teaching a narrative essay

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 (try a video like The Present or Room ), 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Categories: Instruction , Podcast

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

52 Comments

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

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.?

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

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!

I want to write about the new character in my area

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

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!!

So glad to hear this, Nicole!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Helped me learn for an entrance exam thanks very much

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

I couldn’t find the story

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!

I am using this step-by-step plan to help me teach personal narrative story writing. I wanted to show the Coca-Cola story, but the link says the video is not available. Do you have a new link or can you tell me the name of the story so I can find it?

Thank you for putting this together.

Hi Corri, sorry about that. The Coca-Cola commercial disappeared, so Jenn just updated the post with links to two videos with good stories. Hope this helps!

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Teaching Narrative Writing: 14 Activities to Help Your Students Learn to Love It

Written by Alison Smith

When it comes down to it, narrative writing is basically the art of telling a story. And if there’s one thing that little kids are fond of doing, it’s telling stories … especially the “big fish” kind! But if you’re teaching narrative writing to your class, you know there’s a lot more to it than just being able to spin a wild tale.

Helping your students to develop their narrative writing strategies will take them from story spinners with a lot to say out loud to storytellers who can craft a beautifully written story on the page.

But how do you actually do that? Let’s dig in!

How Do You Teach Narrative Writing?

Narrative writing is one of the four major types of writing we expect from our students — along with argumentative (or opinion) writing, expository, and informative writing.

Perhaps the most important aspect of teaching narrative writing is nurturing a love of storytelling, along with helping your students to understand narrative writing structure and organization, and how to develop the story by adding details.

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. We’ll break down a few ways to teach each age and stage!

But before we do that, a quick reminder:

What Are the Five Rules of Narrative Writing?

Eventually, your students will get to a stage where the rules of writing will be a little less important, but we have to start somewhere! So call these the rules of narrative writing or the five elements of narrative writing. Either way — every story should have a:

• Character(s)

Activities for Teaching Narrative Writing

Sowing the seeds for successful narrative story writing starts as early as pre-k or kindergarten.

Read Mentor Texts

Sure, your students may not be ready to write out their full thoughts, but the read-alouds you do in the classroom are an important part of introducing narrative story writing examples they can build off in their future education.

Here are some of our favorite children’s books to introduce the concept:

• Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
• My Dog Mouse by Eva Lindstrom

Use Story Prompt Handwriting Worksheets

Help your kindergarten and first-grade students develop their handwriting skills by recounting a story based on prompts they can trace and then add to! Bonus: This resource is free!

[resource:4139650]

Teach the 5Ws (and 1H)

Help your students build out the structure of their storytelling with the basics — the 5ws (and that pesky 1 H ):

• What happened?
• Who is it about?
• Where did it take place?
• When did it take place?
• Why did it happen?
• How did it happen?

Scaffold with Storybooks

After teaching your students the vocabulary of narrative writing, use storybooks as narrative writing examples they can use to identify the different elements of the story. To make it easier, provide a template like this cute story spine porcupine so they can identify the process that the author used to build out a story, sequencing the events one by one.

You can also use the template as a scaffold when students write their own story — with 8 steps accompanied by easy-to-follow sentence starters, your students will have planned their writing in full before they know it!

Try Guided Writing Activities

Guided writing is a brilliant narrative writing activity. Working in a small group with teacher guidance helps students to build confidence and to be active participants in discussions about writing.

Guided writing is very similar to guided reading in the classroom. Students work in small differentiated groups and work towards a similar writing goal. Guided writing sessions are usually 20-25 minutes long and are generally broken down into the following framework:

• Direct instruction, where the teacher reminds the students of their writing goals and provides them with some form of writing stimulus (approximately 5 minutes).
• Shared experience, where the students and teacher have a rich conversation about the writing topic and/or writing stimulus, key vocabulary, and the possible text types that could be written (approximately 5 minutes).
• Independent writing and sharing, where students write as much as they can in the allocated time. The teacher provides timely feedback and scaffolds key writing skills. Students then share what they have written with the small group or the rest of the class (approximately 10 minutes).

Direct Instruction

Research shows that students need direct instruction that includes the I do (teacher modeling), we do ( guided practice), and you do (independent practice). Teaching narrative writing is no exception to this rule, and it’s critical to include a balance of modeled, guided, and independent writing.

A big part of direct teaching instruction is making the lesson objectives clear. Narrative writing is a complex task and so it is important to focus on one thing at a time and to make the success criteria clear. For example, if your lesson focus is narrative structure, don’t stress about the spelling.

Set Up a Writing Station

Take the fear out of writing, and set up a free writing station. Provide students with paper, blank comic strips, blank postcards, greeting cards, pictures cut out of magazines, pens, pencils, sticky notes, or whatever else inspires your students to put pencil to paper.

To make the writing station effective as a skill-building activity:

• Acknowledge and praise all writing as a masterpiece
• Avoid correcting the spelling, punctuation, and grammar used in free writing tasks
• Make time for your students to use the writing station
• Avoid making it a fast finisher activity, as the students who need it most are likely to miss out

Use a Writer’s Notebook

Encourage your students to keep a Writer’s Notebook to jot down new ideas for narrative writing.

How to Set Up a Writer’s Notebook Daily Routine

Each student needs their own notebook. Allow students to create a cover for their notebook, or you can provide them with this  Writer’s Notebook Cover Page  which they can decorate. Introduce the concept to your class, ensuring they understand the notebook will not be graded, but will instead be used daily as a place for them to play with ideas and words. This  Writer’s Notebook Poem   by Ralph Fletcher is great to stick in the front of their notebooks as a reminder of the book’s purpose. Provide students with  Writer’s Notebook Writing Prompt Cards (these are optional) Dedicate at least 5 minutes every day to your students’ Writer’s Notebooks, providing specific activities or allowing free writing time.

Create a Writer’s Prop Table

Picture a small table in your classroom, scattered with a collection of objects such as a key, a padlock, a candle, a map, or a train ticket, and your imagination will be popping with ideas for a narrative. Before you know it, your students will be looking for objects to add to the collection and planting seeds for their next narrative.

Slow Down and Break It Up!

For incredible writing outcomes, break down the main parts of a narrative text type. Spend a significant amount of time on each structural element. Think of it as laying one brick at a time. Ask your students to write a complete narrative only when they have secure knowledge, understanding, and experience of writing an orientation, complication, resolution, and ending.

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A great activity to teach the structure of narrative writing is to deconstruct a text by cutting it up and sticking it back together! Given that it’s not ideal to cut up books, we have created a sorting task to reinforce the structural features of a narrative text. Your students can play surgeon, dissecting the text and putting it all back together again!

Sizzling Starts

Do your students fall into the trap of writing orientations that begin with One day…, On Monday, Once upon a time…?

If your mission is to change this, believe me when I say that students need to see it to believe it.

Read amazing story openings, the more the better. I love the sizzling start to How to Bee by Bren MacDibble…

Today! It’s here! Bright and real and waiting. The knowing of it bursts into my head so big and sudden, like a crack of morning sun bursting through the gap at the top of the door…

Once you’ve given your students the opportunity to read, watch and experience the impact of amazing sizzling starts, show your students a  Narrative Plot Structure Diagram to demonstrate how a great narrative often starts with action!

Sentence Starter Roll Call

Select a Narrative Sentence Starter Card , and display or write it on the whiteboard. Ask your students to think of an imaginative way to finish the sentence, (the sillier the better).

Provide your students with a little thinking time. Ask each student to share their response when you call their name. This is sure to get a few giggles!

TEACHER: Jonah, I found a strange package at the door… JONAH: …it turned into a robot who helped me to fly to the moon

Round Robin Storytelling

Have you ever tried a round-robin story with your class? It’s great fun and a perfect warm-up at the beginning of a writing lesson and is a brilliant way to develop speaking and listening skills.

• Arrange your students in a circle. The teacher joins the circle.
• Start the round-robin by reading aloud one of the Narrative Sentence Starter Cards.
• Moving in a clockwise direction, ask the next person to continue the story.
• The teacher finishes off the story when it returns to the starting point.

Be mindful of less confident learners and the support that they need during this activity.

Shared Writing

Shared writing is a crucial part of teaching narrative writing. This effective teaching strategy (whereby the teacher models writing while being given ideas and direction from the students), is ideal to use with the whole class or in a small group.

Try our  Picture Writing Prompts Widget as a stimulus for shared writing. Each image comes with writing prompts ideas,  Five Ws and One H questions and suggested activities.

Tips for leading shared writing sessions

• Focus your shared writing session on one or two elements of narrative writing. For example, focus on text structure, ideas, characters. and setting or vocabulary.
• Keep it short. This will depend on the year level of your class. 10 -15 minutes is an awesome effort. As a general rule, as soon as you notice that your students are disengaged, call it a day, until tomorrow!
• Model how to write a narrative using a plan. In fact, model how to write a plan! Show your students the art of referring to the plan on a regular basis.
• Use Think, Pair, Share and Elbow Partners , to encourage ideas and discussion.
• Inspire your students and stimulate ideas through the use of visual prompts, props, and feely bags.
• Make it fun and do it often.

For more useful ideas on how to use writing prompts in the classroom, don’t miss our blog   5 Ways to Spark Imagination in the Classroom Using Writing Prompts .

What are your favorite ways to teach narrative writing? Try our extensive collection of narrative writing resources !

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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.

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.

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• Knowledge Base
• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

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Table of contents

What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

• Write a story about your first day of school.
• Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

• Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
• Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved September 14, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/narrative-essay/

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Bell Ringers

How to explicitly teach elements of narrative writing.

When I ask teachers about their biggest struggle with narrative writing, they always say the narrative elements. And I totally understand why. Trying to get students to fully understand and be able to apply the narrative elements successfully in their own writing is a challenge. You’re usually left reading bland essays that leave a lot to be desired. But getting students to apply those elements is doable. It starts with explicitly teaching the elements of narrative writing to your middle school students!

What is Explicit Instruction?

I want to make sure we are on the same page with explicit instruction. Explicit instruction isn’t about beating around the bush or hoping your students will catch on. It’s about directly teaching and modeling the skill.

Typically, explicit instruction includes some combination of a lesson over the skill, modeling the skills, and providing an opportunity for practice (and correction). Of course, that process will look different for everything you do, but I’m going to show you how it can look when teaching the elements of narrative writing.

How to Explicitly Teach the Elements of Narrative Writing

To start, I want to share the basic process I used when teaching narrative writing elements to students. In my workshop, Navigating Narratives , I dive super in-depth into this process and exactly what each stage looks like, if you want to learn more.

#1 Create a Unit Plan

In the Navigating Narratives workshop, I start by showing you a plan for a narrative writing unit. This isn’t technically part of explicit instruction, but if you don’t have a plan for how you’ll tackle each narrative element – it’s going to get messy (for you and your students).

Personally, I like teach the elements over ten days. This was a system I perfected after lots of trial and error. As students learn the elements, though, they are also applying them to their writing. By day seventeen, they will have a final draft of their essay. You can grab the narrative writing pacing guide and resources inside the Narrative Writing Unit .

#2 Use Mentor Texts

To start explicitly teaching, I typically presented my students with a mentor text . If you’ve read some of my other blogs, you know I’m a big fan of mentor texts. Mentor texts help students see the skill in action and give them a guide for how to replicate the element in their own writing.

Start by showing students a mentor text and telling them what they are looking at. For instance, “Let’s look at an example of dialogue.” Make sure the class is clear on what dialogue was, then say, “Take a look at this mentor text. In a moment, I want you to tell me what you notice. What stands out?” Then make note of key features of the mentor text.

(Not sure where to get mentor texts from? When you grab the Narrative Writing Unit , I provide you with all the mentor sentences and passages you’ll need! Plus, I even walk you through how to use it with students, so you feel confident teaching the lesson.)

#3 Create a Reference Page

The key features you just noted from the mentor text will then help you create a reference page. This is where you’re going to get super explicit and clear with students. Going back to the dialogue example, hopefully, students noted the use of quotation marks. If not, you will explicitly teach the grammatical rules of dialogue and add it to their reference page.

Essentially, you want students to walk away with a reference page that outlines the element of narrative writing, including key details and any rules. The reference page can also include the mentor text so students can look back at it later.

When you attend the Navigating Narratives workshop, I’ll walk you through this entire explicit teaching process in-depth, plus you’ll get access to the Narrative Element Teaching Slides, so you can easily walk students through each element – and don’t worry about missing a single detail.

Explicitly Teaching Elements of Narrative Writing

Okay, let’s get to the good stuff. We’ve talked through the general format for explicitly teaching elements of narrative writing, but now I want to give you some specific examples of how to do that.

Create Context

Students struggle to establish context. To help, tell your students to think about how they would explain the topic to someone who knows nothing about their story. They can use the characters thoughts or dialogue to do this. It doesn’t need to be long-winded details! To explicitly teach this, show them a mentor text example of creating context.

Narrative Plot Development

Students’ stories can be dull. That’s often because they lack a climax! To avoid this issue, and explicitly teach plot development, have students create a plot diagram and start by determining their climax. Then , they can outline the rest of their story. If they need help, try outline a popular story on a plot diagram to guide students.

Sensory Details

The easiest way to explicitly teach this element of narrative writing is, you guessed it, with mentor texts! Show students how sensory details look in other stories. Then, have them create a plan for how they will include sensory details on their plot diagrams. This will ensure that they build them into their essay.

Character Development

Start by having students think about a character they have loved from a book. Have them write down what made them love these character. Help them see how those concepts are what make great character development. Then, have students brainstorm how their characters can undergo change and growth their story.

Dialogue can be tricky because it’s not just about moving the plot forward – there are also grammatical rules to follow. Have students map out dialogue on their plot diagrams, so they can note areas were the dialogue would move the story forward or reveal important information.

Then, when it comes time to write, use the Narrative Dialogue Mini Unit (which is included inthe Navgating Narratives workshop) to talk through how to use quotations, commas, capitalization, and more.

Ways to End

The last narrative writing element we’ll cover is ending the story. This can be a tricky one to explain, so I recommend turning to the mentor texts! Choose a few stories with stellar endings (or use the one’s I recommend in the Narrative Writing Unit ) and ask students what important things the author does at the end. Take a note of their responses and have them replicate that in their own story. Teaching elements of narrative writing can be tough. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and it’s not a skill we often practice with students. But, it’s doable to have students write narrative essays you’ll be excited to read. If you need support with narrative writing, check out my Navgating Narratives workshop or grab the Narrative Writing Unit for every resource you’d need to teach a successful unit.

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32 Tips For Teaching Narrative Writing

Narrative writing plays a crucial role in developing a student’s storytelling abilities, fostering creativity, and enhancing expressive skills. However, teaching narrative writing can sometimes be challenging due to its subjective and artistic nature. Below are 32 strategies and tips for educators to effectively scaffold and nurture narrative writing capabilities in their students.

1.Brainstorm Ideas: Encourage students to brainstorm various topics, events, or personal experiences that could serve as the foundation for their stories.

2.Understand the Structure: Teach the fundamental structure of narrative writing, which typically includes an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

3.Use Graphic Organizers: Utilize tools such as story maps or Venn diagrams to help students organize their thoughts and sequence events logically.

4.Study Examples: Have students read and discuss exemplary narrative texts so they can model their writing on effective storytelling techniques.

5.Focus on Sensory Details: Help students enrich their narratives by incorporating sensory descriptions that add depth to their settings and characterizations.

6.Practice Descriptive Writing: Regular exercises in descriptive writing can sharpen students’ ability to paint vivid pictures with words.

7.Develop Characters: Encourage the creation of compelling characters by asking students to outline backstories, motivations, and characteristics.

8.Explore Dialogue: Teach how to write realistic dialogue that moves the story forward and reveals character traits.

9.Emphasize Conflict: Discuss the importance of conflict within a story and how it drives the plot and engages readers.

10.Set the Tone: Work with students on establishing the mood or tone of a story, whether it’s humorous, suspenseful, or melancholic.

11.Use Mentor Texts: Provide students with mentor texts that exemplify strong narrative elements for them to analyze and learn from.

12.Peer Review Sessions: Conduct peer review workshops where students give constructive feedback on each other’s work.

13.Rewrite Real Life Events: Suggest rewriting real-life events with fictional twists as a fun way to practice narrative skills.

14.Personal Narratives: Assign personal narrative essays to help students draw from their own lives and experiences.

15.Implement Technology: Integrate digital storytelling tools or writing apps that can make the writing process more engaging.

16.Writing Prompts: Offer creative prompts or story starters to kindle imagination and overcome writer’s block.

17.Focus on Pacing: Teach how pacing affects the flow of a story and how to adjust it for maximum impact.

18.Create Storyboards: Use storyboarding techniques where students illustrate key scenes before writing them out.

19.Encourage Reading Aloud: Have students read their stories aloud either during drafting or upon completion to help refine voice and pacing.

20.Editing Checklists: Provide checklists that cover plot consistency, character development, grammar, punctuation, etc., for self-editing purposes.

21.Variety in Sentence Structure: Discuss the importance of varying sentence structure to make narratives more interesting.

22.Non-linear Storytelling: Introduce concepts like flashbacks or non-chronological order to create complex narratives.

23.Address Point of View: Make sure students understand different points of view (first person, third person) and how each influences storytelling style.

24.Word Choice Matters: Stress the importance of precise language choices in conveying themes and emotions accurately.

25.Incorporate Figurative Language: Teach similes, metaphors, personification, etc., to enhance descriptions.

26.Theme Development: Discuss how a thematic backbone can give direction to narrative stories.

27 Estimate your Timeline Properly

28 Emphasize Revision as an opportunity

29 Consider Digital Narratives over Traditional Narratives

30 Encourage Exploration outside Comfort Zones

31 Set attainable goals

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Narrative Essays

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What is a narrative essay?

When writing a narrative essay, one might think of it as telling a story. These essays are often anecdotal, experiential, and personal—allowing students to express themselves in a creative and, quite often, moving ways.

Here are some guidelines for writing a narrative essay.

• If written as a story, the essay should include all the parts of a story.

This means that you must include an introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax, and conclusion.

• When would a narrative essay not be written as a story?

A good example of this is when an instructor asks a student to write a book report. Obviously, this would not necessarily follow the pattern of a story and would focus on providing an informative narrative for the reader.

• The essay should have a purpose.

Make a point! Think of this as the thesis of your story. If there is no point to what you are narrating, why narrate it at all?

• The essay should be written from a clear point of view.

It is quite common for narrative essays to be written from the standpoint of the author; however, this is not the sole perspective to be considered. Creativity in narrative essays oftentimes manifests itself in the form of authorial perspective.

• Use clear and concise language throughout the essay.

Much like the descriptive essay, narrative essays are effective when the language is carefully, particularly, and artfully chosen. Use specific language to evoke specific emotions and senses in the reader.

• The use of the first person pronoun ‘I’ is welcomed.

Do not abuse this guideline! Though it is welcomed it is not necessary—nor should it be overused for lack of clearer diction.

• As always, be organized!

Have a clear introduction that sets the tone for the remainder of the essay. Do not leave the reader guessing about the purpose of your narrative. Remember, you are in control of the essay, so guide it where you desire (just make sure your audience can follow your lead).

9 Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing in Secondary ELA

Narrative writing can be a struggle for many secondary students, making it a challenging genre to teach. After reading this post, you can say goodbye to hearing moans and groans and grading disjointed stories! Steal my favorite tips, strategies, and activities to make your next narrative writing unit more enjoyable for all.

While most people associate secondary ELA with writing essays, they often forget one of the vital writing genres—narrative writing.

With expository and persuasive writing often taking center stage in the secondary classroom, narrative writing can be a bit of a bumpy ride for students. Students might have the classic five-paragraph essay structure memorized, but crafting a compelling narrative is another story (pun 100% intended).

Successful narrative writing requires creativity, organization, and a deep understanding of storytelling elements. Many students find this challenging as they need help structuring their ideas, developing characters, and maintaining a cohesive plot.

But don’t fret; this post is all about equipping you with tried and true tips and engaging activities to help you guide students through this process with more ease and enjoyment for all.

Why Is Narrative Writing Challenging for Students?

Before delving into strategies, it’s essential to understand the common roadblocks students face with narrative writing. Often, students struggle with:

They struggle to get started and brainstorm any “good” ideas worth writing about. As a result, they feel overwhelmed by the task.

Organization

Crafting a well-structured narrative requires a clear beginning, middle, and end. Students may grapple with sequencing events logically.

Character Development

Bringing characters to life is a skill students often witness others do while reading. Students might find it challenging to create realistic and dynamic characters.

Plot Development

Maintaining a cohesive and captivating plot can be tricky for developing writers. Students might face difficulties effectively introducing conflict, building tension, and resolving the story.

Descriptive Language

Painting a vivid picture with words is a vital component of narrative writing. Some students may struggle with using figurative and descriptive language to create a compelling story.

The Writing Process

Many students view the writing process as a one-and-done task, especially when writing the same type of essay again and again. They may be reluctant to the revision and editing process.

Understanding what aspect(s) of narrative writing your students struggle with will help you tailor the rest of your narrative writing unit to their needs. Consider the tips and activities below to help you teach narrative writing with more ease, effectiveness, and enjoyment.

9 Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing

Follow these practical tips and teaching strategies to make narrative writing an engaging and rewarding classroom experience.

1. Ask the Right Questions

Encourage students to develop well-rounded narratives by guiding them through a series of thoughtful questions, such as:

• Who are the main characters?
• What is the central conflict or problem?
• When does the story take place?
• Where is the setting of the narrative?
• Why are these events happening?
• How do the characters navigate through challenges?

This “5ws + 1H” questioning technique not only helps students organize their thoughts and articulate their ideas more clearly. Additionally, it inspires critical thinking while guiding students through creating a well-rounded and comprehensive narrative.

2. Scaffold with Picture Books

Read picture books with your students to reinforce narrative elements in a fun and engaging way. After reading, engage students in discussions about how the author effectively used these elements and encourage them to apply similar techniques in their own writing. Take it one step further by having students complete a plot diagram for the narrative arc. This visual and interactive approach helps make the more abstract concepts of narrative writing, like character and conflict, feel more tangible.

3. Showcase Strong Mentor Texts

Selecting powerful mentor texts exposes students to the successful implementation of the narrative techniques you want them to emulate in their own writing. Therefore, strive to choose mentor texts where narrative elements are clear and accessible for your students. By studying these texts, students can learn firsthand from accomplished authors, honing their skills and gaining inspiration for their own narratives.

4. Utilize Short Stories

Speaking of strong mentor texts, I highly recommend utilizing short stories during your narrative writing unit. These condensed narratives provide students with examples of compelling narratives while giving them the opportunity to analyze structure, character development, and plot dynamics in a more digestible format. Students will benefit from this exposure before attempting to go off and write their own narrative piece.

5. Incorporate Pop Culture

Don’t be afraid to stray from written stories when looking for strong examples of narrative elements. Turn to pop culture and look for popular movie trailers, video clips, or TV episodes that can make these elements more relatable and engaging for students. This approach connects the writing process to their interests, sparking creativity and making the learning experience more enjoyable.

6. Teach Writing Skills

Sure, your students may have written plenty of essays in the past, but those writing foundations don’t necessarily translate over to narrative writing. Ensure a strong foundation by explicitly teaching writing skills relevant to narrative writing, including dialogue construction, figurative language, strong verbs, narrative hooks, and descriptive writing. While there are several skills you can cover, don’t feel the need to overload students with everything at once. Indeed, focus on a key element or two in each lesson and give them time to practice with a low-stakes activity.

7. Start with Story Mapping

Many students need help with two main components of narrative writing: developing a cohesive story and getting started writing it out. Story mapping kills both of those birds with one stone. Encourage students to map out their narratives before diving into writing. Use graphic organizers or storyboards to help them visualize the structure, characters, and key events, providing a narrative roadmap throughout the writing process. 

8. Save Time for Revisions

Don’t forget to allocate dedicated class time for the crucial revision and editing process. While students may be used to taking a one-and-done approach with their essays, emphasize the importance of refining their narratives, checking for flow, and refining language to craft compelling plots that captivate readers. When you emphasize the importance of revision throughout the unit, students will learn that crafting an exceptional narrative often involves multiple iterations and improvements.

9. Have Fun!

Lastly, let’s not forget that storytelling can be fun ! Use this as an opportunity to encourage creativity and alleviate the potential stress (and dread) associated with writing. When students find joy in the process, they are more likely to invest themselves fully in crafting compelling narratives, and that, my friend, is a win for you and them.

Give These 5 Engaging Activities a Try

The following activities are perfect for tackling the aspects of narrative writing students struggle with most in an effective way. Not only will they make narrative writing more engaging but will also deepen students’ understanding of vital storytelling elements.

1. Writing Stations

Set up different interactive writing stations with specific tasks related to narrative elements such as character development, setting description, dialogue construction, and conflict resolution. Students can rotate through these stations, working on each aspect of their narrative at a time. This approach not only breaks down the writing process into manageable chunks but also caters to diverse learning styles, keeping students actively engaged in the creative process.

2. Classroom Conflict Brainstorm

After reviewing the different types of conflict, work as a class to create one-line story summaries of potential plots for each conflict type. Save this list and allow students to pull from it when they write a narrative! This activity not only sparks creativity and initiates brainstorming but also emphasizes the importance of conflict as a driving force in storytelling. Classic conflict types include:

• Good vs evil
• Individual vs society
• Self vs others
• Man vs self
• Man vs nature
• Man vs technology
• Individual vs fate

3. The Story Behind the Photo

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this activity asks your students to physically write them down. The best part? It requires very little prep on your part. Simply distribute random photographs around the room (Google images will work just fine). Then, challenge students to craft a narrative inspired by the image. Ask them to think about the story behind the photograph. What happened right before the picture was taken? Right after? What is occurring outside of the frame? This activity engages students in creative narrative expiration by providing a visual cue to initiate the brainstorming.

4. Can You Feel It? Writing Challenge

Challenge students to focus on conveying a specific emotion within a short scene. Give students an emotion or tone, such as happiness, sorrow, fear, or suspense. Then, give them a setting, such as a train station, birthday party, or park. Challenge students to take those two pieces of information and craft a scene to evoke an emotional response from the reader. Give them the opportunity to share their pieces aloud to gauge audience response!

5. Rewrite an Existing Scene in Dialogue

Writing purposeful and engaging dialogue doesn’t always come naturally to students. That’s where this activity comes into play. Select a scene from a well-known story or have students bring in their favorite passages. Then, challenge them to rewrite the scene entirely (or at least, mostly ) in dialogue form, focusing on maintaining the essence of the narrative prose. Remind them of the importance of strong verbs and engaging and descriptive dialogue tags. This activity sharpens dialogue-writing skills and encourages students to consider how characters express themselves through speech and how dialogue influences the pacing of a narrative.

Looking for strong examples of dialogue? Check out these short stories.

It’s Teaching Time!

If you’ve struggled to get your students to engage in the narrative writing process and produce strong stories in the past, I promise you are not alone. Navigating the challenges of narrative writing in secondary ELA is not easy to do on the fly. Instead, it requires a combination of strategic teaching and engaging activities. Once you nail that combo down, you will be on your way to unlocking next-level storytelling skills for your students.

Once you understand what areas your students struggle with in narrative writing, you can plan effective and engaging lessons that bring this genre to life. And who knows, you may be on your way to inspiring one of this generation’s next greatest storytellers! At the very least, you will provide a foundational understanding and foster an appreciation of what makes a story one worth telling.

For a step-by-step guide to teaching narrative writing, read this.

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How to Teach Narrative Writing

Last Updated: July 6, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 32,510 times.

Narrative writing is fun to teach, but it can also be a challenge! Whether you need to teach college or grade school students, there are lots of great options for lessons. Start by getting your students familiar with the genre, then use in-class activities to help them practice creating their own narratives. Once your students understand how narratives work, assign a narrative essay for students to demonstrate and hone their skills.

Introducing the Genre

• A specific point-of-view on the events of the story
• Vivid details that incorporate all 5 senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste)
• A reflection on what the experience meant

• Have your students read narrative essays, such as "My Indian Education" by Sherman Alexie, "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X, or "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan.
• Show your students a movie, such as Moana or Frozen and then plot out the structure of the story with your students.
• Have your students listen to a podcast or radio segment that features a short narrative, such as the Modern Love podcast or NPR's "This I Believe" series.

If you want to show a film but you are short on time, show a short film or sketch comedy clip , such as something from a channel you like on Youtube. Choose something that will grab your students' attention!

• Who are the characters in this story? What are they like? How can you tell?
• Who is telling the story?
• What happens to the characters?
• How do they work towards a solution to the problem?
• Where and when does the story take place?
• What is the mood of the story?

• For example, start by looking at the action and characters in the introduction. How does the author introduce the story? The characters?
• Then, move to the body paragraphs to identify how the story develops. What happens? Who does it happen to? How do the characters respond?
• Finish your map by looking at the conclusion to the story. How is the conflict resolved? What effect does this resolution have on the characters in the story?

Using In-Class Activities

• For example, you might start the story by saying “Once,” which another student might follow with “upon,” another with “a,” and another with “time,” and so on.
• You might also give the story more structure by giving your students a model to follow. For example, you might require them to follow a format, such as this one: "The-adjective-noun-adverb-verb-the-adjective-noun." Post the format where all of the students can follow along as they tell their story.
• To build a story sentence by sentence, you might start with “Once upon a time, there was a princess named Jezebel.” And then the next student might add, “She was betrothed to a foreign prince, but she did not want to get married.” And another might add, “One her wedding day, she fled the country.”

• Allow each student about 7 to 10 minutes to write their paragraph.
• Return the stories to the student who wrote the opening paragraph so they can see how other people continued their story.
• Ask students to share how their story progressed after they passed it to their neighbor.

• For example, if the author of a story writes, “Sally was so angry,” then they are telling. However, the author would be showing by writing, “Sally slammed the car door shut and stomped off towards her house. Before she went inside, she turned, shot me a furious look, and shouted, 'I never want to see you again!'”
• The first example tells readers that Sally is angry, while the second example shows readers that Sally is angry using her actions and words.
• A great way to practice this concept is to give students a plot point or have them create their own. Then, have the students work on showing the plot point using only dialogue.

• What does the character look like? Hair/eye/skin color? Height/weight/age? Clothing? Other distinguishing features?
• What mannerisms does the person have? Any nervous ticks? How does their voice sound?
• What is their personality like? Is the person an optimist or pessimist?
• What are their likes/dislikes? Hobbies? Profession?

• The diner was empty, except for me, the waitress, the cook, and a lone gunman.
• I was lost in a strange city with no money, no phone, and no way to contact anyone.
• The creature disappeared as suddenly and unexpectedly as it had arrived.

• Invite students to share what happened on their islands at the end of the 5 days.
• Display the island drawings and descriptions on the wall of your classroom.

Make it your goal to do 1 activity in class each day ! This will help to ensure that your students are getting lots of exposure to what a narrative is and how it works before they write their own narratives.

Assigning a Narrative Essay

• Tell your students if you are using a theme or focus. For example, if you want students to write their narrative on an experience with reading or writing, then you might provide examples, such as the first novel they read and fell in love with, or the time they had to totally rewrite a paper for an English class.
• Also, include details in the rubric on the required length of the essay, special features you expect to see, and any formatting requirements.

• Make sure to provide students with feedback on their pre-write activities. Encourage them on what sounds like it has the most potential and steer them away from topics that seem too broad or that would not hold up well as narratives.
• For example, if a student submits a freewrite in which they discuss wanting to write about all of the English teachers they have ever had, this would be too broad and you would want to encourage them to narrow their topic, such as by writing about 1 teacher only.

• For example, if the paper is due on April 1st, then students ought to start drafting at least 1 week in advance, or sooner if possible. This will help to ensure that they will have plenty of time to revise their work.

• Does the story seem complete? What else could be added?
• Is the topic too narrow or too broad? Does the paper maintain its focus or is it disorganized?
• Are the introduction and conclusion effective? How might they be improved?

For a creative way to showcase your students' stories, have them to transform their essays into a different format and share it with the class! For example, your students could turn their essay into a podcast, short film, or drawing.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/narrative_essays.html
• ↑ https://www.edutopia.org/article/systematic-approach-teaching-narrative-writing/
• ↑ https://intensiveintervention.org/sites/default/files/Narrative-Text-Structures-508.pdf
• ↑ https://lewisu.edu/writingcenter/pdf/narrative-elements-1.pdf
• ↑ https://cdn.ncte.org/nctefiles/resources/books/sample/00465chap07.pdf
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/narrative-writing/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/

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Top 7 Narrative Writing Exercises for Students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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.

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Common Core in Action: Narrative Writing

There is a panic amongst writing teachers that is based on the myth that our baby, narrative writing, is shunned by the Common Core standards. I'm here to encourage everyone to take a deep breath and repeat after me: "Nobody puts baby in a corner."

True, there has been a redistribution of priorities towards more fact-based writing. However, I don't see that as a roadblock for teaching story. In fact, blending your genres, incorporating them all, makes students stronger overall writers. In today's post, I'm here to encourage you: teach narrative by folding in informational fact while still encouraging beautiful writing.

Why We Need to Teach Narrative

The chart below outlines the new percentages of genres, according to the Common Core, with which students should be interacting during their time in school:

Sure, the numbers might make you cringe as you see a decrease in percentages devoted to storytelling, but narratives are important because they form the intrapersonal and interpersonal glue that holds our whole world together. Storytelling helps us understand empathy because it teaches about relationships. It helps us understand the sagas that connect history. It helps us wrap our heads around the stories behind the math that make up the need for scientific discovery. Narratives help us understand the world around us and the world within us. Sacrifice it and we sacrifice other elements dictated by the Common Core: creativity, critical-thinking, and character.

To address this shift, we need to focus more on creative non-fiction or fact-based narratives. After all, there's no reason why our narratives can't be based in fact.

According to the Common Core, while other subject areas are now expected to utilize writing, language arts is now expected to utilize other content areas. So I got to work with my mental wrench, tweaking and revising my narrative unit.

As a result, the unit ended up being a rigorous and integrated unit that was far richer than the narrative lessons of old. And it is aligned to CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.3 : Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Fact-Based Evidence

My narrative unit now focuses on reading and writing historical fiction and/or science fiction writing. The books from which the students could choose to base their stories on can be either historical fiction or science fiction. Therefore, we can study the facts embedded into the fiction and seed researched information into the stories we write ourselves.

I still hit on plot and sequencing, figurative language and sensory details, theme, and hooks. After all, any of those can be used in other genres as well, and that's the key here: making sure that you are blending genres. That the elements you teach for one can be used for others. In this case, different hooks are used for a variety of genres. Identifying the overall message, the theme, is a vital skill that helps put both history and science in perspective, and learning sensory details also helps the strength of writing required for other subjects.

After all, a student must describe one's observations while determining a hypothesis, just as one must be able to relate to the scene of a historical massacre if we are to learn from history.

Once I decided that the students would move away from fantasy or personal narrative into a more fact-based fiction, the challenge was to find ways students could prove their informational research. I began teaching guiding them through the following:

• Producing bibliographies of their resources using APA or MLA format. They use these as a resource to help them with format. And yes, I permit the use of Easybib .
• Creating follow-up presentations called "What if...." projects. Inspired by a resource from Larry Ferlazzo, these five- to 10-slide Powerpoints or Prezis ask students to take a key moment in the time period in which their historical fiction piece is set or a key invention they studied while writing their science fiction story, and delete it from our own history. Their projects focus on the ripple effect of what if that moment or invention had never existed. They must back up their musings with evidence.
• Centering small group discussions around inquiry charts that expand on the differences between history vs. historical fiction and science vs. science fiction.
• Hyperlinking.

The Joy of Hyperlinking

The simplest, most fact-assessing skill I teach by far is how to hyperlink. As I say in my new book, Writing Behind Every Door: Teaching Common Core Writing in the Subject Areas (due out in April), a valuable way the students show me their research is by providing at least 10 hyperlinks throughout their essays, regardless of whether they are writing short stories or argumentation essays. Linking is, in my view, a vital skill for a young writer to know how to do.

I think that all students should leave middle school knowing how to show an additional layer of information in all of their writings. These links allow a reader to confirm an author's research in a way that a simple bibliography list does not. Linking takes reading from a two-dimensional experience to a three-dimensional one. It also potentially adds a different modality to the essay by linking to images, web pages, or videos. It takes reading a student narrative from a static experience to a dynamic one.

In the following screencast, I show you how to teach hyperlinking using both a laptop and an iPad. Since I have a "Franken-class" of both Chromebooks and iPads, I've had to learn myself the best way to teach this skill using both tools.

Throughout my narrative unit, the students and I share the responsibility of being experts. They became the experts in the historic era in which their narrative was set or the scientific theory that influenced their story. And I remained their writing guide. I guided them in how to communicate and maneuver through their subjects.

The writing that I guided them towards became a vessel that delivered integrated material. In so doing, I was able to maintain teaching narrative and all the rich yummy writing elements that go along with it, and still address the informational requirements of the Common Core standards.

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Teaching narrative writing tips and 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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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 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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The Ultimate Narrative Essay Guide for Beginners

A narrative essay tells a story in chronological order, with an introduction that introduces the characters and sets the scene. Then a series of events leads to a climax or turning point, and finally a resolution or reflection on the experience.

Speaking of which, are you in sixes and sevens about narrative essays? Don’t worry this ultimate expert guide will wipe out all your doubts. So let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Everything You Need to Know About Narrative Essay

What is a narrative essay.

When you go through a narrative essay definition, you would know that a narrative essay purpose is to tell a story. It’s all about sharing an experience or event and is different from other types of essays because it’s more focused on how the event made you feel or what you learned from it, rather than just presenting facts or an argument. Let’s explore more details on this interesting write-up and get to know how to write a narrative essay.

Elements of a Narrative Essay

Here’s a breakdown of the key elements of a narrative essay:

A narrative essay has a beginning, middle, and end. It builds up tension and excitement and then wraps things up in a neat package.

Real people, including the writer, often feature in personal narratives. Details of the characters and their thoughts, feelings, and actions can help readers to relate to the tale.

It’s really important to know when and where something happened so we can get a good idea of the context. Going into detail about what it looks like helps the reader to really feel like they’re part of the story.

Conflict or Challenge 

A story in a narrative essay usually involves some kind of conflict or challenge that moves the plot along. It could be something inside the character, like a personal battle, or something from outside, like an issue they have to face in the world.

Theme or Message

A narrative essay isn’t just about recounting an event – it’s about showing the impact it had on you and what you took away from it. It’s an opportunity to share your thoughts and feelings about the experience, and how it changed your outlook.

Emotional Impact

The author is trying to make the story they’re telling relatable, engaging, and memorable by using language and storytelling to evoke feelings in whoever’s reading it.

Narrative essays let writers have a blast telling stories about their own lives. It’s an opportunity to share insights and impart wisdom, or just have some fun with the reader. Descriptive language, sensory details, dialogue, and a great narrative voice are all essentials for making the story come alive.

The Purpose of a Narrative Essay

A narrative essay is more than just a story – it’s a way to share a meaningful, engaging, and relatable experience with the reader. Includes:

Sharing Personal Experience

Narrative essays are a great way for writers to share their personal experiences, feelings, thoughts, and reflections. It’s an opportunity to connect with readers and make them feel something.

Entertainment and Engagement

The essay attempts to keep the reader interested by using descriptive language, storytelling elements, and a powerful voice. It attempts to pull them in and make them feel involved by creating suspense, mystery, or an emotional connection.

Conveying a Message or Insight

Narrative essays are more than just a story – they aim to teach you something. They usually have a moral lesson, a new understanding, or a realization about life that the author gained from the experience.

Building Empathy and Understanding

By telling their stories, people can give others insight into different perspectives, feelings, and situations. Sharing these tales can create compassion in the reader and help broaden their knowledge of different life experiences.

Inspiration and Motivation

Stories about personal struggles, successes, and transformations can be really encouraging to people who are going through similar situations. It can provide them with hope and guidance, and let them know that they’re not alone.

Reflecting on Life’s Significance

These essays usually make you think about the importance of certain moments in life or the impact of certain experiences. They make you look deep within yourself and ponder on the things you learned or how you changed because of those events.

Demonstrating Writing Skills

Coming up with a gripping narrative essay takes serious writing chops, like vivid descriptions, powerful language, timing, and organization. It’s an opportunity for writers to show off their story-telling abilities.

Preserving Personal History

Sometimes narrative essays are used to record experiences and special moments that have an emotional resonance. They can be used to preserve individual memories or for future generations to look back on.

Cultural and Societal Exploration

Personal stories can look at cultural or social aspects, giving us an insight into customs, opinions, or social interactions seen through someone’s own experience.

Format of a Narrative Essay

Narrative essays are quite flexible in terms of format, which allows the writer to tell a story in a creative and compelling way. Here’s a quick breakdown of the narrative essay format, along with some examples:

Introduction

Set the scene and introduce the story.

Engage the reader and establish the tone of the narrative.

Hook: Start with a captivating opening line to grab the reader’s attention. For instance:

Example:  “The scorching sun beat down on us as we trekked through the desert, our water supply dwindling.”

Background Information: Provide necessary context or background without giving away the entire story.

Example:  “It was the summer of 2015 when I embarked on a life-changing journey to…”

Thesis Statement or Narrative Purpose

Present the main idea or the central message of the essay.

Offer a glimpse of what the reader can expect from the narrative.

Thesis Statement: This isn’t as rigid as in other essays but can be a sentence summarizing the essence of the story.

Example:  “Little did I know, that seemingly ordinary hike would teach me invaluable lessons about resilience and friendship.”

Body Paragraphs

Present the sequence of events in chronological order.

Develop characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.

Story Progression : Describe events in the order they occurred, focusing on details that evoke emotions and create vivid imagery.

Example : Detail the trek through the desert, the challenges faced, interactions with fellow hikers, and the pivotal moments.

Character Development : Introduce characters and their roles in the story. Show their emotions, thoughts, and actions.

Example : Describe how each character reacted to the dwindling water supply and supported each other through adversity.

Dialogue and Interactions : Use dialogue to bring the story to life and reveal character personalities.

Example : “Sarah handed me her last bottle of water, saying, ‘We’re in this together.'”

Reach the peak of the story, the moment of highest tension or significance.

Turning Point: Highlight the most crucial moment or realization in the narrative.

Example:  “As the sun dipped below the horizon and hope seemed lost, a distant sound caught our attention—the rescue team’s helicopters.”

Provide closure to the story.

Reflect on the significance of the experience and its impact.

Reflection : Summarize the key lessons learned or insights gained from the experience.

Example : “That hike taught me the true meaning of resilience and the invaluable support of friendship in challenging times.”

Closing Thought : End with a memorable line that reinforces the narrative’s message or leaves a lasting impression.

Example : “As we boarded the helicopters, I knew this adventure would forever be etched in my heart.”

Example Summary:

Imagine a narrative about surviving a challenging hike through the desert, emphasizing the bonds formed and lessons learned. The narrative essay structure might look like starting with an engaging scene, narrating the hardships faced, showcasing the characters’ resilience, and culminating in a powerful realization about friendship and endurance.

Different Types of Narrative Essays

There are a bunch of different types of narrative essays – each one focuses on different elements of storytelling and has its own purpose. Here’s a breakdown of the narrative essay types and what they mean.

Personal Narrative

Description : Tells a personal story or experience from the writer’s life.

Purpose: Reflects on personal growth, lessons learned, or significant moments.

Example of Narrative Essay Types:

Topic : “The Day I Conquered My Fear of Public Speaking”

Focus: Details the experience, emotions, and eventual triumph over a fear of public speaking during a pivotal event.

Descriptive Narrative

Description : Emphasizes vivid details and sensory imagery.

Purpose : Creates a sensory experience, painting a vivid picture for the reader.

Topic : “A Walk Through the Enchanted Forest”

Focus : Paints a detailed picture of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings experienced during a walk through a mystical forest.

Autobiographical Narrative

Description: Chronicles significant events or moments from the writer’s life.

Purpose: Provides insights into the writer’s life, experiences, and growth.

Topic: “Lessons from My Childhood: How My Grandmother Shaped Who I Am”

Focus: Explores pivotal moments and lessons learned from interactions with a significant family member.

Experiential Narrative

Description: Relays experiences beyond the writer’s personal life.

Purpose: Shares experiences, travels, or events from a broader perspective.

Topic: “Volunteering in a Remote Village: A Journey of Empathy”

Focus: Chronicles the writer’s volunteering experience, highlighting interactions with a community and personal growth.

Literary Narrative

Description: Incorporates literary elements like symbolism, allegory, or thematic explorations.

Purpose: Uses storytelling for deeper explorations of themes or concepts.

Topic: “The Symbolism of the Red Door: A Journey Through Change”

Focus: Uses a red door as a symbol, exploring its significance in the narrator’s life and the theme of transition.

Historical Narrative

Description: Recounts historical events or periods through a personal lens.

Purpose: Presents history through personal experiences or perspectives.

Topic: “A Grandfather’s Tales: Living Through the Great Depression”

Focus: Shares personal stories from a family member who lived through a historical era, offering insights into that period.

Digital or Multimedia Narrative

Description: Incorporates multimedia elements like images, videos, or audio to tell a story.

Purpose: Explores storytelling through various digital platforms or formats.

Topic: “A Travel Diary: Exploring Europe Through Vlogs”

Focus: Combines video clips, photos, and personal narration to document a travel experience.

How to Choose a Topic for Your Narrative Essay?

Selecting a compelling topic for your narrative essay is crucial as it sets the stage for your storytelling. Choosing a boring topic is one of the narrative essay mistakes to avoid . Here’s a detailed guide on how to choose the right topic:

Reflect on Personal Experiences

• Significant Moments:

Moments that had a profound impact on your life or shaped your perspective.

Example: A moment of triumph, overcoming a fear, a life-changing decision, or an unforgettable experience.

• Emotional Resonance:

Events that evoke strong emotions or feelings.

Example: Joy, fear, sadness, excitement, or moments of realization.

• Lessons Learned:

Experiences that taught you valuable lessons or brought about personal growth.

Example: Challenges that led to personal development, shifts in mindset, or newfound insights.

Explore Unique Perspectives

• Uncommon Experiences:

Unique or unconventional experiences that might captivate the reader’s interest.

Example: Unusual travels, interactions with different cultures, or uncommon hobbies.

• Different Points of View:

Stories from others’ perspectives that impacted you deeply.

Example: A family member’s story, a friend’s experience, or a historical event from a personal lens.

Focus on Specific Themes or Concepts

• Themes or Concepts of Interest:

Themes or ideas you want to explore through storytelling.

Example: Friendship, resilience, identity, cultural diversity, or personal transformation.

• Symbolism or Metaphor:

Using symbols or metaphors as the core of your narrative.

Example: Exploring the symbolism of an object or a place in relation to a broader theme.

Consider Your Audience and Purpose

• Relevance to Your Audience:

Topics that resonate with your audience’s interests or experiences.

Example: Choose a relatable theme or experience that your readers might connect with emotionally.

• Impact or Message:

What message or insight do you want to convey through your story?

Example: Choose a topic that aligns with the message or lesson you aim to impart to your readers.

Brainstorm and Evaluate Ideas

• Free Writing or Mind Mapping:

Process: Write down all potential ideas without filtering. Mind maps or free-writing exercises can help generate diverse ideas.

• Evaluate Feasibility:

The depth of the story, the availability of vivid details, and your personal connection to the topic.

Imagine you’re considering topics for a narrative essay. You reflect on your experiences and decide to explore the topic of “Overcoming Stage Fright: How a School Play Changed My Perspective.” This topic resonates because it involves a significant challenge you faced and the personal growth it brought about.

Narrative Essay Topics

50 easy narrative essay topics.

• Learning to Ride a Bike
• My First Day of School
• A Surprise Birthday Party
• The Day I Got Lost
• Visiting a Haunted House
• An Encounter with a Wild Animal
• My Favorite Childhood Toy
• The Best Vacation I Ever Had
• An Unforgettable Family Gathering
• Conquering a Fear of Heights
• A Special Gift I Received
• Moving to a New City
• The Most Memorable Meal
• Getting Caught in a Rainstorm
• An Act of Kindness I Witnessed
• The First Time I Cooked a Meal
• My Experience with a New Hobby
• The Day I Met My Best Friend
• A Hike in the Mountains
• Learning a New Language
• An Embarrassing Moment
• Dealing with a Bully
• My First Job Interview
• A Sporting Event I Attended
• The Scariest Dream I Had
• Helping a Stranger
• The Joy of Achieving a Goal
• A Road Trip Adventure
• Overcoming a Personal Challenge
• The Significance of a Family Tradition
• An Unusual Pet I Owned
• A Misunderstanding with a Friend
• Exploring an Abandoned Building
• My Favorite Book and Why
• The Impact of a Role Model
• A Cultural Celebration I Participated In
• A Valuable Lesson from a Teacher
• A Trip to the Zoo
• An Unplanned Adventure
• Volunteering Experience
• A Moment of Forgiveness
• A Decision I Regretted
• A Special Talent I Have
• The Importance of Family Traditions
• The Thrill of Performing on Stage
• A Moment of Sudden Inspiration
• The Meaning of Home
• Learning to Play a Musical Instrument
• A Childhood Memory at the Park
• Witnessing a Beautiful Sunset

Narrative Essay Topics for College Students

• Discovering a New Passion
• Overcoming Academic Challenges
• Navigating Cultural Differences
• Embracing Independence: Moving Away from Home
• Exploring Career Aspirations
• Coping with Stress in College
• The Impact of a Mentor in My Life
• Balancing Work and Studies
• Facing a Fear of Public Speaking
• Exploring a Semester Abroad
• The Evolution of My Study Habits
• Volunteering Experience That Changed My Perspective
• The Role of Technology in Education
• Finding Balance: Social Life vs. Academics
• Learning a New Skill Outside the Classroom
• Reflecting on Freshman Year Challenges
• The Joys and Struggles of Group Projects
• My Experience with Internship or Work Placement
• Challenges of Time Management in College
• Redefining Success Beyond Grades
• The Influence of Literature on My Thinking
• The Impact of Social Media on College Life
• Overcoming Procrastination
• Lessons from a Leadership Role
• Exploring Diversity on Campus
• Exploring Passion for Environmental Conservation
• An Eye-Opening Course That Changed My Perspective
• Living with Roommates: Challenges and Lessons
• The Significance of Extracurricular Activities
• The Influence of a Professor on My Academic Journey
• Discussing Mental Health in College
• The Evolution of My Career Goals
• Confronting Personal Biases Through Education
• The Experience of Attending a Conference or Symposium
• Challenges Faced by Non-Native English Speakers in College
• The Impact of Traveling During Breaks
• Exploring Identity: Cultural or Personal
• The Impact of Music or Art on My Life
• Addressing Diversity in the Classroom
• Exploring Entrepreneurial Ambitions
• My Experience with Research Projects
• Overcoming Impostor Syndrome in College
• The Importance of Networking in College
• Finding Resilience During Tough Times
• The Impact of Global Issues on Local Perspectives
• The Influence of Family Expectations on Education
• Lessons from a Part-Time Job
• Exploring the College Sports Culture
• The Role of Technology in Modern Education
• The Journey of Self-Discovery Through Education

Narrative Essay Comparison

Narrative essay vs. descriptive essay.

Here’s our first narrative essay comparison! While both narrative and descriptive essays focus on vividly portraying a subject or an event, they differ in their primary objectives and approaches. Now, let’s delve into the nuances of comparison on narrative essays.

Narrative Essay:

Storytelling: Focuses on narrating a personal experience or event.

Chronological Order: Follows a structured timeline of events to tell a story.

Message or Lesson: Often includes a central message, moral, or lesson learned from the experience.

Engagement: Aims to captivate the reader through a compelling storyline and character development.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s point of view, using “I” and expressing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Emphasizes a plot with a beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Character Development: Focuses on describing characters, their interactions, emotions, and growth.

Conflict or Challenge: Usually involves a central conflict or challenge that drives the narrative forward.

Dialogue: Incorporates conversations to bring characters and their interactions to life.

Reflection: Concludes with reflection or insight gained from the experience.

Descriptive Essay:

Vivid Description: Aims to vividly depict a person, place, object, or event.

Imagery and Details: Focuses on sensory details to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

Emotion through Description: Uses descriptive language to evoke emotions and engage the reader’s senses.

Painting a Picture: Creates a sensory-rich description allowing the reader to visualize the subject.

Imagery and Sensory Details: Focuses on providing rich sensory descriptions, using vivid language and adjectives.

Point of Focus: Concentrates on describing a specific subject or scene in detail.

Spatial Organization: Often employs spatial organization to describe from one area or aspect to another.

Objective Observations: Typically avoids the use of personal opinions or emotions; instead, the focus remains on providing a detailed and objective description.

Comparison:

Focus: Narrative essays emphasize storytelling, while descriptive essays focus on vividly describing a subject or scene.

Perspective: Narrative essays are often written from a first-person perspective, while descriptive essays may use a more objective viewpoint.

Purpose: Narrative essays aim to convey a message or lesson through a story, while descriptive essays aim to paint a detailed picture for the reader without necessarily conveying a specific message.

Narrative Essay vs. Argumentative Essay

The narrative essay and the argumentative essay serve distinct purposes and employ different approaches:

Engagement and Emotion: Aims to captivate the reader through a compelling story.

Reflective: Often includes reflection on the significance of the experience or lessons learned.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s point of view, sharing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Emphasizes a storyline with a beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Message or Lesson: Conveys a central message, moral, or insight derived from the experience.

Argumentative Essay:

Persuasion and Argumentation: Aims to persuade the reader to adopt the writer’s viewpoint on a specific topic.

Logical Reasoning: Presents evidence, facts, and reasoning to support a particular argument or stance.

Debate and Counterarguments: Acknowledge opposing views and counter them with evidence and reasoning.

Thesis Statement: Includes a clear thesis statement that outlines the writer’s position on the topic.

Thesis and Evidence: Starts with a strong thesis statement and supports it with factual evidence, statistics, expert opinions, or logical reasoning.

Counterarguments: Addresses opposing viewpoints and provides rebuttals with evidence.

Logical Structure: Follows a logical structure with an introduction, body paragraphs presenting arguments and evidence, and a conclusion reaffirming the thesis.

Formal Language: Uses formal language and avoids personal anecdotes or emotional appeals.

Objective: Argumentative essays focus on presenting a logical argument supported by evidence, while narrative essays prioritize storytelling and personal reflection.

Purpose: Argumentative essays aim to persuade and convince the reader of a particular viewpoint, while narrative essays aim to engage, entertain, and share personal experiences.

Structure: Narrative essays follow a storytelling structure with character development and plot, while argumentative essays follow a more formal, structured approach with logical arguments and evidence.

In essence, while both essays involve writing and presenting information, the narrative essay focuses on sharing a personal experience, whereas the argumentative essay aims to persuade the audience by presenting a well-supported argument.

Narrative Essay vs. Personal Essay

While there can be an overlap between narrative and personal essays, they have distinctive characteristics:

Storytelling: Emphasizes recounting a specific experience or event in a structured narrative form.

Engagement through Story: Aims to engage the reader through a compelling story with characters, plot, and a central theme or message.

Reflective: Often includes reflection on the significance of the experience and the lessons learned.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s viewpoint, expressing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Focuses on developing a storyline with a clear beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Character Development: Includes descriptions of characters, their interactions, emotions, and growth.

Central Message: Conveys a central message, moral, or insight derived from the experience.

Personal Essay:

Exploration of Ideas or Themes: Explores personal ideas, opinions, or reflections on a particular topic or subject.

Expression of Thoughts and Opinions: Expresses the writer’s thoughts, feelings, and perspectives on a specific subject matter.

Reflection and Introspection: Often involves self-reflection and introspection on personal experiences, beliefs, or values.

Varied Structure and Content: Can encompass various forms, including memoirs, personal anecdotes, or reflections on life experiences.

Flexibility in Structure: Allows for diverse structures and forms based on the writer’s intent, which could be narrative-like or more reflective.

Theme-Centric Writing: Focuses on exploring a central theme or idea, with personal anecdotes or experiences supporting and illustrating the theme.

Expressive Language: Utilizes descriptive and expressive language to convey personal perspectives, emotions, and opinions.

Focus: Narrative essays primarily focus on storytelling through a structured narrative, while personal essays encompass a broader range of personal expression, which can include storytelling but isn’t limited to it.

Structure: Narrative essays have a more structured plot development with characters and a clear sequence of events, while personal essays might adopt various structures, focusing more on personal reflection, ideas, or themes.

Intent: While both involve personal experiences, narrative essays emphasize telling a story with a message or lesson learned, while personal essays aim to explore personal thoughts, feelings, or opinions on a broader range of topics or themes.

A narrative essay is more than just telling a story. It’s also meant to engage the reader, get them thinking, and leave a lasting impact. Whether it’s to amuse, motivate, teach, or reflect, these essays are a great way to communicate with your audience. This interesting narrative essay guide was all about letting you understand the narrative essay, its importance, and how can you write one.

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Macdonald DeWitt Library at SUNY Ulster

Eng 101 oer: narration.

• Reading to Write
• Why We Write
• Rhetorical Context
• Brainstorming
• Proofreading & Editing
• Paragraph Development
• Thesis Statements
• Introductions
• Conclusions

Transitions & Phrases

• Peer Reviews
• Exemplification
• Classification
• Cause/Effect
• Grammar Resources

Learning Objectives

• Determine the purpose and structure of narrative writing.
• Understand how to write a narrative essay.

The Purpose of Narrative Writing

The big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose. The writers of factual stories try to recount events as they actually happened, but writers of fictional stories can depart from real people and events because the writers’ intents are not to retell a real-life event. Biographies and memoirs are examples of factual stories, whereas novels and short stories are examples of fictional stories.

The Structure of a Narrative Essay

Major narrative events are most often conveyed in  chronological order , the order in which events unfold from first to last. Stories typically have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and these events are typically organized by time. Certain transitional words and phrases aid in keeping the reader oriented in the sequencing of a story. 

The following are the other basic components of a narrative:

• Plot . The events as they unfold in sequence.
• Characters . The people who inhabit the story and move it forward. Typically, there are minor characters and main characters. The minor characters generally play supporting roles to the main character, or the protagonist.
• Conflict . The primary problem or obstacle that unfolds in the plot that the protagonist must solve or overcome by the end of the narrative. The way in which the protagonist resolves the conflict of the plot results in the theme of the narrative.

Writing a Narrative Essay

When writing a narrative essay, start by asking yourself if you want to write a factual or fictional story. Then freewrite about topics that are of general interest to you.

Once you have a general idea of what you will be writing about, you should sketch out the major events of the story that will compose your plot. Typically, these events will be revealed chronologically and climax at a central conflict that must be resolved by the end of the story. The use of strong details is crucial as you describe the events and characters in your narrative. You want the reader to emotionally engage with the world that you create in writing.

As always, it is important to start with a strong introduction to hook your reader into wanting to read more. Try opening the essay with an event that is interesting to introduce the story and get it going. Finally, your conclusion should help resolve the central conflict of the story and impress upon your reader the ultimate theme of the piece.   

What makes a great story? For legendary filmmaker Ken Burns, the answer is both complicated and personal. In this short documentary about the craft of storytelling, he explains his lifelong mission to wake the dead. Recently featured on The Atlantic.

Ken Burns: On Story from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo .

Student Sample Essay

My College Education  

The first class I went to in college was philosophy, and it changed my life forever. Our first assignment was to write a short response paper to the Albert Camus essay “The Myth of Sisyphus.” I was extremely nervous about the assignment as well as college. However, through all the confusion in philosophy class, many of my questions about life were answered.

I entered college intending to earn a degree in engineering. I always liked the way mathematics had right and wrong answers. I understood the logic and was very good at it. So when I received my first philosophy assignment that asked me to write my interpretation of the Camus essay, I was instantly confused. What is the right way to do this assignment, I wondered? I was nervous about writing an incorrect interpretation and did not want to get my first assignment wrong. Even more troubling was that the professor refused to give us any guidelines on what he was looking for; he gave us total freedom. He simply said, “I want to see what you come up with.”

Full of anxiety, I first set out to read Camus’s essay several times to make sure I really knew what was it was about. I did my best to take careful notes. Yet even after I took all these notes and knew the essay inside and out, I still did not know the right answer. What was my interpretation? I could think of a million different ways to interpret the essay, but which one was my professor looking for? In math class, I was used to examples and explanations of solutions. This assignment gave me nothing; I was completely on my own to come up with my individual interpretation.

Next, when I sat down to write, the words just did not come to me. My notes and ideas were all present, but the words were lost. I decided to try every prewriting strategy I could find. I brainstormed, made idea maps, and even wrote an outline. Eventually, after a lot of stress, my ideas became more organized and the words fell on the page. I had my interpretation of “The Myth of Sisyphus,” and I had my main reasons for interpreting the essay. I remember being unsure of myself, wondering if what I was saying made sense, or if I was even on the right track. Through all the uncertainty, I continued writing the best I could. I finished the conclusion paragraph, had my spouse proofread it for errors, and turned it in the next day simply hoping for the best.

Then, a week or two later, came judgment day. The professor gave our papers back to us with grades and comments. I remember feeling simultaneously afraid and eager to get the paper back in my hands. It turned out, however, that I had nothing to worry about. The professor gave me an A on the paper, and his notes suggested that I wrote an effective essay overall. He wrote that my reading of the essay was very original and that my thoughts were well organized. My relief and newfound confidence upon reading his comments could not be overstated.

What I learned through this process extended well beyond how to write a college paper. I learned to be open to new challenges. I never expected to enjoy a philosophy class and always expected to be a math and science person. This class and assignment, however, gave me the self-confidence, critical-thinking skills, and courage to try a new career path. I left engineering and went on to study law and eventually became a lawyer. More important, that class and paper helped me understand education differently. Instead of seeing college as a direct stepping stone to a career, I learned to see college as a place to first learn and then seek a career or enhance an existing career. By giving me the space to express my own interpretation and to argue for my own values, my philosophy class taught me the importance of education for education’s sake. That realization continues to pay dividends every day.

Key Takeaways

• Narration is the art of storytelling.
• Narratives can be either factual or fictional. In either case, narratives should emotionally engage the reader.
• Most narratives are composed of major events sequenced in chronological order.
• Time transition words and phrases are used to orient the reader in the sequence of a narrative.
• The four basic components to all narratives are plot, character, conflict, and theme.
• The use of sensory details is crucial to emotionally engaging the reader.
• A strong introduction is important to hook the reader. A strong conclusion should add resolution to the conflict and evoke the narrative’s theme.

This is a derivative of  WRITING FOR SUCCESS  by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution, originally released and is used under CC BY-NC-SA. This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

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The Art of Storytelling: Techniques for Writing Engaging Narratives

May 16, 2023 //  by  Lindsay Ann //   Leave a Comment

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Neuroscience shows us that our brains are naturally designed for writing narratives. We can see narratives being told as far back as our cave dwelling ancestors who told the story of their fantastic hunts by drawing pictures on their cave walls.

Storytelling preserves culture. It creates connection. It helps us learn lessons and grow as people. By telling stories, humans have learned from cautionary tales, taught others how to make something, do something, or where to find something.

When we hear a story, our brain releases dopamine that gives us a sense of calm and lowers our blood pressure.

Businesses have recognized that storytelling is far more powerful in selling products and services than persuasion alone.

In short, people love narratives . 

Despite our natural inclination for stories, sometimes the narrative can be the first assignment on the chopping block when trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle that is all of that ELA curriculum in just 180 short days.

But given what we know about how important narrative stories are to human development, maybe it’s time we reconsider being so willing to let go of the narrative! 

Today let’s check out some unique ways to bring the art of storytelling into the high school English classroom to tap into our students’ instinctual desire to tell great stories. 

Written Narratives

When it comes to teaching written narratives, we may believe that form matters. The personal narrative or memoir tends to be the form that dominates the narrative standards in the high school ELA curriculum, or at least it does in my district. I have found that it can be easier to get students to turn their life experiences into a narrative than it is to get them to come up with a complete story from scratch. 

However, if we want our students to pursue authentic writing and write with audience and purpose in mind, we also need to remember that the good ole fashioned fictional story has a place in our year-long scope and sequence.

Neither the personal narrative nor the short story is more important than the other. The skills and processes required to write both forms are similar, so allow room for flexibility!

Personal Writing Examples

Here are some examples of narrative writing that include both personal narrative and fiction stories:

• A student might write about a coming of age experience or rite of passage they’ve had and write it as a personal narrative.
• A student might take their coming of age experience and turn it into a completely fictionalized narrative using made up character names, changing character traits, reimagining the setting, and even playing with the order of events and changing up the events altogether.
• A student may take a family story that’s been passed down from generation to generation but tell it through the eyes of an ancestor. 

There’s no limit to the rich, authentic writing that can come from our students’ minds when we allow them the freedom to express themselves and explore various formats to accomplish their purpose. 

Writing a Narrative Essay

Writing a narrative essay follows the same steps of the writing process as any other genre of writing. The trick for writing a narrative essay, though, is to get students to understand that stories are everywhere and yes , they have an important story to tell!

Brainstorming

Start by showing students that stories are everywhere. By looking for stories in everyday life, they’ll start to brainstorm ideas before their pen hits the paper.

Get students to start to tell their own stories. Sit in a circle and share about a time they were embarrassed, a prized childhood possession, their favorite teacher. 

Challenge them to think beyond their own stories . Give them prompts that will inspire fiction writing . Encourage them to make up their own world, characters, and conflicts. And they can totally draw inspiration from their own life to do this!

Planning for the “story arc”

Once they have an idea, now it’s time to plan!

For narrative writing, students should focus on mapping out their story.

The Freytag’s Pyramid is an oldie but goodie for this kind of thinking work. What information should be included in the exposition? What will be the climax of their story? Will they choose to absolutely infuriate their readers and leave them with a cliffhanger ending?

By the time they get to high school, students are pretty familiar with the elements of plot, but they may not be used to considering pacing . The pacing of the story is best described as that thrilling moment in a mystery when you’re flying through the pages at the edge of your seat about to catch the killer in action.

When planning for pacing, an easy way to do so is for students to divvy up the important plot points and create a bar graph to represent how much time and space those sections will take up in their story.

They may want to slooooowly drag the reader along in the rising action in order to create a dramatic climax but quickly fly through the falling action and briefly resolve. Or they may want to quickly get to the climax but draw out the resolution. All of these options are fair game, but students need to be taught to be intentional about making these choices in their writing.

Collaborative feedback

I’ve found that when writing narratives, collaborative feedback from a peer or a small group of peers is almost always valuable to the writer. 

I’m not a writing scientist (if that is an occupation, SIGN ME UP!), but if I had to wager a bet, I’d put my money on the fact that, because people really do love stories so much, it’s easier for us to tell someone else if their story is engaging or not. 

When responding to storytelling, students don’t feel the pressure of telling their partner or small group technical things like if their anaphora is well placed. Instead, they can simply say, “I don’t understand why this character did this,” or “I wasn’t very shocked by the ending and I know you wanted it to be. What would make it shocking is if…”

Writing is a recursive process. Students can toggle back and forth between writing and revising and collaborating before the piece is finally done and ready to be published. 

As with any writing, it’s important to remind students not to skip this part of the writing process!

This is where they can take the feedback and apply it to make their story even more powerful. 

Publication

Check out these outlets for publishing students’ narrative writing:

• Make a book for Six Word Memoirs
• Create a class blog
• Scholastic writing contest
• NCTE writing awards
• Skipping Stones magazine

Narrative Writing Mentor Texts

Students need to see examples of a wide variety of narratives to understand how to play with language, form, and syntax.

High quality narrative mentor texts can be used for brainstorming, mini lessons, writing conferences, and sooooo much more. 

Here are some examples of traditional and some non traditional ways to bring the narratives of others into your classroom!

New York Times student contest winners : These are student submissions from the Times’ narrative contest. Students will love relating to the topics of these submissions and learning craft from amateur writers who are on their level.

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture : When diagnosed with terminal cancer, Randy Pausch, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered one final lecture. The lecture ended up being a love letter to his family. Discuss how Pausch ties smaller stories, a.k.a. “life lessons” together under a unifying theme and illustrates each story with a concise, bite-sized aphorism takeaway. If you’re looking for a real-world assignment, have students write their own last lectures to deliver to the class at the end of the year.

Vlogs/Tik Tok/Instagram: Don’t sleep on using social media as mentor texts. Some of the best examples of personal narratives come from those Day in the Life Of style posts, and some Tik Tok creators have told amazingly elaborate fiction stories using that medium!

The Moth : The Moth brings the art of storytelling to life. Professional and amateur storytellers and performers orally share stories to live audiences and via a recorded podcast. At my school, freshmen end the year by writing and sharing their own Moth speeches.

TED Talks on Storytelling Activity: You know I’m obsessed with using TED Talks in the classroom, but they’re soooo great for teaching narrative writing because of the range of talks on the subject. There are talks that are instructive on how to write a narrative, there are talks that share personal stories, talks that share fiction stories, and everything in between!

Podcasts : Beyond The Moth, there are sooooo many podcasts that are formatted as a narrative. Here are some of my faves:

• Welcome to Night Vale

Narrative writing with pictures : Let. Students. Write. Using. Pictures. That is the message.

Yes, even in high school.

The graphic novel, graphic memoir, and graphic stories are all valuable! Show students some examples of this and see what they can create!

Memoir Reading & Writing: Memoirs are a great way to teach reading analysis skills and use the reading as a mentor text for student writing.

Here are some titles I think work perfectly for this: 

• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
• Becoming by Michelle Obama 
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
• I Am Malala by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Somebody’s Daughter Ashley C. Ford
• The Color of Water by James McBride
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Simple Writing Activities

Need story ideas for your students?

Snowball writing: This method allows students to be collaborative and creative. One student starts the writing process for the class (you can use a prompt or have your student make up their own idea!).

After writing for a specified amount of time, the student will crumple up the paper and make a “snowball,” and toss it to someone else. That person continues writing and repeats the process. You can even make a snowball fight where multiple stories are being thrown around at the same time. 

Simple Snowball Prompts: 

• What are some words of wisdom you’ve been given that guide your life?
• What events have brought you closer to your family?
• What’s special about where you grew up?
• What places do you remember fondly from your childhood?
• What’s the best party you’ve ever been to?
• What’s one song that every time you hear it you’re transported back to a moment in time? Write about that moment.

Photo Essay: Check out this resource for descriptive writing using a photo essay. This is such a unique way to get students thinking about their own stories (and the stories all pictures tell).

Credos: Credos challenge students to think about who they are at their core. What beliefs and ideals guide them through life? What has shaped them into who they are?

This “Personal Credo” lesson is a perfect opportunity for students to think critically about their life experiences and analyze how those experiences have impacted the way they think. 

Wrapping Up

I hope you found this post helpful. I really believe when we allow students flexibility to tell stories in their own ways and on their own terms, we can untap creativity they didn’t even know they had. 

Tell me about your best and worst experiences with teaching narrative writing in the comments below! I’d love to hear what’s worked and what hasn’t! 

About Lindsay Ann

Lindsay has been teaching high school English in the burbs of Chicago for 19 years. She is passionate about helping English teachers find balance in their lives and teaching practice through practical feedback strategies and student-led learning strategies. She also geeks out about literary analysis, inquiry-based learning, and classroom technology integration. When Lindsay is not teaching, she enjoys playing with her two kids, running, and getting lost in a good book.

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Raise the Bar Reading

A Reading Teacher's Blog

Teaching Narrative Writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grade

When teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, there are so many writing skills to cover. They range from creating a sequence of events (beginning, middle, and end) to more difficult skills like building strong characterization. With a class full of students at such varying levels of writing, it can be overwhelming to think of where to start with your narrative writing unit.  

Narrative writing can be one of the most motivational types of writing for students since the topics can be something they feel connected to in their own lives.  Personal narratives allow them to talk about their own experiences they want to share, and fictional narratives let students create a story about absolutely anything that they want!  

As you can see in the chart below, students are expected to do a little bit more with narrative writing as they grow as writers from 1 st to 3 rd grade.    

So, 1 st grade focuses on developing sequenced events (beginning, middle, end).   With 2 nd and 3 rd grade, the focus is creating a hook/opening, events (beginning, middle, end), and a closing. In 2 nd and 3 rd grade students also need to begin to develop characterization.

For young writers learning such a new, specific format of writing, it is really important to break it up into small, clear steps. 

Below is how I tackle narrative writing step by step:

INTRODUCE NARRATIVE WRITING:

First, I explain what a narrative is with visuals and examples.  I go through a pre-written narrative writing example.  These examples will differ depending on whether we are working on writing fictional narratives or personal narratives.

We identify and discuss each part of the piece of writing.  For first graders that means the beginning, middle, and end.  For second and third graders, that means an opening, events (beginning, middle and end), and closing.

GUIDED WHOLE GROUP PRACTICE:

I like to model the actual process of writing a narrative as well.  With modeling a personal narrative, I like to pick an experience we have had in school that year so that it is easy for students to participate.  I keep this model basic and clear so that students are not overwhelmed in what they need to produce in their first piece of narrative writing.  While modeling, I refer to the prewritten example that I provided earlier.  I also display sentence starters and transitions to use as a guide.   

INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE WRITING PRACTICE:

First, students can practice the narrative format by using picture prompts for beginning, middle, and end.  They use the visuals to describe what happens from the beginning to the end of their story.

Next, it’s time for students to begin fictional narrative or personal narrative writing from scratch!  At first, I usually provide a writing prompt for the entire class that is easily relatable.  The prompts will vary depending on if we are working on writing personal narratives (“Tell about a time when…”) or fictional narratives (“Write a story about…”).  However, you could also give multiple options or have students develop their own individual topics.  

During the prewriting phase of the writing process, students brainstorm using graphic organizers. 

I like give students two graphic organizers – one for them to first brainstorm ideas for their drafts, and then one to organize their ideas into a narrative writing format.

While writing their drafts, students can refer to sentence starters to help guide them in writing their stories.  

After writing their drafts, I give students an editing checklist to use as a reference.  This makes it easier for them to make sure they have included each part of a piece of narrative writing.  

TARGET NARRATIVE WRITING SKILLS:

As students are ready, I target specific narrative writing skills either as a whole class, or with just a small group that is ready for taking their writing to the next level. 

To introduce a particular narrative writing skill (i.e. writing narrative hooks), I display a poster that is student-friendly with visuals and examples.  Then, I have graphic organizers or practice pages that students can use to work through each strategy on their own.  

Most students will need help with the following narrative skills:

Writing a Strong Narrative Hook:

Breaking narrative hooks down by hook types is so helpful for giving them some tools for creating their own leads.  Grab the posters below and a couple practice writing pages for free here .

Writing a Strong Narrative Ending:

Similar to writing hooks, breaking down narrative endings by type is also a helpful way for students to try out different closings for their piece of writing.

Small Moments Writing:

So often, personal narratives can just turn into a list of moments in order. By teaching and practicing small moments writing , students can see how much more powerful their writing becomes when they zoom in on the most important moment in their story.

Describing Characters:

When teaching narrative writing in 2 nd grade, students need to learn to describe characters by their actions, thoughts, and feelings.  By 3 rd grade, the Common Core asks that students also use dialogue to develop characterization in their writing.

Describing Character Feelings

You can display a poster of different ways to describe similar feelings to build stronger word choice in their writing.  Students can use this poster to go through and edit their word choice in their own piece of writing. 

Using Fiction Story Elements:

You can have students prewrite with story elements graphic organizers to ensure they hit each element in their own writing.

ONGOING NARRATIVE WRITING PRACTICE:

I love using fictional narrative and personal narrative journals to provide students with tons of ongoing practice!  I use them as informal free-writes just for continual practice, but some or all of the entries could be used for writing pieces that go through the writing process (prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, and publishing) as well.  

All of the materials shown in this blog post for teaching narrative writing in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade can be found in the Narrative Writing Unit in my TpT shop!

Next: Teaching Opinion Writing in the Primary Grades

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Teaching statements.

Print Version

• What is a teaching statement?
• What purposes does the teaching statement serve?
• What does a teaching statement include?

General Guidelines

• Reflection questions to help get you started
• Exercises to help get you started
• Evaluating your teaching statement
• Further resources

What is a Teaching Statement?

A Teaching Statement is a purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom. At its best, a Teaching Statement gives a clear and unique portrait of the author as a teacher, avoiding generic or empty philosophical statements about teaching.

What Purposes does the Teaching Statement Serve?

The Teaching Statement can be used for personal, professional, or pedagogical purposes. While Teaching Statements are becoming an increasingly important part of the hiring and tenure processes, they are also effective exercises in helping one clearly and coherently conceptualize his or her approaches to and experiences of teaching and learning. As Nancy Van Note Chism, Professor Emerita of Education at IUPUI observes, “The act of taking time to consider one’s goals, actions, and vision provides an opportunity for development that can be personally and professionally enriching. Reviewing and revising former statements of teaching philosophy can help teachers to reflect on their growth and renew their dedication to the goals and values that they hold.”

What does a Teaching Statement Include?

A Teaching Statement can address any or all of the following:

• Your conception of how learning occurs
• A description of how your teaching facilitates student learning
• A reflection of why you teach the way you do
• The goals you have for yourself and for your students
• How your teaching enacts your beliefs and goals
• What, for you , constitutes evidence of student learning
• The ways in which you create an inclusive learning environment
• Your interests in new techniques, activities, and types of learning

“If at all possible, your statement should enable the reader to imagine you in the classroom, teaching. You want to include sufficient information for picturing not only you in the process of teaching, but also your class in the process of learning.” – Helen G. Grundman, Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

• Make your Teaching Statement brief and well written . While Teaching Statements are probably longer at the tenure level (i.e. 3-5 pages or more), for hiring purposes they are typically 1-2 pages in length.
• Use narrative , first-person approach. This allows the Teaching Statement to be both personal and reflective.
• Be sincere and unique. Avoid clichés, especially ones about how much passion you have for teaching.
• Make it specific rather than abstract. Ground your ideas in 1-2 concrete examples , whether experienced or anticipated. This will help the reader to better visualize you in the classroom.
• Be discipline specific . Do not ignore your research. Explain how you advance your field through teaching.
• Avoid jargon and technical terms, as they can be off-putting to some readers. Try not to simply repeat what is in your CV. Teaching Statements are not exhaustive documents and should be used to complement other materials for the hiring or tenure processes.
• Be humble . Mention students in an enthusiastic, not condescending way, and illustrate your willingness to learn from your students and colleagues.
• Revise . Teaching is an evolving, reflective process, and Teaching Statements can be adapted and changed as necessary.

Reflection Questions To Help You Get You Started:*

• Why do you teach the way you do?
• What should students expect of you as a teacher?
• What is a method of teaching you rely on frequently? Why don’t you use a different method?
• What do you want students to learn? How do you know your goals for students are being met?
• What should your students be able to know or do as a result of taking your class?
• How can your teaching facilitate student learning?
• How do you as a teacher create an engaging or enriching learning environment?
• What specific activities or exercises do you use to engage your students? What do you want your students to learn from these activities?
• How has your thinking about teaching changed over time? Why?

* These questions and exercises are meant to be tools to help you begin reflecting on your beliefs and ideas as a teacher. No single Teaching Statement can contain the answers to all or most of these inquiries and activities.

Exercises to Help You Get You Started:*

• The Teaching Portfolio , including a section on teaching statements, Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence. This website includes five effective exercises to help you begin the writing process
• Teaching Goals Inventory , by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross and their book Classroom Assessment Techniques . This “quiz” helps you to identify or create your teaching and learning goals.

Evaluating Your Teaching Statement

Writing A Statement Of Teaching Philosophy For The Academic Job Search (opens as a PDF), The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.

This report includes a useful rubric for evaluating teaching philosophy statements. The design of the rubric was informed by experience with hundreds of teaching philosophies, as well as surveys of search committees on what they considered successful and unsuccessful components of job applicants’ teaching philosophies.

Further Resources:

General information on and guidelines for writing teaching statements.

• Writing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement , Faculty and TA Development at The Ohio State University. This site provides an in-depth guide to teaching statements, including the definition of and purposes for a teaching statement, general formatting suggestions, and a self-reflective guide to writing a teaching statement.
• Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement , Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Iowa State University. This document looks at four major components of a teaching statement, which have been divided into questions—specifically, to what end? By what means? To what degree? And why? Each question is sufficiently elaborated, offering a sort of scaffolding for preparing one’s own teaching statement.
• Writing a Meaningful Statement of Teaching Philosophy , McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University. This website offers strategies for preparing and formatting your teaching statement.

Articles about Teaching Statements

• Grundman, Helen (2006). Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement (opens as a PDF), Notices of the AMS , Vol. 53, No. 11, p. 1329.
• Montell, Gabriela (2003). How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy , from the Chronicle Manage Your Career section of the Chronicle of Higher Education .
• Montell, Gabriela (2003). What’s Your Philosophy on Teaching, and Does it Matter? , from the Chronicle Manage Your Career section of the Chronicle of Higher Education .

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How to Teach Children the Steps to Write a Short Narrative Essay

2D Art Ideas for Children

A successful narrative essay has strong ideas, a consistent voice and careful organization. Teaching children to write short narrative essays begins with careful modeling and planning. You can use your favorite storybooks to discuss the elements of narration: setting, characters, point of view and plot. Guide children to pre-write their essays and organize their ideas before beginning a draft. Help children revise their essays not only for correct grammar usage, but also for an introduction and a conclusion that make a strong impact on the reader.

Step One: Model Format

Children enjoy stories but are often unaware of the elements needed in crafting a narrative of their own. Use model picture books to help students pick out the setting, characters, problem or conflict and series of events. For example, a third grade lesson on the picture book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judy and Ron Barrett guides children to construct a day of raining food, using the elements of narrative writing. Once children are aware of the elements of a narrative, guide them through the writing process using the "Show Me Your Story" print guides. These step-by-step narrative essays are useful examples for children just beginning to grasp the fundamental elements of narration. Each example is scored for its ideas, voice, organization and grammar.

Step Two: Organize Ideas

Even after children understand the elements of narrative writing, they will need help organizing their ideas into an essay format. Plan sheets help to guide students on what to write in each section of their essays. Help children select a point of view, either first person or third person, to guide their narration. Make sure children have a clear problem and logical order of events before they start writing. By brainstorming ideas and organizing them before writing, children will be more likely to stay on topic and finish a narrative essay.

Step Three: Beginning a Narrative Essay

The beginning of a narrative should be active and hook the reader into reading the rest of the essay. Help children write engaging beginnings by practicing crafting the first sentence of a story to include the main character, the setting, and an action that starts the series of events to follow. Scholastic.com offers a series of practice exercises that help children revise beginnings to engage the reader. Practice writing exciting beginnings on other topics to help children become comfortable with writing a narrative style essay.

Step Four: Ending a Narrative Essay

The ending of a narrative essay should reveal how the main character has changed or grown over the course of events in the writing. Scholastic suggests focusing narrative endings on the main character’s memories, decisions, actions, and feelings at the end of the events. For example, a narrative essay on a most embarrassing memory may want to end with the feelings of the main character and the lasting affect of the events. A strong narrative ending clarifies the lesson or moral of the story and links the story to the essay prompt or assignment topic.

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• Kent Cygan: Narrative Essay Planning Worksheet
• Scholastic: Super Story Writing Strategies & Activities

Based in Winchester, Va., Karen Hartless has 10 years of teaching experience in the areas of English, creative writing and public speaking. She earned a Master of Education degree as a reading specialist from Shenandoah University, focusing on teaching, reading, and writing clear, concise text.