Personal Narrative Unit

Session 1:

Setting Up to Write

What is a

Personal Narrative?

Let’s break it down…

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Personal → Something that is your own

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Narrative → Story

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Personal Narrative

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Your own story!

A big year is ahead of you!

• Let me tell you something. This is going to be a big year for you.
• Becoming a full-fledged middle school author is serious business.
• But you know what? I am not worried about you, because we have expertise in this room. We have people with experience writing about the small moments in their lives.

I know you all will be great!

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• I’m going to expect that each of you, as writers,

can fill a page or so with a compelling true

story.

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• That’s really ambitious, and you’re going to need help, so it is great that some of you have experience and can help others!

Today’s Goal

• Today I want to teach you, or to remind you, that as a writer, you can get help not only from each other and from me, but also from texts others have written.
• To learn from finished texts, you need to study them, imagining the strategies the writer probably used so you can then try those same strategies on your own writing.

Have you ever seen those really amazing wedding cakes that have tons of layers?

• You think, “Whoa, how did somebody make this?”

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• Writers study other people’s writing in the same way that I studied that towering cake!

Let’s take a look...

• We’re going to start off by studying a personal narrative that another middle school writer has made – and see if we can figure out the recipe for this piece of writing so that we can make writing that is equally powerful.
• Let’s take a look at Ali’s piece of writing.

Ali’s Notebook

I shivered a little bit.

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“It’s pretty cold!” I said as I dipped my toes in the water. I took a pebble and threw it far into the creek.

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“Well, Whatever!” I said as I plunged into the cold water. It felt amazing! The cold water covered my eyes like gentle blankets and the water washed over me like a breeze. Swimming is my favorite!

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“Wait up!” yelled Emma as she ran down the hill with her floaty wrapped around her waist. Her curly brown hair whipped around in the breeze. I shivered, I was cold already! A moment after that, India’s mom waded in, laughing.

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“Ha! It’s cold!” she said. Then she stopped. “Girls, out! Out of the water!” She pushed us back to shore. I looked back and saw a long, thin, water snake, slithering towards us. I gasped. I quickly swam underwater in big, wide strokes.

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Let’s take a closer look

• Writers, remember that to learn from finished writing, you first just read it, which we’ve done.
• Then you think, ‘What part worked for me in the piece?’
• After that, we can think, ‘How did she do that?’
• “Hmm...What got to me in the piece?”

Studying others’ work

• Writers, remember, I am studying Ali’s writing to learn what we can do to make powerful personal narratives.
• Let’s list what we’re learning.

How to Write Powerful Personal Narratives

• Focus on one episode, write with detail (don’t summarize a long stretch of time).

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• Help readers picture the episode - a small action and exact dialogue.

Let’s read on

• Remember, let’s first just read like this is a great library book, taking in what she said. Then we can pause to think, ‘What got me in this piece? What works for me?”
• Reread Ali’s story and make annotations.

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• So writers, today you will start your first 6th grade writing time.
• First, log on to Google Classroom and click on the document called, “Personal Narrative Journal.”

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Journal Entry #1

• A personal narrative is like a watermelon: the big event is a watermelon slice, and the details are seeds.
• Ideas about small moments are called seed ideas.

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• Today, start a list of seed ideas in your digital journal.

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Potential Ideas