Tag: Narrative Writing

Storytelling Techniques: Writing Engaging Stories

Storytelling Techniques

Storytelling techniques are essential tools that help bring narratives to life and captivate readers’ imaginations. By introducing students to these techniques, we can enhance their understanding and appreciation of storytelling.  This blog post will show various activities and resources for 4th, 5th, and 6th-grade students to teach and reinforce storytelling techniques. From video lessons to …

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Writing Descriptive Settings Lessons

Writing Descriptive Settings

Most students will be able to say that the setting of a story is where and when the story takes place; however, writing a setting is a whole new story (pun intended). This lesson includes five activities that help students write descriptive settings for their narratives. The handout for this blog post is now available …

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Retell, Recount, and Summarize

Retell. Recount, and Summarize

Common Core uses the terms retell, recount, and summarize in the literature section. Just what does this mean? What prerequisite skills will upper-elementary students have as they enter 4th grade when they are now asked to summarize? Get the handout for Retell, Recount, and Summarize here. Retell In kindergarten and first grades, students ask and …

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Teaching Students about Varying Sentences

Varying Sentences

The Common Core State Standards include at least one standard on sentence writing across all elementary grade levels. Most of these deal with recognizing types and varying sentences. Here is the progression of skills. In first grade, students learn to recognize the four types of sentences (L.1.1.J): Declarative sentence Imperative sentence Interrogative sentence Exclamatory sentence …

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When to Start a New Paragraph in a Story

When to Start a New Paragraph in a Story

Have you ever read a student narrative that was written as one long paragraph? Knowing when to make new paragraphs comes naturally to some students, but not others. This article goes over five rules to teach. Begin by downloading the teaching materials for this lesson. Get teaching materials for this lesson here.   Paragraphs Rule …

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10 Things to Remember When Writing a Narrative

10 Things to Remember when Writing a Narrative

Teaching students to write a good narrative is an ongoing process. Begin by teaching character traits, point of view/perspective, setting, theme, plot development, and so on. Students need a basic understanding of story elements before they begin writing. I have created a series of blog posts that cover these topics. Links to these posts are …

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Teaching Students to Write Narrative Hooks

Teaching Students to Write Narrative Hooks

While there are many great ways for students to write narrative hooks, many students need to be taught patterns they can follow. With upper elementary students, I like to cover five methods for writing a hook. Before you begin, grab all teaching materials for this post here. Writing Narrative Hooks  Activity #1   As a …

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