When launching the writing workshop, we touch on both teaching books and narratives. This gives kids a chance to practice writing in both genres before we dive deeply into each one. The true stories that we are writing now are about things that we have done or things that have happened to us. Through narrative writing, we are creating a culture of storytelling. HOW you tell the story is just as important, if not more, than how you write it. From the beginning, we are teaching students that their experiences come to life when they share them the way a storyteller would. A storyteller sets the scene and tells the reader who was there, where they were, what happened, and what people said! All of these components can be accomplished without line after line of writing. Labels, speech bubbles, detailed illustrations are all key components of storytelling. |
Before we "publish" our first narrative story, we will be using this checklist to see if we have shared our story just like a storyteller would. We will be going into narrative in more depth after this first published piece is complete, but this is a good opportunity for students to reflect on their writing and see how they can make it even better!