How to Use these Modules:

For Each Module in this PLU:

1. TAKE NOTES!!!

2. PRACTICE!!!

   1. Teaching students to write descriptions differently takes practice, both for the teacher and for the students. You will need to be able to model this skill for the students, and writing this way can be a challenge.

   2. Teaching dialogue, although more typical, is still a challenge, both grammatically and stylistically. Take the time to practice and to build your "toolbox"

   3. Creating assessments can be time-consuming. Use the models on this site to help you create new ones. Doing it ahead of time will ultimately save you time later on.

Narrative writing (at least according to the GSE folks) has several elements:

W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or character; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, multiple plot lines, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.

d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

Why write narratives? Many students would say "I'm never going to write a novel. What's the point?"

There are several reasons to write stories:

1. It's required by the GSE (Georgia Standards of Excellence).

2. It's a valid form of journalistic writing - a career for around 35,000 people in the US.

3. It's a form of self-expression unlike any other type of writing. According to the University of Nottingham in its article "Why do we write?" most of our writing is for communication, and the fact it, a lot of our communication with one another is in the form of "story." (n.d.)

4. Learning to create characters helps writers understand real people better. The challenge of character creation forces students to "look through a character's eyes" and helps them understand people different from themselves.

5. Writing narratives helps them become better writers in other genres, too ("Why Narrative Writing is Worth Pursuing" 2017).

Narrative writing is a required skill in the state of Georgia. According to the W3 standard, students need to know how to write narratives in several different ways, and it's regularly tested on our annual GMAS End-of Course standardized test. Students need to know how to sequence events, how to engage the reader with a compelling conflict, interesting characters, and vivid descriptions of both setting and characters. Students are suppose to be able to use effective dialogue, set up multiple plot lines, have characters flashback or reflect in the course of the story, and finish a story well. It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? It is. Sometimes the GMAS asks students to write from a 1st person point of view (POV); others, it asks for 3rd person POV; while other years, it asks for a script - a whole different form of narrative. To make it even more complicated, the test muddies the issue by using the term "narrative essay" or "personal narrative," so students have to be familiar with several terms that still just mean, "Write a story."

Narrative is a part of many careers. Journalists regularly have narrative elements in their articles. Lawyers have to inject stories into their arguments, and CEO's have to explain financial gains or losses via stories. Journalism has a rich history of narrative, from serialized stories, to western journalism with narratives mixed in with news, to a new narrative element in newspapers today. Markova & Sukhoviy (2020) point out that "mass media serves the function of circulating stories in society. It is regarded as an axiom by many scholars that the entirety of journalism represents exactly this process of telling stories (p. 357).

Hallman, another journalist interested in narrative journalism said, "Lack of experience and fear of risk are the biggest obstacles to narrative writing" (2003, p. 14). He was speaking to young journalists and mid-level editors who were afraid to step away from "hard news" articles, but our students face the same sort of risk. Many of them have only written paragraphs ("constructed responses") or essays for most of their academic lives. Writing a story is a scary departure from the structure of essay-writing.

Self Expression and communication are the primary reasons for writing. Storytelling is probably the oldest form of literature (Markova, & Sukhoviy, 2020, p. 356). In their article "Narrative Learning in Adulthood," Clark and Rossiter point out that "Human beings are the creatures who tell stories—a point Fisher (1987) makes when he gives us the label 'homo narrans'—and those stories serve a function, namely to make meaning of our experience" (p. 61). To teach students only essay writing and argumentative essays is to limit their ability to communicate effectively, and in many cases, to limit their ability to communicate in their favorite way, through story. Kelly Gallagher suggests that writing narratives causes deeper thinking to occur. Her article "The Writing Journey" noted that only 1% of writing assignments today take longer than one class period, and few contain the rigor required to make stronger writers.

Gallagher points out that writing "is not simply a vehicle that allows a student to express what they know; writing is a tool that generates new thinking" (2017, p. 26).

One way that students are forced to think is when they create characters, and to a slightly lesser extent, create "worlds." The act of character-creation forces students to empathize with different types of people. In fact, students have to sort of put themselves in the shoes of new characters to try to get them to act, speak, and think properly, as that character might act, speak, and think.

Improves all types of writing

References:

Clark, M. C., & Rossiter, M. (2008). Narrative learning in adulthood. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 2008(119), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.306

Gallagher, K. (2017). The Writing Journey. Educational Leadership, 5, 24.

Hallman, T. (2003). Hard News Narrative. A Fight for storytelling. Quill, 91(9), 14-18.

Why narrative writing is worth pursuing. (2017, April 24). Patrick Henry College. Retrieved February 28, 2021, from https://www.phc.edu/learnphc/why-narrative-writing-is-worth-pursuing

Why do we write? (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2021, from https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/studying/writer/whywrite/index.aspx

Markova, V., & Sukhoviy, O. (2020). Storytelling as a Communication Tool in Journalism: Main Stages of Development. Journal of History, Culture & Art Research / Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Arastirmalari Dergisi, 9(2), 355–366. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v9i2.2516