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Icon for 2019 Bright Sparks and Live Wires: Narrative Writing

2019 Bright Sparks and Live Wires: Narrative Writing

Writing Camp

Learning Module

Abstract

Students in years 3-6 learn about narrative writing - hooking the reader, narrative structure, narrative techniques and language features. They complete two writing projects that are submitted for peer review, revision and publication.

Keywords

Narrative, Structure, Narrative Techniques, Language Features.

Australian Curriculum

Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards Productive Modes (speaking, writing and creating)

YEAR 3

Students understand how language features are used to link and sequence ideas. They understand how language can be used to express feelings and opinions on topics. Their texts include writing and images to express and develop, in some detail, experiences, events, information, ideas and characters.

Students create a range of texts for familiar and unfamiliar audiences. They contribute actively to class and group discussions, asking questions, providing useful feedback and making presentations. They demonstrate understanding of grammar and choose vocabulary and punctuation appropriate to the purpose and context of their writing. They use knowledge of letter-sound relationships including consonant and vowel clusters and high-frequency words to spell words accurately. They re-read and edit their writing, checking their work for appropriate vocabulary, structure and meaning. 

YEAR 4

Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts. They create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to extend key ideas.

Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, varying language according to context. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary from a range of resources and use accurate spelling and punctuation, re-reading and editing their work to improve meaning.

YEAR 5

Students use language features to show how ideas can be extended. 

Students create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts for different purposes and audiences. They make presentations which include multimodal elements for defined purposes. They contribute actively to class and group discussions, taking into account other perspectives. When writing, they demonstrate understanding of grammar using a variety of sentence types. They select specific vocabulary and use accurate spelling and punctuation. They edit their work for cohesive structure and meaning.

YEAR 6

Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used.

Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate an understanding of grammar, and make considered vocabulary choices to enhance cohesion and structure in their writing. They use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity and make and explain editorial choices based on criteria.

English Textual Concepts STAGE 2 : Years 3-4

NARRATIVE 

Students understand that narratives may be interpreted in various ways. They learn that

  • characters and events may be drawn differently for different purposes audiences, modes and media
  • stories may be interpreted through action, character and setting
  • stories present a view of the world.

CODE and CONVENTION

Students appreciate that codes of communication are rules which provide access to information and ideas as well as opportunities for expression. Students learn that:

  • there are choices of language and structure for expressing information and ideas
  • codes and conventions vary according to mode, medium and type of text.
  • all texts go through stages of refinement of language and structure for accuracy and effectiveness.

STAGE 3 : Years 5-6

NARRATIVE

Students understand that there are conventions of the narrative form that combine to involve responders in the story. Students learn that narrative engages responders through:

  • Recognisable characters, events and places
  • Skilful plot development
  • Perceptible mood and atmosphere
  • Narrative voice and voices of characters.
  • They learn that these conventions are adapted to different modes and media.

CODE and CONVENTION

Students understand that codes and conventions of each mode provide the foundation for innovation. They learn that:

  • knowledge of codes and conventions helps finding meaning in and through texts
  • codes and conventions vary for different audiences and purposes
  • choices of language and design have subtle differences and effects
  • opportunities for innovation occur at all levels e.g. word, sentence, paragraph and whole text levels.

1. Five Word Narratives

For the Student

Learning Intention: To explore ideas for my own narrative.

Success Criteria:

  • Listen to a reading of a narrative.
  • Think-Pair-Share discussion with a partner.
  • Create a five word narrative.
  • Comment on other students' comments.

1. After listening to a reading of The Day I Will Never Forget, with a partner discuss what you think makes it a great narrative. Let's record our ideas on a Venn Diagram.

2. Let's record how narratives and persuasive texts are the same and different. We will add to this as we learn more about narratives.

3. The Day I will Never Forget was based on a five word narrative: Bonfire. Out of Control. Firemen. This narrative has a setting, characters and action.

Here are some other five word narratives that tell a story about a day you would never forget. 

  • Rode bicycle to school. Hospital.
  • Tree climbing. Broken arm. Sling.
  • Race. Nerves. Crossing finish line.
  • Toothache. Dentist chair. Tooth fairy.
  • New school. No friends. Camp.
  • School over. Holidays and fun.
  • Hello little brother. Goodbye peace.
  • New pet. No more arachnophobia.
  • Mining. Creeper. Rescued by friends.
  • Training. Sprained ankle. Race winner.
  • Storm. Blackout. Frightened. Candles. Electricity.

With a partner, discuss at least two of the five word narratives. Can you guess some of the information that is missing? What is the setting? Who are the characters? What will the action be? 

Comment: Now write your own five word narrative about a day you will never forget. It must be exactly five words. You can use some of the words in the examples above. Post it to Community. Then comment on other students' narratives by asking them questions about the event or experience. Also respond to students who ask you questions.

Fig. 1: New pet. No more arachnophobia.

After you have recorded ideas in the comment box, click on your "Work Request" in your Notifications in CGScholar. This will take you to Creator where you can start your writing project.

For the Teacher

Purpose: This learning module incorporates blended learning where students interact face-to-face as well as in the online forum. It also involves a writing project where students give and receive feedback using a structured rubric.

This initial update aims to engage students through listening to and responding to a great narrative. It enables students to think critically about what they have learnt about narrative and persuasive texts, and how they are the same and different. This supports them to transfer learning from one set of learning activities to another set of learning activities.It also helps students to generate their own ideas for a narrative.

The narrative mentor text is central to learning about narratives.

The Bonfire Mentor Text by Rita van Haren

Timetable

Day Updates CGScholar
Day 1:  Tuesday
  1. Five Word Narratives

Start project - students will receive a "Work Request" in their Notifications.

Students may start plan with their 5 words and other ideas in Version 1.

Days 2 and 3: Wednesday and Thursday 2. Narrative Structure, Techniques and Language Students continue writing. Save as Version 2.
Days 4 & 5: Friday and day TBA

Peer Review and Revision Phases

Publication Phase: Teacher publishes works to community and students' personal profiles.

Students submit draft before lesson.

Students receive a"Feedback Request" and complete one peer review.

Students revise and submit revision.

Students read other students' works and comment.

Teaching Tips:

  • Engage students through a prediction based on the five word story: Bonfire. Out of Control. Firemen.
  • After reading the narrative, students discuss their reactions - prompt students to discuss their emotional reaction to the story (identification, empathy, antipathy).
  • Then they should focus on what makes this narrative a good/great one. Key ideas can then be shared with the whole class by recording ideas on a Venn Diagram. This will enable students to connect what they are learning about narratives to what they already know about persuasive texts. 
  • Print out the Venn Diagram (below) and enlarge to A3. Ideas can be recorded on the A3 sheet as a whole class.
  • In completing the Venn Diagram, prompt students to focus on how the author hooks the reader, variety in sentences and interesting language (wow words - Cameron, S. & Dempsey, L. (2013). The Writing Book: A Practical Guide for Teachers. Auckland: S&Lpublishing, p. 70).

The Writing Project

  • Start the writing project before the lesson. Students can then log into CGScholar and click on the "Work Request" in their Notifications. This will take them to Creator to start their work.

  • They should add their five word story and add dot points with more ideas. This becomes their plan. Students should save this plan as a new version. Then they can expand on their dot points in the next version.

  • When students start their projects, get them to look around the Toolbar, especially "About this Work" and also the rubric in "Feedback".

Venn Diagram: Narrative and Persuasive Texts

 

2. Narrative Structure, Techniques and Language Features

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand what makes a great narrative.

Success Criteria:

  • Identify the structure of a narrative.
  • Identify language features such as connectives, triples and similes.
  • Identify narrative techniques such as dialogue and description.
  • Comment and comment on other students' comments.
Fig. 2: Narrative Structure
Orientation Introduces who, where and when and hooks the reader.
Complication A problem - there can be more than one complication.
Resolution The problem is solved.
Coda The moral, lesson or message of the story.

Look at the story of The Day I Will Never Forget again. In the margins of the handout, write down what part of the narrative it is. You can work with a partner.

Now look at the first sentence in the orientation again.  Note it covers whowhen and what

My sister, my brother and I loved fireworks until the day when everything got out of control

Think-Pair-Share:

  • Does this first sentence hook the reader? Why/Why not?
  • Circle all of the connectives. Hint: They are underlined for you.
  • Highlight 10 "Wow" words and share them with your partner. Count how many you had that were the same.
  • Underline what you think is the best written sentence in the story. Explain to your partner why you think it is good. Then talk to another pair and share your ideas in a Think-Pair-Square.
  • There are two similes in the story. Similes create exciting pictures in your mind. Can you imagine what the sound would be like in the following sentences which have a simile. Similes start with "like" or "as".

The children shrieked like meowing cats.

The sound was as loud as a squawking bird.

  • There are three triples in the story. Highlight them too. Triples and similes can make your writing more exciting.

Comment: QUICK WRITE: Look at your Five Word story. How will you start it? Write it here.  Make sure you include 1-2 interesting "wow" words. Read other students' orientations and comment on one that you like, explaining why.

For the Teacher

Purpose: Here students identify the structure of the narrative of the text they read in the initial activity and use it as a model for their own narratives. Students also start writing  orientations based on their Five Word stories in update 1. They can use these when they start their writing projects. By sharing these in the Community discussion forum, they are seeing other student models of orientations which they can use to improve their own. 

Students also identify some language features such as connectives, wow words, similes and triples. As students work on their narratives, they learn more about narrative techniques, including description, dialogue and writing varied sentences.

Teaching Tips:

  • Students can work in pairs to annotate the handout. Print the handout before the lesson.​
  • Add ideas about what makes a great narrative to the Venn Diagram.

Language Features

Students annotate the text to identify features such as connectives, "wow" words, the best written sentence, similes, and triples.

Varying Sentence Openings

  • Students note the different sentence beginnings in the narrative - connectives, "ed" (Excited) and "ing" (Grabbing) words. These help students to write more complex sentences. Note the comma use.
  • Also see mini-lesson 11: Using an "ing" or "ed" verb to build a complex sentence (p.80 in The Writing Book by Cameron and Dempsey).

Narrative Technique: ​Dialogue

  • Focus on the narrative technique of using dialogue as a tool to show character and to advance the sequence of events.
  • As a whole class, discuss how the dialogue shows the mum as a person who can act in a difficult situation. The author does this through showing not telling us. So dialogue can be used for description.
  • Then ask students to look at the dialogue in the handout and work out the punctuation rules - capital letters, speech marks, full stops, commas, and new lines/paragraphs.

Extension: Other narrative techniques such as pacing and description can be referred too when exploring language features. For example, the fast pacing of the action verbs and short sentences in "The flames hissed. The branches crackled. We panicked." The description in the second paragraph slows down the action. Further, all the words connected to fires build lexical cohesion.

3. Second Narrative Writing Project

For the Student

Learning Intention: To explore ideas for my own narrative.

Success Criteria:

  • Listen to a reading of a narrative.
  • Think-Pair-Share discussion with a partner.
  • Write a comment in the comment box.
  • Create un update about your five word narrative.
  • Comment on other students' updates.

1. After listening to a reading of The Perfect Mistake, with a partner discuss what you think makes it a great narrative. Then add your comment to the comment box.

2. The Perfect Mistake was based on a five word narrative:

Bright Sparks: Dog. Park. Tight Collar. Swap.

Live Wires: Coast. Shortcut. Nature. Longcut. Reward.

These five words in each story tell us about the setting, characters and action.

Here are some other five word narratives with different topics.

The Perfect Mistake

  • Dropped. Unfixable. New one. Free.
  • Climbing. Fall. Sling. No school.
  • Overslept. Rushed. Daylight saving. Early.
  • Birthday. Forgotten. Sad. Surprise. Presents.
  • Broken ornament. Guilt. Mum pleased. 
  • Tripped. Goal. Tried harder. Equaliser.
  • Missed bus. Next bus. Friendship.
  • Cooking. Sugar not salt. Creation.
  • Mining. Creeper. Rescue. New Friends.

With a partner, discuss some of the five word narratives that interest you. Can you guess some of the information that is missing? What is the setting? Who are the characters? What will the action be? 

Note that they follow a pattern of a problem, something bad, then good, and then a perfect resolution. 

Then decide on your topic. It can be one on the list or you can come up with your own. It can be The Perfect Mistake or an entirely different topic. 

Comment:  What makes The Perfect Mistake a great narrative? Keep adding ideas until you run out. Read other students' comments and comment.

Create an Update

After you have decided on your topic and your 5 words, create your own update. Make the title of your update, your five words. In the update, list ideas you will write about under each of the 5 words. Add an image to your update that you might include in your narrative.

Then read other students' updates and comment on 1-2. Suggest other ideas if you can to help them write an even better narrative.

Start with: I like your ideas. You could also write about ............

Fig. 3: Sometime mistakes turn out for the best!

 

For the Teacher

Purpose: This update focuses on a second narrative writing project where students give and receive feedback using a structured rubric. It aims to engage students through listening to and responding to a great narrative. It also helps students to generate their own ideas for a narrative.

The narrative mentor text is central to learning about narratives.

The Perfect Mistake - Bright Sparks
The Perfect Mistake - Live Wires

Timetable

Day Updates CGScholar
Day 1 Second Narrative Writing Project

Comment

Create Update - planning

Days  2 and 3 The Mentor Text is your Best Friend

Start project - students will receive a "Work Request" in their Notifications.

Students may start plan with their 5 words and other ideas in Version 1.

Students continue writing. Save as Version 2.
Day 4 n/a Peer Review and Revision Phases
Day 5 You're Published

Comment

Revise work for publication

Teaching Tips:

Engage students through a prediction based on the five word story: 

After reading the narrative, students discuss their reactions - prompt students to discuss their emotional reaction to the story (identification, empathy, antipathy).

Then they should focus on what makes this narrative a good/great one. Key ideas are shared through the discussion forum in Community.

Prompt students to focus on how the author hooks the reader, dialogue, description, connectives and variety in sentences (note that the connectives can help them to write more varied sentences), interesting language such as triples, similes, exciting verbs and wow words. Typically, they tend to focus on narrative structure.

The Writing Project

Start the writing project before the  second lesson. Students can then log into CGScholar and click on the "Work Request" in their Notifications. This will take them to Creator to start their work.

They should add their five word story and add dot points with more ideas. This becomes their plan. Students should save this plan as a new version. Then they can expand on their dot points in the next version.

When students start their projects, get them to look around the Toolbar, especially "About this Work" and also the rubric in "Feedback".

4. The Mentor Text is your Best Friend

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand what makes a great narrative.

Success Criteria:

  • Identify the structure of a narrative.
  • Identify language features such as connectives, triples and similes.
  • Identify narrative techniques such as dialogue and description.
  • Comment and comment on other students' comments.
Orientation Introduces who, where and when and hooks the reader.
Complication A problem - there can be more than one complication.
Resolution  The problem is solved.
Coda The moral, lesson or message of the story.

Look at the The Perfect Mistake again. In the margins of the handout, write down what part of the narrative it is. You can work with a partner.

Now look at the first sentence in each orientation again. Note it introduces who, what and where.

Think-Pair-Share:

1. Does this first sentence hook the reader? Why/Why not?

2. Circle all of the connectives. Hint: They are italicised for you (6 and 11). Connectives help you to vary your sentences.

3. Highlight  8-10 "Wow" words and share them with your partner. Count how many you had that were the same.

4. Underline what you think is the best written sentence in the story. Explain to your partner why you think it is good. Then talk to another pair and share your ideas in a Think-Pair-Square.

5. There are two similes in each story. Similes create exciting pictures in your mind. Can you imagine what the sound would be like in the following sentences which have a simile. Similes start with "like" or "as".

  • The children shrieked like meowing cats.
  • The sound was as loud as a squawking bird.

6. There are two triples in each story. Highlight them too. Triples and similes can make your writing more exciting.

7. Call out the verbs you can identify as we sort them into past and present tense.

Comment: What are three things that you will include to make sure this is your best narrative ever. Read other students' comments and  give feedback on 1-2.

Media embedded August 4, 2019

 

For the Teacher

Purpose: Here students identify the structure of the narrative of the text they read in the initial activity and use it as a model for their own narratives. Students also identify some language features such as connectives, wow words, similes and triples. As students work on their narratives, they learn more about narrative techniques, including description, dialogue and writing varied sentences.

Teaching Tips:

Students can work in pairs to annotate the handout. Print the handout before the lesson.​

Language Features

Students annotate the text to identify features such as connectives, "wow" words, the best written sentence, similes, and triples.

Varying Sentence Openings

Students note the different sentence beginnings in the narrative - connectives, "ed" (Excited) and "ing" (Grabbing) words. These help students to write more complex sentences. Note the comma use.
Also see mini-lesson 11: Using an "ing" or "ed" verb to build a complex sentence (p.80 in The Writing Book by Cameron and Dempsey).

Narrative Technique: ​Dialogue

Focus on the narrative technique of using dialogue as a tool to show character and to advance the sequence of events.

Live Wires: As a whole class, discuss how the dialogue shows the mum as being decisive, the older  brother whines and the dad likes to be a hero by buying everyone an icecream. The author does this through showing not telling us. So dialogue can be used for description.

Then ask students to look at the dialogue in the handout and work out the punctuation rules - capital letters, speech marks, full stops, commas, and new lines/paragraphs.

Extension: Other narrative techniques such as pacing and description can be referred too when exploring language features. For example, short sentences and action verbs increase pacing while long description slows down the pace. Further, all the words connected to nature build lexical cohesion.

5. You're Published!

For the Student

Learning Intention: To reflect on what you have learnt about narrative writing.

Success Criteria:

  • Comment on what you have learnt.
  • Read 2-3 published narratives.

Comment: What have you learnt about writing narratives? Keep adding comments until you run out of ideas. Then read two - three other people’s published narratives. Comment on 1-2 that you like, explaining why.

Fig. 4: Reading other people's published narratives is fun!

 

For the Teacher

Purpose: This reflection activity promotes student metacognition about what makes quality writing by reading and reflecting on other students’ writing.

Teaching Tips:

  • Add more ideas to the Venn Diagram.
  • Refer to the Analytics to see how students have performed.

Acknowledgements

Title: (Source); Fig. 1: Spider (Source);  Fig. 3: (Source); Fig.5: (Source).