Narrative Writing

Narrative Writing - An Extension 

This week we will be extending our thoughts on Narrative Writing. In class, during our discussions, we were exposed to several misconceptions that teachers have about Narrative Writing, and as a result, our students become lost along the way with their writings. A teacher being equipped with all the right strategies to help students is one thing. However, in our opinion, the teacher should be more versed with the content for effective teaching and overall better student writing.

Misconceptions about the Elements of the Story

1. The plot is the sequence of the events, not only the climax of the story. For younger students, (age K TO 3), teachers can stick to identifying the plot as the beginning, middle and end. Although for older students (Grade 4 +), this is where students can begin to learn about the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution/end. Below is a picture to clearly illustrate what we mean:

Figure 1. Plot Mountain

2.    The conflict or the problem in the story is the tension between the forces in the story. This tension can be internal, meaning the main character versus himself with a problem. The conflict can also be man versus man, man versus group and man versus the environment. It is important to know that there should be roadblocks within the story that prevents the main character(s) from arriving at the resolution. 

NB: After a resolution is met, the story should end shortly after in an effort to not draw out the story and make your readers bored.

3.       As teachers, we often think the setting is only place and time. We often are guilty of simply asking students, “At what time and where is your story taking place?” The setting of a story is so much more than that. It includes the location (where – home, church, school), weather (sunny, windy, rainy), time (morning, afternoon, evening, night) and time period (the amount of time taken to do something).

4.      We always knew that the characters we the people in the story. However, characters can also be animals or objects in the story. At first, animals, as the characters did not shock us as series such as Peppa Pig and Max and Ruby, came to mind. However, how dare we forget objects as characters when our childhood was filled with shows such as Thomas and Friends and the infamous movie Cars.

 Example of Animals as characters:

 Figure 2. Peppa Pig

Figure 3. Max and Ruby

Examples of Objects as characters:

Figure 4. Cars

Figure 5. Thomas and Friends

Below is a YouTube video link that creatively explains the elements of Narrative Writing:

YouTube Link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU9IhMk6doM


References

Warrican, S. J. (2012). The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy. Pheonix: Pearson Education.

 Spandel, Vicki (2012) Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom: 6 Traits, Process,
        Workshop & Literature (6th edition). New York: Pearson

Until next Sunday... Goodbye!

Narrative Writing

Narrative Writing as a Genre 

What is Narrative Writing?

Writing can be done in different genres. On one of our previous posts, we focused on descriptive writing. This week's focus is on narrative writing as a genre. Narrative writing involves telling a story which can be both fictional or nonfictional.  In short, a narrative is a form of writing that tells a story. Telling stories is an ancient art that started long before humans invented writing. People tell stories when they gossip, tell jokes, or reminisce about the past. Written forms of narration include most forms of writing: personal essays, fairy tales, short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, autobiographies, histories, even news stories have a narrative. Narratives may be a sequence of events in chronological order or an imagined tale with flashbacks or multiple timelines.

Elements of Narrative Writing 

                                                       (Google Image)

Parts of Narrative Writing

The parts or elements of narrative writing include:

1. The setting is the location of the events in time and place.

2. The characters are the people in the story who drive the plot, are impacted by the plot, or may even be bystanders to the plot.

3. The plot is the thread of events that occur in a story.

4. The conflict is the problem that is being resolved. Plots need a moment of tension, which involves some difficulty that requires resolution.

5. Most important and least explicit is the theme. What is the moral of the story? What does the writer intend the reader to understand? 

                                                    (Google Image)

Strategies for teaching Narrative Writing

1.      Let students understand stories are everywhere – events always happen to our students. Whether at home, at school on the playground or at break time and at lunchtime and even at church. Teachers can orally use the prompt “This one time…” to generate ideas of stories from students.

2.      Model reading stories to students – When teachers model students not only understand what is expected of them as writers but, they get an idea as to how to bring their ideas across.

3.      Use graphic organizers, specifically story maps – using the graphic organizers, students are able to visualize their thoughts, sequence the story and remember all the story elements.

4.      Implement the Writing Process – allow students to pace their writing and write in stages.

5.      Writing Workshops – Have mini-lessons 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 the mini-lesson may include:

a.       How to insert dialogues in the story

b.      Punctuation

c.       Using sensory details and figurative language

d.      Choosing nouns, verbs, sentence lengths and structures and transitional words

e.       Starting and ending prompts and a story title

Below is a link that contains several story starters to assist your students. Be sure to modify based on the grade level and ability of students:

https://www.journalbuddies.com/creative-writing-2/fun-story-starters-for-kids/

References

Warrican, S. J. (2012). The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy. Pheonix: Pearson Education.

 Spandel, Vicki (2012) Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom: 6 Traits, Process,
        Workshop & Literature (6th edition). New York: Pearson

Until next Sunday.... Goodbye!

Remedial Strategy

Remedial Strategy (Writing Process)

This week's sessions were a bit different from the usual sessions. In fact, our colleagues from the Secondary Program majoring in English presented. The presentation was based on a Remedial Strategy that can be used to help students with their writing. To our surprise, the strategy was none other than 'The Writing Process'.

''Our students have trouble making their B.E.D.S,'' stated one colleague at the start of  the presentation.

Amused, we learnt that the acronym B.E.D.S stands for:

Brainstorming

Expressing

Developing

Sequencing 

Therefore, it was acknowledged that students had problems brainstorming, expressing, developing and sequencing their thoughts and ideas. The Writing Process was the strategy to employ to rectify this problem.

What is the Writing Process?

Chances are, you have experienced a moment of writer's block. You may have been sitting in class, writing your notes, and given the writing assignment. You freeze. Your mind goes blank, and you have that thought: 'I have no idea what to write about!' You stare at the blank screen or paper and watch the time go by. You write a word, erase, and start again. It seems like you will never be able to start.

All writers, even the most professional and published, have experienced this moment of panic. Writing can be a bit intimidating, until you know how to approach the topic and start your work. The writing process helps us focus, plan, and write our papers (The Writing Process: Definition & Steps Video, 2015).

Parts of The Writing Process

The Writing Process is divided into five(5) parts or stages. They are:

Pre-writing - This is the preparation for writing. Students plan what they are going to write and brainstorm ideas. A graphic organizer can be used to assist students with mapping out their thoughts and ideas(Warrican, 2012) .

Drafting - Students use outlines to come up with coherent pieces. Our students will arrange their points in a readable way(Warrican, 2012) .

Revising - The stage of refinement. Here, students focus on the message of the piece written (Warrican, 2012).

Editing - In this stage, teachers help students fine-tune the mechanical features of their writing and ensure it is free of errors of spelling, grammar and punctuation. Teachers can use mini-lessons to highlight and pinpoint general errors made by students, in order to create independent readers and writers (Warrican, 2012).

Publishing - Students produce a finished copy of their work and given the opportunity to share their work, for example, with classmates (Warrican, 2012).

Figure 1. The Writing Process

What stood out to us in the presentation was the incorporation of a checklist at the end of stage of the Writing Process.



We then thought of creating a checklist for the Revising Stage. In this stage, students are in the middle of writing their pieces. Therefore, in our opinion the piece is neither closer to beginning nor close to ending; so, if any mistakes occur, this will be the best opportunity for students to start over from stage one in the writing process just to ensure their message gets across to the audience (Warrican, 2012). 

Below is an example of our own Revising Checklist:

Figure 2. Revising Checklist created by The Writing Room

Please note that this is one variation of the checklist, but, you can change it to suit your grade level and students' ability. We really hope it helps.

Until next Sunday... Goodbye !

The Genres of Writing

The Genres of Writing

Descriptive Writing

            Any teacher knows that the teaching of writing can be difficult. As teachers, we are faced with students who are engulfed in technological advances and devices. As such, reading has taken a back seat and writing has suffered. This week we were introduced to the different genres of writing, most specifically, Descriptive Writing. In a nutshell, descriptive writing involves using words to create unforgettable, mental images in readers’ minds; and, stimulates readers’ feelings and emotions. In order to create a well written descriptive piece, writers should be observant and use words that best relate to the five senses (sight, smell, taste, feel, sound).

Techniques in Descriptive Writing

In order to produce exceptional written piece students can become more vibrant and colourful

if students:

1. Add specific information
2. Choose words carefully
3. Create sensory images
4. Use figurative language
5. Write dialogue

 Before students begin to write, teachers should:

• model and allow students to create a list of descriptive words to students,
• have students be presented with objects and write about them,
• present students with colourful pictures and/or take them for a walk to observe their surroundings and ensure students are aware of their five sense

Although we touched on all the techniques, our blog wants to focus on technique three -creating sensory images.

Creating Sensory Images

It is important that our students understand and are cognizant of their senses. In our opinion, the heart and soul of descriptive writing do not just come from the specific information; but, the senses used in order to initially describe objects, people, images and/or scenery. Students should not only be able to identify the organs for theses senses but know how to associated words to describe their feelings with their senses. 

First, let us identify our sensory organs:

sight-eyes          smell-nose          taste-tongue          feeling-skin           hearing-ears

There are two ways to generate words from our students' Sensory Charts and Descriptive Clusters.

Sensory Chart

A sensory chart shows the words that are related to the object, place, person or thing being described and lists words that best describes it. To assist students, replace the senses with questions that relate to the senses, for example, sight-How does it look?

Popcorn

How does it look?	How does it sound?	How does it taste?	How does it feel?	How does it smell?
Bumpy White and yellow Brown	Crunchy	Salty Buttery	Warm Greasy	Delicious Tasty Burnt

Confused as to why a student may have used 'brown' to describe popcorn? Perhaps they are referring to caramel popcorn. Additionally, it is easy to now understand why the student may have used 'burnt' to describe popcorn. 

*Always remember to verify with students to understand why specific words were used to describe items.

Descriptive Clusters

A descriptive cluster hosts the object in the centre and has five arms extended to describe the object.

An example is as follows:

Helpful Links

• http://multifangled.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Descriptive-writing-techniques.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ezu8kTyk-s

References

Warrican, S. J. (2012). The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy. Pheonix: Pearson Education.

 Spandel, Vicki (2012) Creating Writers in the Primary Classroom: 6 Traits, Process,
        Workshop & Literature (6th edition). New York: Pearson

Thanks for reading! Until next Sunday, see you soon!