By: Mobeen Uddin Fictional Narrative Writing in the Junior Grades Purpose and Qualities of Narrative Writing

July 23rd, 2012

Throughout history, storytelling has been a significant part of our culture, since people first learned how to communicate. Thus, it is no surprise that narrative writing is a common practice in elementary classrooms. Essentially, the purpose of narrative writing is to tell a story, and relate a series of events for an intended audience. This writing has three main parts, which are the beginning, middle, and end. The beginning typically contains the character introductions as well as the setting description (Corden, 2007). Meanwhile, the middle usually presents a problem that the characters face (Corden, 2007). Finally, the conclusion has the solution to the problem, or may end the story with suspense (Corden, 2007). Fictional writing could take the form of a short story or a novel. Described below are my experiences with teaching a narrative writing unit to a Grade 5 class, including the strategies and approaches that I used. Following this reflection, I will analyse the contents of two articles. The first article is based on a study that examined narrative writing from a researchers perspective, and is entitled Developing Reading-Writing Connections: The Impact of Explicit Instruction of Literary Devices on the Quality of Childrens Narrative Writing. The second article is written from a teachers perspective and highlights some drama activities that could be used to spark childrens creativity, and hence prepare them for narrative writing. My Experiences with Teaching Narrative Writing While many hold the presumption that this form of writing is easy to teach, I discovered that it could be one of the most challenging forms of writing for students to perfect. In my first few years as a grade 5 teacher, I would ask my students to simply write a story, based on a prompt, which would contain a beginning, middle, and end. Unfortunately, this approach resulted in frustrated students and uncreative stories. Indeed, this learning experience prompted me to research effective strategies on delivering a successful unit on narrative writing. I began the unit with ice-breaker activities that enabled students to work in groups of four. I presented the groups with a story-starter and gave them two minutes to individually continue the story. After every two minutes, the students passed the stories along. After all the stories were passed amongst the group members, some of the students voluntarily shared their stories in front of the class. Following the introductory activities, I utilized two approaches to prompt the narrative tasks. The first approach was called Visualization, in which I asked students to close their eyes and orally presented them with a prompt situation. The second approach was called Picture Writing, and this involved projecting to the students a picture on the Smart Board (e.g. an amusement park) for them to ponder and prompt the writing. Importantly, two writing tasks were completed under each approach. After the first writing task, the students received oral and written feedback from their peers. During these peer feedback sessions, the students worked in pairs and discussed the elements that they liked in their peers narratives, as well as those which could be improved. Meanwhile, for the second writing task, the students received feedback from me. I provided written feedback on the students work regarding what I liked about the stories as well as what could be improved. Further to this, I individually conferenced with students who achieved below the Provincial expectations. Overall, the students expressed that they enjoyed the writing unit, and demonstrated good improvement in their narrative writing. Research Article

By: Mobeen Uddin

July 23rd, 2012

Cordens (2007) study sought to investigate the impact of explicit teacher instruction on students narrative writing as well as the potential benefits of teacher and peer feedback. His study involved 18 teachers across 9 elementary schools and featured students of junior grades (i.e. students who were 9-11 years old). The study began with teachers reading a pre-selected text aloud to the whole class, focusing on the texts specific structural and stylistic features (Corden, 2007). The teachers then worked collaboratively with students to discuss and analyse the aspects of the texts plot such as its opening, setting, complications, climax, and resolution. In addition, the students focused on the word choice, sentence variety, as well as the use of similes, metaphors, and personifications in the text. The students then engaged in a variety of fictional narrative writing tasks, using the writing strategies that they had developed throughout the aforementioned workshops. Throughout the writing tasks, they received feedback from their teachers and peers. From the findings of the study, Corden (2007) concluded that teachers should provide explicit and direct instruction using mentor texts to develop students writing. In addition, he argued that students must be provided with opportunities for feedback from their teachers and peers. Classroom-based Article Harry Tawse (2009), a teacher with over 30 years of international teaching experience, discusses his thoughts on teaching narrative writing on his website. He asserts that teachers must first develop students creative thinking skills, before they could become effective storytellers. Tawse (2009) states that teachers should begin with simple activities to serve as ice-breakers. These games include, Word Association, in which one person starts by saying a word, and each person then says a word related to the previous word without hesitating. Other activities include Last Letter Association and Firing Squad. Following the word games, Tawse (2009) states that he has his students play a game called Group Story, in which students sit in a circle and each take turns to share a word to contribute to a developing story. Other activities mentioned are Hot Seat, Nonsense Lecture, and The Discovery. Tawse (2009) argues that these activities would help in the cultivation of students creativity, which is vital for narrative writing. Finally, he provides numerous story starters that teachers could use with their students to prompt their writing. References Corden, R. (2007). Developing reading-writing connections: The impact of explicit instruction of literary devices on the quality of childrens narrative writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 21, 269-289. Tawse, H. (2009). How to teach creative writing through storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.drama-teaching.com/blog/. Tony Stedds books Mentor Texts