The Step-By-Step Way to Get Your Students Writing a Fictional Narrative
When it comes to writing fiction, your students may feel intimidated. They aren’t writing about themselves, they are actually being creative and making up a story. This can make them feel shy, reluctant to write, or even embarrassed to share.
I have broken these units down into easy to implement lesson plans and have included all of the materials you need to guide your students through the process of crafting a fictional narrative.
Each Fictional Narrative Writing Unit (Grades 2-5) has 12 lessons. The lessons can be implemented at an easy pace—spread out over four weeks, or can be condensed to be taught in a shorter time period.
Since there are twelve fictional narrative lessons, you have time to build in any of your own mini lessons you feel your class needs. (For instance, if you see your students are struggling with a particular skill, such as capitalizing proper nouns, you can spend a day practicing that skill without falling behind with the unit.)
These lessons are included:
1. Brainstorming Characters & Settings
2. Fictional Narrative Organizer
3. Setting the Scene
4. Introducing the Problem (Conflict for 4th & 5th Grade)
5.Sequential Unfolding of Events
6. Character Responds to Events
7. Elaborating on Character Response
8. Sense of Closure
9. Show, Don’t Tell
10. Editing With a Partner
11. Revising & Revisiting the Rubric
12. Publishing
The units include a student friendly rubric as well as a checklist they can use as they write. They help keep students focused on the skills taught during the unit, without overwhelming them.
Posters are provided to help teach certain skills. You can print them and put them in students’ writing notebooks. This allows them to reference them at any time.
FAQ:
I teach multiple grade levels. Are the units different?
The units are mostly similar, but include different mentor texts, and have different examples in the centers. There are a few other minor differences throughout the units that reflect grade level expectations.
Click the images below to see more & preview the fictional narrative unit for your grade level.
- Personal Narrative Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Opinion Piece Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Informational Report Writing (Grades 2-5)
- Biography Writing (Grades 2-5)
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