The Write Stuff.....teaching narrative writing to students

I have been working with a great group of students on narrative writing.  As a teacher, I find it challenging to open up the curriculum and just have students write....creating stories from their own imagination.  

Here are the eight rules we worked with, taken from The Plot Chickens  a book we used to frame the workshop, discussed in my post last week.

Rule 1:  You need a main character
Rule 2:  You need to "hatch" a plot
Rule 3:  Give your main character a problem
Rule 4:  Develop your plot by asking "What if..."
Rule 5:  Write what you know
Rule 6:  Build suspense
Rule 7:  Make your story come alive by using all five senses
Rule 8:  Have your main character solve his/her own problem

The students began writing their own stories; here we made a list of some of the ideas students were working through, and the ideas were general to quite specific, depending upon the comfort level of the writer.  For example, one student wanted to report that he was writing "an adventure story", while another student wanted to report on her detailed story about a girl moving to France, and babysitting French children, and how the hero was going to get through adventures with little of the language.

 We talked about building complex characters, beginning and endings of stories, and how to incorporate dialogue in our writing.


Here are some excerpts from our writers:


In this sample, the writer begins with a strong introduction that puts the reader in the middle of the action: 
"Papa? oh, Papa!" Skylar wailed.  She knew she was too late.  He was gone.
"Mama, come quick!" she called.

"Not now," hollered her mother from the next tree over. " I'm busy fixing a hole in Mrs. Fruptree's nest."


"But Papa is...Papa...." Skylar couldn't bring herself to say that dreaded work. Thankfully, she didn't have to because her mother realized what had happened and quickly flew over.  At the sight of her husband lying on the floor of their nest, she sprang into action.

"Skylar, go and get Ora Swee from the doctor's nest.  Tell her it's an emergency.  I'll stay here with Papa."

Skylar flew off, bumping into a couple of branches in her hurry.  "Dr. Ora!  Dr. Ora!" she gasped when she burst through the leaves that surrounded the doctor's nest.
-Lily, Grade 4

Another example of an interesting start:

Persephone was bored.  Bored.  She had gone picking flowers practically the whole day.  She had nothing, spelled with a capital N, to do.  Wow.  She usually had a ton of things to do.  She decided to have some friends over and pick some flowers with them.  Before she did that, she put on her favourite pink dress and went to her mother, Demeter, to ask for permission. -Lucy, Grade 3

And another:

In a place far away, a long time ago, there was a small country called Panetta and in this small country lived a woman, at the age of 22.  She lived with a very poor family and shared a small room with three sisters and a brother.  She spent her spare time helping the disabled and the troubled on the street.  The family had one pet, a smunch named Fluffy. 

Two years ago on September third at 6:38 pm, the greedy king came and took every last penny away from the town and said an evil goodbye by burning down several of the town's buildings and then leaving the town in ruins. -Keegan, Grade 4

Over three days, the students developed their stories.  Some students completed stories, and others were still frantically trying to finish.  Because of time constraints, we  only worked on first drafts, but I would love to incorporate editing and publishing of stories, including diagrams and pictures.  

Overall, I emphasized that writing is a process that takes a great deal of time and effort.  We discussed how writing is like a muscle, and the more it is worked the stronger it becomes.....so I encouraged students to write as much as possible, all the time!

And, all of these wonderful learners were passionate about reading.....we spent lots of time reading great books....which I always give students lots of time for.

Thank you grade 3 and 4 students!  You are fantastic writers, and keep working on your craft!