You know I love talking about writing. One of the newest SOLs in Virginia for kindergarten is requiring students to complete narrative writing. It really isn’t that hard. It’s just about routine. I’m going to talk about teaching early learners to write personal narratives.
Write what you know.
The first rule of writing is helping students understand they can write about what they know.
At the earliest, students can write a story about going to school.
Some will write with pictures, some with write with a few letters, and some will write using word wall words.
Making the connection between using word wall words to tell what they know will empower students to write about what they know.
Providing students with a circle map or bubble map about school. They can add pictures or text to the bubble map as a Monday brainstorming task. Each day after, the class can write one sentence about what they see.
Give them the tools.
Students can use a provided card to help their story.
The story can use word wall words and follow a pattern.
First, the student writes about where they went using the sentence starter, “We are going to the …”
Then the student can tell what they see at the zoo with the sentence starter, “I see the …”
Using this simple tool, students can write their first narrative with words.
This can easily be a process center.
The center can contain several narrative cards and writing paper.
Each week the students can choose a new strip for independent writing.
Show them early success.
Success begets success. If they see how easy it is to write a narrative, they will want to write more. As the writing becomes routine, you can up the ante in writing conferences. Students can add a feeling or emotion sentence. Students can also add transition phrases.
FREEBIE
Click the link to have a FREEBIE Narrative Story Starter Set. I’d love to see your student’s writing. Send me pictures of their writing and I’ll post it. Success begets success…even for teachers.
If you’d like to see the full Narrative Writing BUNDLE set, click the link or the picture below.
This Narrative Writing Bundle has 4 Parts:
- Anchor Charts and Additional Lessons
- Narrative Writing Strips
- Small Moments Lessons
- Narrative Writing Digital Files.