Are you ready to give your students a narrative writing prompt but don’t know where to start? The first step of the writing process is prewriting. This post will focus on ideas to use in your writing class to encourage prewriting in a narrative essay. This writing mini lesson along with several posts following it will scaffold through the writing process for narrative writing. They are linked to each other to provide you with a smooth transition from one lesson to the next! These ideas are ideal for any writing curriculum and writer’s workshop.
I love love love our notebooks and referring back to our previous lessons! I hold my little ones accountable for the skills already introduced! For example, since we’ve already covered complete sentence structure and paragraph writing, I expect my class to use these skills in their writing. I even have my Math/Science partner on board and she keeps them accountable too! Woo woo!
Step One of the Writing Process is PREWRITING. Let the writing begin!!!!!
1. TEACH
Use the anchor chart to teaching student the meaning of brainstorming and using graphic organizers.
2. MODEL
How to choose ideas. This is for the prompt A SHATTERED WINDOW. Talk out loud so students can hear your thinking. “There are many things that can shatter a window. If someone throws a baseball too wild or a bird who didn’t know a window was there or someone threw a rock to be mean. What else can shatter a window?” After students add some ideas say, “I am choosing “A shelf fell and broke the kitchen window” because I can come up with many ideas to go along with it. We have a big shelf in our kitchen and if it fell, it would definitely break a window in there.”
3. TAKE NOTES AND APPLY TO STUDENTS’ STORY
Have students write ideas for their stories and choose one. This is an example from the interactive writing notebooks. Students write their ideas on the front of the light bulb. Then lift the light bulb and choose one that they will use! When using interactive notebooks, I allow students to get creative. If they want to do theirs differently, go for it! They will take more ownership!
Students will enjoy coming up with ideas and working in their notebooks. Each little mini lesson will be the foundation for the next lesson. This is a scaffolding approach using the writing process. Explain to your students that it will take weeks and weeks to write one story so they could see each important step! It might seem drawn out, but it is so worth it in the end!
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: This is a good time to hand out a graphic organizer. Students will need a way to organize their writing. I have a variety packet of graphic organizers FREE HERE.
Check out my FREE writing masterclass! CLICK HERE
LAST LESSON: 3 STEPS TO PREPARE FOR NARRATIVE WRITING
NEXT LESSON: WRITING MINI LESSON #12- TASK, PURPOSE, AUDIENCE FOR NARRATIVE WRITING!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL LIST OF WRITING MINI LESSONS
This lesson is also included in the STEP-BY-STEP WRITING® Program with mini-lessons designed to scaffold through the writing process. Writing units included are sentence structure, paragraph writing, narrative writing, opinion writing, and informative writing. See what is included in the image below and click on it to learn more about them! You will turn your reluctant writers into ROCKSTAR WRITERS™!
“I cannot praise this resource enough!!! I wanted to give it a 5-star rating in every category. It is truly the most comprehensive and engaging writing resource I have ever had the privilege of using. This purchase was worth every cent!!!! Thank you so much for making it available!” – Tina
