Be able to write a narrative story, including characters, setting, two plot points, and a closure.
W.1.3 Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, including some details regarding what happened, use some temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closer.
W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
My class is in a Title One school in the middle of the city. Some students are on free and reduced lunch, but not all. Usually about four to six kids bring their own lunch. We have twenty students in our class that are aged six to seven years old. Attendance is good, for the most part. Parent involvement and contact is very good overall with 85% of parents involved, and only one students’ parent that are close to unreachable.
20 Students
Most accommodations would be made for behavior and focus problems.
Modifications will be made for AM by having him type his writing on his computer. This student struggles with proper writing and would benefit from typing his paper. We will then print and paste into his book.
Introduction:
Students will sit on the rug in the front of the room in their assigned spots. This is where we will create the class story.
Pictures:
I will call students up one at a time to decide on their costume and character, then take their picture against the white board.
Instruction/Independent:
Students will work on their writing during small group in the morning with me. They will get 20 minutes each per group of five to work with me on their stories four two weeks.
Introduction of the lesson. (Monday)
I will start by reading a short story, The Easter Bunny in New Mexico to the class. After, I will ask students these questions
1. Who is the main character of this story?
2. What is the setting of this story?
3. What happened in this story?
4. How did this story end?
After students answer questions, we will create a story together. We will create the character, setting, plot points, and closure as a class. We will then read the narrative together. After reviewing all the parts of a narrative story, I will explain to students that they will be creating their own character that will have a story. They will get to dress up as their character, and I will print the pictures to put in their books. They will create a character, setting, at least two plot points and an ending. They will then get to move this information into their books. During the morning work I will call students up to dress up as their character and get their picture taken.
Instruction.
Students will come and sit at my table each day to work on their writing. Each day I will work with them on a different part of the story to create their writing. Students will be building on foundational skills that have been built over the last four weeks by Mrs. Ballard and myself in their studies of narrative writing.
Independent Practice
Once students writing has been approved, they will start to copy it into their books. Students will also have a chance to finish any part of the story that they did not get to finish during the week. As they finish this, they will work on the illustrations, cover and title page of their books.
Review of narrative story elements.
Read narrative story and identify parts of a narrative story.
Students will work with me to create a class narrative story.
Students write their stories in a small group with me.
Students will write their own story.
Finished book with their own story in it.
Students get to write and illustrate their own book.
Checking for knowledge of vocabulary when reviewing terms and elements of a narrative.
Checking spelling, grammar, format and writing ability during teacher checks.
When they finish writing, review for all of the elements of narrative writing including:
Overall, I feel that my lesson went very well. I chose to go with a published story titled, The Easter Bunny in New Mexico for the students to listen to and identify the parts of the story. This worked very well, and the students very much enjoyed this book. We then all worked together to write a narrative story as a class. I let the students create a character completely from scratch, then created an animated version of the character based on the student’s description. If I was to do this lesson again, I would use the software to create a character together with them, rather than later that night. The students then got to dress up as their character and pose anyway that they want. I took their pictures and printed them at Walgreens for the students to put in their books. Over the next couple days, the students came to my table to work with me on their stories during journal time. This worked very well, but I did not budget for enough time. We decided to extend the lesson out another week.
I am excited to see the final copies of the students books, and we added into the lesson that the students will read the stories to their classmates.