"The moment has finally arrived. You are going to take the skills you've gained as authors and actors and use them to write your own story. In the next series of lessons, you will draft, revise, and publish personal narratives and use theater exercises to help strengthen your story beginnings, descriptions, and story endings. Remember, we'll end our unit by publishing our work in a class book and presenting our stories in the Authors and Actors Performance for an audience."

 

"Today we are going to review the brainstorming you did around our three topics: "A time I broke the rules," "A time I lost something or someone special," and "A time I learned something about friendship," and pick one topic that you want to write a full narrative about. Then, we'll do a theater exercise called Walking Stories to help you think through the story you want to tell."

 

"By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to say, 'I can develop an outline for my personal narrative.'"

Students line up along one side of a room and walk in unison to the other side and back. They walk back and forth two times, or set a timer for about two minutes. As students walk, they tell their stories. The reason they walk in unison is to avoid eye contact, which might make some students lose focus.

 

 

First, a warm-up to get the story out, to get the sillies out, and to notice where there are story gaps or maybe too much information.

 

Second, a walk that helps students hone in on major plot points. After they complete this round, they should sit down where they are and start to make notes on page 29-My Personal Narrative Outline-in their A4L Writer's Notebook about what happened in the story.

 

Third, students go through the exercise, this time with prompting to focus on who's there, what people are saying, where they are, and what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. After this round, students sit down to add details and notes on pages 29-30 in the A4L Writer's Notebook.

 

The recommended space is the gym, cafeteria, cafetorium, large room, or move desks to have enough open space for students to walk back and forth. Students will need A4L Writer's Notebooks and pencils easily accessible. Have students plug their ears if they need help focusing.

If students would benefit from additional instruction on effectively using transitions when writing, pause here to incorporate a mini-lesson. Students can then develop their own transitions during the Walking Stories exercise.

For the third round of the exercise, prompt students to focus on the following:

 

-What happens in your story?

-Get yourself closer to the story you want to tell.

-How do you feel?

-What are you feeling at different parts of your story?

-Who's there?

-What do you hear?

-What do you see?

-What do you smell?

-What do you feel?

-How were you feeling?

 

Use these prompts if students get stuck in Round 2 to keep them storytelling. Have students plug their ears if they need help focusing.

"Now that you know the topic and memory you want to write about, we're going to do a theater exercise called Walking Stories to help you think through the story. You'll walk from one side of the room to the other a couple of times (or until the timer rings), and as you walk, you'll talk out loud about what happened in your memory. We'll all do this at the same time. Everyone will walk together and talk together. I'll show you what this looks like. (Model walking and talking the story back and forth.)"

 

"We'll do this three times. Once to get the stories out, the sillies out, and to notice where there are gaps in your story or too much information. Second, we'll do it again to hone in on what happened in your story. After that round, you'll sit down and make notes in your A4L Writer's Notebook on pages 29-30. Let's take a look at these pages. (Students open their A4L Writer's Notebooks.) You can see you have space to make notes about what happened at the beginning of your story, details and events throughout, and what happened at the end. We'll do the exercise a third time, and I'll prompt you to focus on details. You'll sit down again and add details to your story outline."

"When I say 'Go,' walk to the wall and line up. Stand next to someone you won't be distracted by. You have 10 seconds. Go! 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. I'll know you're ready when it's silent."

"When I say 'Go,' start your walking story. Start your story from the beginning, and try to get to the end by the time we need to stop. Go." (Students walk and story-tell.)

 

"Let's reflect. What was that like? (Perhaps 'weird,' 'hard to focus,' 'fun.') The goal of this theater exercise is to tell the story verbally and to find the major parts to write about--from the beginning to the end. You're writing about one event in your life. The story must have key events and details within those events. You may not be able to tell everything. Some parts are more or less important than others. This time, try to find and tell the juicy parts of your story--what do you really want your reader to know?"

 

"When I say 'Go,' start your walking story. Start from the beginning of your story and try to get to the end by the time we stop. Go." (Students walk and story-tell.)

"Sit down where you are and make notes in your outline on pages 29-30 of your A4L Writer's Notebook. Before writers spend a lot of time and attention working on specific parts of their stories, they often write quickly to get the story out. Jot down what happens in your story. You do not need to write complete sentences--these are notes to yourself for writing a draft later." (Students write in their notebooks.)

"Now, we'll do the exercise one more time. This time, I want you to focus on the details of your story. Who's there? What are people saying? Where are you and what do you see? What do you see, smell, taste, and feel? Go." (Students walk and story-tell.)

 

"Sit down where you are and add details to your story outline on pages 29-30 of your A4L Writer's Notebook. You can add details to each part of the story, write in the margins, or make notes for yourself for later on."

Right where you are, find a partner and sit. Tell your partner something you discovered during this exercise, something you really want to include in your story, or something you realized doesn't fit. You have 2 minutes. Go. (Give each partner 60 seconds to share.)

"In 10 seconds (or longer if the class is not in the classroom) let's return to our desks. 10-9-8-7-6-5..."

 

"Now that you have a draft outline of your story, let's review what we've learned about writing good personal narratives. Let's reread our rubric and see if there is anything we think we need to add or change to reflect all we now know about writing good personal narratives. We are also going to add an 'editing' section to our rubric. We'll refer to this section after drafting and revising our narratives. What do you think we should check for editing?" (Elicit ideas from students, such as checking for spelling and captialization, writing in complete sentences, and attending to punctuation. Review and finalize rubric.)

-Students stand in a circle and share one at a time.

-Students are anywhere in the room-desks, reading area, open space-and everyone shares all at the same time on the count of three.

-Students are at their desks and share one at a time, visually cued by the teacher.

 

-Students say one word.

-Students show a gesture without voice.

-Students say one word and show a gesture simultaneously.

"Let's close with a Word Whip of something from your outline. Look at your story outline and circle one word that you think represents what you wrote. (Explain facilitation and variation selected for the Word Whip.) Let's begin."

"When we come back together, we'll draft our stories."

"To close our theater lessons, we'll appreciate our work and each other with a unified clap. 

On three we'll all clap once and say, 'Huh!' 1-2-3 (clap) Huh!"