TOC, Fall 2010 Newsletter: Narratives
Rich Prewriting Environment Improves Narrative Essays
The best writing is revised writing. We all know that.
However, in schools, it’s often hard to get students to revise. In that case, provide a rich prewriting experience with multiple prewriting activities. The resulting drafts will be much better.
Here are the top three prewriting activities for writing narratives, either real or imagined. Use all three at the same time! That’s the key, to provide a rich prewriting environment.
Oral Storytelling
Allowing students to tell a story to a peer about a personal experience is a powerful prewriting tool.
- Use a timer. Set a timer for 1-2 minutes (depending on grade level) and let students tell a story for a set amount of time. This structure maintains classroom discipline, but allows students to rehearse a story orally.
- Restrict topics. You can focus narrative essays right from the start by your instructions on what kind of story to tell. Stories should be about something that took place in a short amount of time, maybe 30 minutes. Instead of telling about the 3-day trip to 6 Flags, tell about the 30-minutes you stood in line waiting for the roller coaster, then the ride itself and finally how you felt after riding.
- Tell it again. Ask students to tell the story again – a different way. Revising orally is so much easier and more fun than revising on paper. Ask for at least three different variations. Start at a different place, end at a different place, include new details, consider how you’d tell it differently to different audiences.
Word Bank
A word bank is a list of possible words or phrases to use in writing; they don’t have to use all of these words and they can use any new words they think of as they write. It’s just a prewriting activity that encourage students to consider word choices before they write. Create a word bank of strong verbs which might be used in the essay somewhere. Use other types of word banks as required by your class and curriculum.
Sensory Details
One kind of word bank that is especially useful in writing narratives is a sensory details word bank. As a prewriting task, ask students to write at least three specific details for each sense (see, hear, smell, taste, touch). Urge them to be as specific as possible: not fish, but catfish; not catfish, but catfish with a bent tail. For older students, repeat this at three points in the story. Remember that this is a type of word bank and you’re not looking for complete sentences here. It’s just a prewriting activity that encourage students to consider word choices before they write.