ceciliafelsenstein Teaching narrative writing in high school might look as dumb to many… Isn’t it something that has been taught to students for years and years? However, I have noticed that there are some tips and steps which guide our students and help them write creative, complete, fluent and coherent narratives.
You will find below the steps I follow when teaching narrative writing in high school:
Introduction
I always start by checking my students’ prior knowledge. I usually use the thinking routine called 3-2-1 Bridge and depending on what devices my students have, I create a Menti to go about it.
Once we have all brainstormed what we know and what we want to know about narratives, we revise the narrative arc (which is not new to them) so that then, we can devote ourselves to analysing and practising different writing strategies.
Practice
What is better than learning through practice? I have found that students like to see and analyse what process writers have gone through. In this stage, we do several different activities:
- First, we watch a short movie. I usually choose Pixar’s “La Luna” as it has a lot to analyse beyond narrative writing. Here we go about symbolism, traditions, being true to oneself, etc. Students are asked to complete the narrative arc with the corresponding events from the movie.
- Then, I ask my students to look for a song that tells a story. They need to summarize it taking into account the narrative arc.
- After that, I assign my students an oral presentation. I give them a list of proverbs and they have to choose one to use in a story that they have to tell to the whole class using visual support. You can check this post for ideas on how to help students deliver complete, accurate and engaging presentations.
- Finally, we work on beginnings and endings. All together as a class, we brainstorm ideas we have seen in narratives to hook readers.
Writing Process
After analyzing and practising the different steps to write narratives, we embark on the skill! Of course I don’t just leave my students on their own. I assign them a title and ask them to plan in a detailed way the narrative they are going to write. In order to do that, I assign them a graphic organizer.
What I find most important while teaching narrative in high school is to give students the necessary time to fulfill each of the tasks. So, once they have finished planning and writing, I give them a detailed checklist for them to complete and be able to work on their first versions, improve them and go into writing the final narrative to turn in.
This is the process that I have found most useful after years and years of teaching narrative writing in high school. I hope you can profit from the activities I have created and enjoy teaching this skill as much as I do!
