspiration from popular comic books and encourage your students to create their own characters, plot, and dialogue.

3. Write a Diary Entry Ask your students to write a diary entry, either from their own lives or from the point of view of a fictional character. They can reflect on their emotions, thoughts, and experiences.

4. Retell a Classic Story

Ask your students to reimagine and retell a classic story, such as Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, from a different perspective. This activity develops creative writing and critical thinking skills.

5. Write a Letter

Encourage your students to write a letter to a friend, family member, or even a fictional character. They can express their feelings, share their experiences, and explore various writing styles.

6. Current Event Story

Discuss a recent news story, and then ask your students to write their own story inspired by the events. This helps students to understand complex events while developing writing skills.

7. Interview a Character

Ask your students to interview the main character from a book they have read or a movie they have watched. It encourages students to interpret character development and explore their imaginative skills.

8. Write a Memoir

Students can write a memoir about their own life, reflecting on significant events from their childhood, adolescence, or adulthood. They can explore their emotions, memories, and reflect on their own experiences.

9. Write a Picture Book

A picture book allows students to write a story and create illustrations to engage young readers.

10. Write a Script

Encourage your students to write a script for a play, a movie, or a TV show. It helps students think about visual storytelling techniques and develop dialogues.

11. Write an Adventure Story

Adventure stories allow students to use their imagination to explore new worlds, characters, and conflicts.

12. Write a Book Review Encourage your students to read and review books. This will engage them in reading and writing content that could improve their critical thinking skills and provide insight to their peers.

13. Write a News Article

Ask your students to write a news article about an event that has happened or one they have imagined. It will help them develop journalistic writing skills and keep them updated with current events.

14. Write a Short Story

Encourage students to write a short story, focusing on character development and narrative structure. It could be about anything – real life events, horror, romance, or any form of fiction.

15. Write a Poem

Ask students to write a poem, focusing on building creativity, using different literary techniques and word choices.

16. Describe a Scene

Encourage your students to describe a scene, such as a landscape or cityscape, using sensory details. It helps develop descriptive writing and evocative language.

17. Write a Recipe

Ask students to write a recipe for a dish they love, complete with the ingredients and cooking instructions. Writing a recipe requires careful instructions and step-by-step process, making it a great way to exercise their instructions writing.

18. Write an Autobiographical Essay

Ask your students about their goals, achievements, and interests, and then ask them to write an autobiographical essay. This helps them develop and structure their writing skills.

19. Write a Speech

Encourage your students to write a speech, addressing their peers, the school board, or a public audience. It helps them develop public speaking and persuasive writing skills.

20. Create a Narrative Board Game

Incorporate narrative writing in a fun way by creating a board game that involves developing stories from various prompts. It improves creative thinking and collaborative imagination.

In conclusion, these suggestions will be useful in creating an exceptional narrative writing experience for your students. Incorporating fun and creative aspects can be the motivation students need to improve their writing ability further.   

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Narrative Lesson Plans and Activities

narrative writing extension activities

Explore ready-made resources and discover how to teach the key concepts behind each Step.

Lesson plans.

  • This series of sample Lesson Plans demonstrates how to teach the Seven Steps activities using the explicit teaching model – I Do, We Do, You Do.
  • Each Lesson Plan includes relevant links to the Australian Curriculum and NAPLAN marking criteria, plus a learning intention and success criteria to assist with planning and assessment.
  • Become a Teacher Hub member to access the full range of Lesson Plans.

STEP Step 1: Plan for Success PURPOSE Teach RESOURCE TYPE Lesson Plan YEAR  3–6 RELATED Creativity in the classroom

  • Learn how to use brainstorming and mind-mapping techniques to generate and select great story ideas.
  • Includes an editable mind map template.

narrative writing extension activities

Five + 1 Senses

STEP Step 3: Tightening Tension PURPOSE Teach RESOURCE TYPE Lesson Plan YEAR  3–6 RELATED   Collaborate, create and celebrate great writing

  • Learn how to use the Five + 1 Senses to generate ideas for a tension scene.
  • Includes an editable brainstorming template.

narrative writing extension activities

Planning Tools

  • Need tips on how to implement the Seven Steps? We have a selection of planning resources on Teacher Hub to help you with ideas and inspiration.

Writing Improvement Agenda

STEP All Steps PURPOSE Teach RESOURCE TYPE Planning YEAR  F–10 RELATED Bucking the trend with the Seven Steps

  • A sample Term 4 planning document from Allenstown State School in Queensland.
  • Amalgamates the NAPLAN marking criteria with the Seven Steps in a fortnightly scheme of work.

narrative writing extension activities

  • These templates promote creative thinking and encourage students to have fun with the Seven Steps.
  • We have a range of templates available for students of all ages and ability levels (see Teacher Hub for more). Students can write or draw on the templates; many are editable PDFs that can be used electronically.

The Chatterbox

STEP Step 1: Plan for Success PURPOSE Apply RESOURCE TYPE Template YEAR F–6

  • A random ideas generator that can create over 500 unique story ideas!
  • Collaborative story planning game that students love.

narrative writing extension activities

Special Power (Book Week 2019)

STEP Step 2: Sizzling Starts PURPOSE Apply RESOURCE TYPE Template/Writing Sample YEAR F–6

  • Draw and write a Sizzling Start for the following topic: You wake up to discover you have developed a special power overnight.
  • This resource was created by Rosie Russell from Churchlands Primary School and includes a selection of student samples.

Narrative Step 2: Sizzling Starts writign template - Special Power

Through the Window

STEP Step 2 PURPOSE Apply RESOURCE TYPE Template YEAR F – 2

  • Develop your younger students’ creativity with this fun writing (and drawing) template.
  • Use the prompt given or create your own – students will have a blast as they learn to write in an engaging way.

Narrative Step 2: Sizzling Starts writing template - Through the Window

Finals Fever

STEP Putting It All Together PURPOSE Apply RESOURCE TYPE Template YEAR F–10 RELATED Finals Fever (how to play)

  • Once students have mastered all Seven Steps, take things up a notch with some healthy competition!
  • Based on the final eight system in the AFL and NRL – split your class into teams and have them compete for a place in the Grand Final.
  • This template is taken from our popular resource Game Cards – Finals Fever  which is available on Teacher Hub.

Seven Steps writing activity template - Finals Fever

More narrative resources

Explore more classroom resources and make narrative writing fun with the Seven Steps!

narrative writing extension activities

Writing samples and exemplars

Discover the difference Seven Steps can make with these student writing samples. We also have ‘real world’ exemplars – discover how professional authors use the Seven Steps in narrative texts.

Picture writing prompts

These visual prompts offer fun and quick writing practice to develop your students’ writing skills, one Step at a time.

Other text types

Mastered narrative writing? Explore more Seven Steps resources for persuasive and informative writing!

narrative writing extension activities

Persuasive writing

Lesson plans and activities to help your students write engaging persuasive texts that convince and inspire the reader.

Informative writing

Lesson plans and activities to help your students write engaging informative texts that bring facts to life.

Narrative Writing Course

Step-by-Step guide to teaching the Seven Steps for narrative writing.

narrative writing extension activities

narrative writing extension activities

Creating Extension Activities

Oxford University Press ELT

Before starting, decide on the aim of your extension activity. An aim could be:

  • giving students more practice with a grammar structure or vocabulary because they haven’t quite ‘got it’ yet.
  • exploring a particular topic further.
  • reviewing material from the lesson or unit.
  • assessing where students are in their learning.

Whatever the aim, be sure to link the activity to the language, skills or topic that you want to extend.

1. Personalise it

An extension activity is a good way for students to relate the topic to themselves. In this way, the topic becomes more relevant and can make communication about the topic more meaningful. Students also tend to remember more when the language or topic is personalised. A simple extension activity would be to ask students their opinion about a topic: What do you think about…? Do you agree with…? Which do/would you prefer…? What would you do about…? More extensive activities might include students creating a set of questions and interviewing their partner, writing a personal response to a topic, or taking their own photos and creating an oral narrative using an app such as Fotobabble.

2. Integrate higher-order thinking skills

Thinking skills can be categorised into lower-order (remembering, understanding, applying) and higher-order (analysing, evaluating and creating). If students have been learning vocabulary, they have most likely been learning the definition (remembering), seeing the new words in context (understanding), and completing gapped sentences with the words (applying). An analysing extension activity might ask students to categorise the new words (you can provide the categories, or students could create their own categories), or you might ask students to compare the words to other words – for example, finding synonyms and deciding what the difference in nuance is between the words. If the words are used in a reading or listening text, you could ask students why certain words or phrases were used (evaluating). Students might also use the words creatively – in writing their own sentences (creating).

3. Review regularly

Hermann Ebbinghaus famously showed how much we forget over time, and how memory can improve with regular revision. Have a set of extension activities for the purpose of review in your teacher’s toolkit. Flashcards, revision games, spelling games, and pronunciation activities are all examples of extensions you can use for quick revision. An extension activity can also serve to review what has come before in previous units.

4. Give some choice

All classes have a mix of students with different abilities and strengths, so it’s a good idea to give students options to choose from according to what they feel they can do. For example, you might want students to show their understanding of a text. One option could be to write a summary (more language needed), another might be to create an infographic or timeline (less language needed). Another way to increase choice and provide differentiated instruction is to vary how much students have to produce. For example, you could ask students to write 1-3 true sentences about themselves and 1 false one. They then read their sentences to each other and guess which one is false.

5. Have some time extenders up your sleeve

for when you finish your lesson plan and still have 5-10 minutes left, or when you have fast finishers. Some standard activities include: (1) Students write 1-3 questions or sentences using the grammar structure they’ve been studying; (2) Pairs write 3-5 gapped sentences with the vocabulary from the section. They swap with another pair and complete each other’s sentences; (3) Students work in pairs – each student changes 5 words in a reading text. Student A begins reading the text. When student B hears a word that is different from what is in the text, s/he says, ‘stop’, quotes the word from the text, and then takes over reading where student A left off.

6. Integrate an informal assessment

Extension activities can simply be a way to informally assess whether students have grasped the language or skill aim of the lesson.

One way to do this is with ‘can do’… statements. Write a list of ‘ can dos’ based on your lesson aim on the board for students to copy. For example, if the aim of the lesson is “Students will be able to order a meal from a menu.”, then the ‘can do’ statement might be: “I can order a meal from a menu”. Students tick ü the things they feel they can do. You can then discuss these or collect them up. No ticks = need revision.

Another simple assessment is a “ticket out the door”. If, for example, you have been working on a certain language point, you could ask students to write 3 sentences using that language. These are collected up and used to assess whether or not you need to spend more time on the language point in subsequent lessons.

7. Make it different, interactive or just plain fun

Extension activities that focus on interaction or competition can be very engaging and can make a change from the norm. Try some team competitions that focus on language, skills or topics. One time-honoured example is a grammar auction, in which teams ‘buy’ sentences they think are correct. Teachers can also create board games based on language in the units, or play an online quiz using an app such as Quizlet.

8. Turn it into a project

Projects are a great way to integrate a number of skills, including the 21st-century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. They also cater for mixed abilities because students can do them at their own language level. Projects should start with a question that gets students interested in finding out more. At this point, they may ask more questions or make hypotheses. Students should then do some research to find out the answers to their questions. Research can include surveys, interviews or internet searches. You could even invite a knowledgeable speaker into the classroom. Once they have done their research, students then decide how they will show it. What is important here is that they present their finished product to an audience – another class, the whole school, the headmaster, or parents, for example. When planning a project, think of the aims and work backwards.

If you would like to try some of the ideas above with your students, download my ‘ try this in class ’ tips for even more activity ideas and tips, based on New Headway Intermediate 4th edition.

Stacey Hughes works as a teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and educational consultant in ELT. She has taught English in the US, Poland, Italy and the UK in many different contexts, and currently volunteers as a teacher for FELLOW in Oxford. She has recently run an introduction to teacher training course for the Oxford Department of Education Summer School. Stacey has written a number of blogs, online student exercises and teacher support materials.

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Thank so for this list of activities Stacey. There is a lot to try out or re-try in the New Year’

Really v interesting! I am waiting to go into the links. Going to share it at FB

I’m sorry I could only find the tips for extension activities. Where can we look at a sample extension activity?

Hi there, here is the Headway sample entry form -> https://teachingenglishwithoxford.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Headway-sample-entry-form.pdf

Hope this helps, and best of luck with your application! ^Alex

SInce the activity should be designed for 30 minutes, Is it possible to include homework in it?

If you think that your extension activity is better with the homework element, then that should be OK. Hope this helps and best of luck! ^Alex

Dear Oxford University Press ELT, 1.Could we rely on some online educational platforms when preparing an extension activity? 2. Is it possible to prepare 2 extension activities to increase one’s opportunity for winning the Headway Scholarship? Thank you very much.

Your entry can rely on an educational platform, but the activity as a whole must extend from a Headway lesson plan. Each teacher wishing to enter should only submit one extension activity. Hope this helps and best of luck! ^Alex

Thank you that was really useful

Can my extension activity include some subactivities or it must be roughly one and no more?

Hi Anastasiya, you can include sub-activities if you wish, but do remember that the extension activity must last no longer than 30 minutes. Best of luck! ^Alex

Will you have this competition in 2019???

Hi there, we will indeed! Keep an eye on our Facebook page for the competition announcement coming soon -> https://www.facebook.com/oupeltglobal/

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Narrative Writing Extension Unit | Story Elements | Writing | Distance Learning

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Description

So your students can write a basic narrative... But do they understand the FINER DETAILS that separate the rookies from the all-stars when producing high-quality stories? Do they know narratives come in many styles to suit different AUDIENCES and PURPOSES?

They most certainly will after working this FIVE-LESSON UNIT covering the following.

  • Revisiting the FUNDAMENTALS OF NARRATIVE WRITING and what experienced writers should include in their essays.
  • How to coherently write an engaging DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE that translates your emotions, experiences, and actions to an audience.
  • How to write a VIEWPOINT NARRATIVE maturely for a mature audience.
  • How to write a HISTORICAL NARRATIVE that holds up as both an engaging piece of writing and an artefact of an event in time.
  • How to write a LINEAR NARRATIVE that drives the audience down a proven and established path.

This FULLY EDITABLE, INTERACTIVE DIGITAL teaching resource will get you and your students crafting high-quality writing in a structured, sequenced manner that has proven highly successful.

This NO PREPARATION REQUIRED resource includes.

  • Graphic Organizers to align thinking and streamline the writing process
  • A variety of writing samples to dissect and break-down
  • Interactive teaching content, including video tutorials
  • Simple-to-follow teaching notes and slides that can be edited if required
  • Checklists and assessment tools that clearly outline expectations for all.

If your students are looking to take their narrative writing to the next level, then this resource is an excellent evergreen tool you can use for years to come.

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narrative writing extension activities

Classroom Management

Classroom ideas, classroom community, 15 personal narrative mini-lessons.

Of all the writing genres, I think personal narrative is the hardest to teach, which is why I’m sharing my favorite 15 personal narrative mini-lessons.

While students all have stories to tell, I’ve found that students struggling telling their story in writing. After teaching personal narrative writing mini-lessons for years, and never feeling like I’ve done it well, I can officially say that I think I’ve found the “secret recipe.”

15 personal narrative lessons for first and second grade

I use a lot (A LOT) of mentor texts that help illustrate various personal narrative traits, but my absolute favorite is Stella Tells Her Story .

narrative writing extension activities

Reasons Why Stella Writes Her Story is the BEST :

  • It’s written by a TEACHER, someone who actually teaches students how to write personal narratives
  • The main character, Stella, is a second grade student who needs to write a personal narrative
  • Writing mini-lessons are built right write (see what I did there?) into the story
  • It’s super relatable for students – they are amazed to hear words that their teacher has said about writing

narrative writing extension activities

Day 15 – Read p. 28 – 30. Students will share their writing.I have plan shared above as a printable version is my personal narrative writing resources product, which you can find HERE , or by clicking the image below.

narrative writing extension activities

  • Nothing ever goes exactly as planned, and you may need to spend more than one day on each mini-lesson.
  • Publishing may take longer than one day, especially if you want students to add illustrations to their writing.
  • You may want to consider a “publishing party” in which you invite families to join in the writing celebration. Take pictures, have a special author’s chair, invite your administration. Students are THRILLED to have an audience (other than their teacher) with whole to share their writing.
  • Write your own personal narrative ahead of time. Plan where you are going to make intentional mistakes so that you can model how to revise and edit in front of your class.

narrative writing extension activities

You might be interested in:

  • Personal Narrative Mentor Texts and Read Alouds
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  • Is an Erin Condren Teacher Planner Really Worth the Money?
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  • Read more about: 1st grade , 2nd grade , teacher must - haves , Uncategorized , writing

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Language arts activities for middle school and upper elementary..

narrative writing extension activities

Bud, Not Buddy – Extension Activities with Non-Fiction Readings

Bud, Not Buddy Extension Activities withNon-Fiction Readings fb

Bud, Not Buddy is a great read.  Who wouldn’t enjoy this story of a spunky orphan who’s had such a rough start in life and suddenly finds adventure and a real family at the end of it all!   Bud, Not Buddy , a middle grades historical fiction novel by Christopher Paul Curtis, is a wonderful choice for a whole-class novel study for middle school or upper elementary classes.

Since Bud, Not Buddy  is historical fiction, non-fiction history readings are natural choices as paired passages for extension activities.  Passages  about both the Great Depression and the Jazz Age both fit right in since the story takes place in the 1930’s and features a 1920’s era jazz  band in the plot.

There is a large selection of related material at PBS Learning Media , which you can join for free.  The site has documents, videos, photos, more types of media, and even teacher-created resources.  A quick look found videos about the depression, biographies of notable people from the time, some great period photos, lesson plans to go with Ken Burns’ The Dust Bowl,   and teacher-made resources about riding the rails and the dust bowl.  I found an interview with an immigrant who remembered that time especially interesting.

At another one of my other favorite sites, Newsela,  I found two history article written for students, one about the Great Depression and one about the Harlem Renaissance, complete with writing prompts and a quiz.  Students can read the articles and then take the quizzes online, or you can print them out for class use.  Another great feature – like other Newsela articles, these are available at several different reading levels.

Another interesting angle might be to find modern articles on similar themes.  For example articles about a modern type of jazz music or about playing the saxophone would appeal to the kids who love to listen to music.  Articles about places where people face hunger like in the great depression today would be sobering but also interesting to kids as well.  Advertisements for traveling by train and news articles about people who hop trains to “ride the rails” today are other possibilities.

When I was putting together my novel study for Bud, Not Buddy  I also made this FREE RESOURCE, “Bud, Not Buddy – Living in the Great Depression,” that includes two printable extension activities.   For the first activity, Picturing Life in a Hooverville, students create a six-frame storyboard with their own drawings and captions. The second activity consists of two writing prompts – one about Bud’s life on his own and an alternate ending to the story, and the other one about jazz music.   Click on the image to download your free copy.

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Bud, Not Buddy Extension Activities withNon-Fiction Readings

Related Posts and Resources

Click on any of the images below to check out these additional resources: a blog post that includes a list of discussion questions and a novel study with a card game that are available from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  The card game is now included as a part of the novel study!

Discussion QUestions for the Novel Bud, Not Buddy

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narrative writing extension activities

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5 Fiction Writing Tools That Spark Students’ Creativity

These tools can help middle and high school students generate ideas for fiction writing and then hone their craft.

Teacher and student working on writing together

Narrative is a key component of any writing curriculum, and it tends to be one of my students’ favorite genres. However, by the time they get to my class in middle school, they’ve already written at least one personal narrative every year for several years. They’re looking for something new to capture their interest again, so instead of having them write about their own experiences, I open my students up to fiction writing.

To help generate that flash of excitement, I turn to technology. These five tools can be used as center activities, extension tasks, or just opportunities for students to explore new areas within the writing genre. We’ve tried a variety of technology tools for writing, and these are my students’ favorites.

5 Tools for Sparking Engagement With Narrative Writing

Story Speaker (Google Docs add-on): Story Speaker allows students to create choose-your-own-adventure stories that can be integrated with a Google Home smart speaker or any device with Google Assistant. The Google Docs add-on gives students a template they can edit to create their story. They can add details and dialogue, and have their readers make decisions as they read. For example, a student could create a situation in which a character must decide between turning left or right, with different scenarios following each decision.

Once the story is written, students can share it with the class. The story is read aloud by the smart speaker or other device, and when it comes time for the character to make a decision, the class can speak their answer aloud. If the class was deciding which direction to send the main character, they would yell out “left” or “right.” The device would be able to respond to the class’s answer and continue the story accordingly.

This tool is popular for students who like to create suspenseful stories. I had a student compose a mystery where the class acted as the detective, making decisions and ultimately choosing who they believed was responsible. I also had a student write a horror story in which the protagonist was moving through a haunted house and the class got to decide what the protagonist did next.

Story Wars (website and Google Chrome extension): Story Wars offers a fresh take on writing prompts. The website—also available as a Google Chrome extension —offers a collaborative writing platform for students. After creating an account, students can select from a variety of genres, including science fiction, dystopia, humor, historical fiction, and fantasy, among others.

The program provides students with a random story from that genre. Each story is broken into chapters written by Story Wars users. The student’s goal is to read the chapters that have already been written and then add the next chapter, working to match the style and tone of the story while maintaining appropriate characterization and advancing the plot.

Once two or more users have written a chapter to add to the story, the Story Wars community gets to vote on their favorite—that chapter becomes part of the story, and the chapter that is not chosen is removed from the story. It’s still connected to the writer’s individual account and can be viewed by them at any time.

NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program (website): This program brings the popular National Novel Writing Month to students. The Young Writers Program provides students with a space to compose a novel and to track personal writing goals.

There are resources built into the website to support students as they write in areas such as adding details, building characters, developing conflict, and staying motivated throughout the writing process. Students can also connect with other students participating in NaNoWriMo within the website forums, which are moderated by staff members to ensure that they are a safe space for students to discuss and share writing.

At the end of November, NaNoWriMo is complete and students can see their writing statistics, such as word count and the number of words left to reach their goal. They can also share the narrative they have written.

Write Igniter (website): Write Igniter is perfect for quick mini-activities to practice narrative writing and brainstorming ideas. The website provides different parts of a plot that students must combine to create a cohesive story. When students click the “Shuffle” button, a random character, situation, prop, and setting will appear on the screen. Students then have the job of determining how these elements can be connected in a way that is plausible and creates an engaging narrative.

This tool has helped my students practice the brainstorming process, and it’s a fun extension activity. My students draft their mini-narrative within a Google Doc. They keep all their drafts and refer back to them when they need inspiration or ideas for their writing. If they have a really strong idea, they can use it as a starting point for crafting a novel through NaNoWriMo. Some of my students like to return to Write Igniter when they finish an activity or assessment early during class time.

The Most Dangerous Writing Prompt Generator (website): The goal of this game , developed by the book-writing software developer Squibler, is just to write continuously—no stopping. The website generates a random, single-sentence prompt for the student, who can select the amount of time they’d like to work on the prompt, ranging from five minutes to a full hour. Once the game begins, the student must continue to type. If they stop, the game is lost, and they can either save what they were able to produce or start over. (Or they can try hardcore mode: If they lose, what they wrote is gone for good.)

This activity helps my students get writing. When faced with a new writing assignment, many of my students focus on trying to perfect their words, as opposed to drafting ideas and then returning to revise and edit. This prompt generator pushes students to work through their ideas without worrying about perfection. If they draft something they like, they can save their work and revise it.

IMAGES

  1. Narrative Writing Worksheets

    narrative writing extension activities

  2. an interactive writing activity for students to use in the classroom

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  3. Narrative-Writing-Lesson Worksheets

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  4. Narrative Writing Graphic Organiser

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  5. Narrative Writing Check-Up Worksheets

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  6. Narrative Writing Activity

    narrative writing extension activities

COMMENTS

  1. Teaching Narrative Writing: 14 Activities to Help Your Students Learn

    Naturally, teaching narrative writing differs by grade level with the kindergarten through second-grade learning largely through read-alouds and exposure to narrative writing examples, while older elementary schoolers will spend more time putting pencil to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) writing their stories.

  2. A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

    A fun extension to this narrative is to challenge students to write another story about the same event, but use the perspective of another "character" from the story. Books like Wonder (R.J. Palacio) and Wanderer (Sharon Creech) can model the concept for students. ... Although I think the materials in the actual narrative writing unit are ...

  3. Narrative Writing "Extend the Story"

    Description Standards 4 Reviews 33 Q&A More from Joy Sexton Description Narrative Writing "Extend the Story" - Here's a Common Core-aligned narrative writing assignment convenient to use after reading ANY story! Perfect for substitute plans, or for use in your own lessons.

  4. Mapping & Planning a Story Extension Activity

    Unleash your students' creativity with our Mapping and Planning a Story extension activity packet! These activities spark imagination and allow learners to understand the structure of stories and other text types. Through visual aids and guides, students will learn about how a story is arranged in order to reveal information, create suspense ...

  5. Teaching Narrative Writing Tips and Activities

    When reading aloud a story, such as Owl Moon, the teacher needs to stop and discuss when they find new events and details that the author has provided. Then, students can write about the 'first, next, then, and the last events in the text they read. Don't forget to include details when you're teaching narrative writing.

  6. Narrative Writing Resources

    Comprehensive Step-by-Step resources Transform narrative writing Narrative Writing Manual Packed with practical, time-saving classroom resources, this manual makes planning and implementing the Seven Steps just as fun as learning it! Includes a user-friendly digital file, plus a photocopy and intranet licence for your entire school. Manuals

  7. Narrative Writing: A Complete Guide for Teachers and Students

    A narrative can spark emotion, encourage reflection, and convey meaning when done well. Narratives are a popular genre for students and teachers as they allow the writer to share their imagination, creativity, skill, and understanding of nearly all elements of writing. We occasionally refer to a narrative as 'creative writing' or story writing.

  8. 10 Brilliant Ways to Improve Narrative Writing in the Classroom

    Morning Focus Activity Our Narrative Sentence Cards make the perfect morning activity to settle and focus your class first thing in the morning. This activity will help your students to tap into their imagination and to generate ideas for writing narratives. It will also provide an opportunity for handwriting practise.

  9. The Best Narrative Writing Activities with Astonishing Student Results

    One great way to get to know your students while simultaneously teaching them the skills of narrative writing is to have them write about what they did over the summer. They can either write about multiple events, or practice stretching out one topic into multiple events. Grab this fun project on my TpT store.

  10. Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students

    Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students Table of Contents What are the essential narrative writing skills? Narrative Writing Skill 1: Reading Widely Narrative Writing Skill 2: Believable Characters Narrative Writing Skill 3: Cause & Effect Narrative Writing Skill 5: Tension Narrative Writing Skill 6: Themes

  11. 20 Inspiring Narrative Writing Activities

    1. Master the Craft of Storytelling with Short Stories Explore the power of using graphic organizers to plan and develop a short story. The focus of this lesson is on using clear and concise language to effectively communicate ideas. Learn More: Apples and Bananas Education 2. Story Writing for Elementary Students

  12. Story Sequence

    Story sequence is the order in which events take place in a narrative. In simplest terms, sequencing a story means identifying the main narrative components — the beginning, middle, and end—as a first step towards retelling the events of the story in logical order. Story sequencing is also a precursor for more sophisticated ways of ...

  13. Teach Narrative Writing With The New York Times

    Teaching Narrative Writing With The New York Times (On-Demand) Personal Narratives From the Newsroom to the Classroom (On-Demand) This teaching guide, part of our eight-unit writing curriculum ...

  14. 20 Inspiring Narrative Writing Activities

    Spread the loveNarrative writing is an exciting way for students to explore their creativity and express themselves. It allows them to tell stories, imagine new worlds, and communicate their thoughts and feelings. However, coming up with ideas for narrative writing can be challenging. Here are 20 inspiring narrative writing activities that can make the task easier and more enjoyable for ...

  15. Narrative Lesson Plans and Activities

    Narrative Lesson Plans and Activities Explore ready-made resources and discover how to teach the key concepts behind each Step. See how the Seven Steps help structure and enhance your writing classroom. Discover what makes Seven Steps writing activities loved by teachers and students!

  16. Creating Extension Activities

    1. Personalise it An extension activity is a good way for students to relate the topic to themselves. In this way, the topic becomes more relevant and can make communication about the topic more meaningful. Students also tend to remember more when the language or topic is personalised.

  17. Writing Perfect Endings

    Writing Perfect Endings. Practice narrative writing with this reading extension activity. Students will write an alternate ending to a story the class reads together. This activity addresses Common Core State Standards for reading literature and writing.

  18. Narrative Writing Extension Unit

    This bundle comprises SEVEN PRODUCTS designed to cover all aspects of NARRATIVE WRITING and STORYTELLING in 2023. It contains six high-quality DIGITAL, PRINT and INTERACTIVE units of work, including:Introduction to Narrative Writing Unit ( For younger and developing writers.)Our TpT best-selling Na

  19. 15 Personal Narrative Mini-Lessons

    Classroom Ideas Classroom Community Reading Writing Seasonal 15 Personal Narrative Mini-Lessons Of all the writing genres, I think personal narrative is the hardest to teach, which is why I'm sharing my favorite 15 personal narrative mini-lessons.

  20. PDF Narrative Grade 6 Writing

    understanding of the literary elements through a narrative extension task (NET). • Respond, in writing, to narrative stories in order to demonstrate deep comprehension through a variety of literary analysis tasks (LAT). ... they are asked to practice and apply it in their own writing. These awareness-building activities are short, straight ...

  21. Narrative Writing Activities

    12K views Alternative Endings This activity requires students to write an alternative ending to a fictional or nonfictional story. To extend the use of this activity, you can alternate fiction...

  22. Bud, Not Buddy

    Since Bud, Not Buddy is historical fiction, non-fiction history readings are natural choices as paired passages for extension activities. Passages about both the Great Depression and the Jazz Age both fit right in since the story takes place in the 1930's and features a 1920's era jazz band in the plot. There is a large selection of related ...

  23. 5 Fiction Writing Tools That Spark Students' Creativity

    Story Wars (website and Google Chrome extension): Story Wars offers a fresh take on writing prompts. The website—also available as a Google Chrome extension —offers a collaborative writing platform for students.