Write a Narrative: Narrative Techniques | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G8:M1:U2:L10

Write a Narrative: Narrative Techniques

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • W.8.3b, W.8.3c, W.8.5 

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • W.8.4, W.8.6, W.8.10, SL.8.1, L.8.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can identify where to speed up and slow down pacing in my narrative to engage the reader. (W.8.3b)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket (W.8.3c)
  • Work Time C: Storyboard graphic organizer (W.8.3b, W.8.5)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Mini Lesson: Speed Up Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

B. Mini Lesson: Slow Down Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

C. Practice: Speed Up and Slow Down Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

D. Introduce Transition Words - W.8.3c (5 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Reflect on Learning Targets (5 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Selected Response Questions: Using Homework: Selected Response Questions: Narrative Techniques, students answer selected response questions about transition words and phrases.

B. Independent Research Reading: Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • W8.3b – Work Time A: Students will analyze the model narrative for dialogue and descriptive language to identify how authors speed up pacing in their narratives. This will prepare students to use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
  • W8.3b – Work Time B: Students will analyze the model narrative for dialogue and descriptive language to identify how authors slow down pacing in their narratives. This will prepare students to use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
  • W8.3b – Work Time B: Students will choose places to slow down pacing within their own plans to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
  • W.8.3b – Work Time C: Students will practice developing and strengthening writing as needed by choosing places to slow down and speed up pacing within their own plans.
  • W8.3c – Work Time D: Students will review transition words and phrases that they may use to sequence events in their narrative and ensure their writing is coherent. 

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • Students may reference spaces in their story and create a plan for how they will speed up or slow down pacing.
  • In Closing and Assessment A, students may choose complex transition words and phrases to establish the sequence of the story.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the previous lessons, students analyzed a model narrative to understand how an author develops a character’s profile, setting, conflict, and plot. Students used a storyboard graphic organizer to plan their narrative for the end of unit assessment. They used the guiding questions in the graphic organizer to outline the character profile of their monster, setting, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In this lesson, students will look at the model once again to determine techniques for speeding up and slowing down pacing within a narrative.

Support All Students

  • In Work Time A, work as a class to briefly outline the key events in the model narrative to serve as a reference point during the mini lessons on pacing. ▲
  • Pair ELLs with a partner who has more advanced or native language proficiency in English. The partner with greater language proficiency can serve as a model in the pair, initiating discussions and providing implicit sentence frames, for example. ▲

Assessment Guidance

  • Work Time A and B: Monitor students as they choose places in their story to speed up and slow down pacing, and ensure they are picking important moments within their plot.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will write their narrative for the end of unit assessment. Students will create a modernized monster from Latin American folklore and write a scene for Summer of the Mariposas. Students will use their Storyboard graphic organizer, narrative checklist, transition words handout, and vocabulary logs to write their narrative.

In Advance

  • Prepare the following:
    • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 
    • Copies of Transition Words handout
  • Review the Model Narrative: Pacing (example, for teacher reference) and take note of when and how the author sped up or slowed down the plot within the narrative.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).
  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 at each student's workspace.

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing. Students may need online or print dictionaries (including ELL and home language dictionaries) as they plan their narratives.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 8.II.C.5, 8.II.C.6, 8.I.C.10, 8.I.C.12, 8.II.A.1, 8.II.A.2, and 8.II.C.6. 

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson highlights pacing techniques in narrative writing and makes linking language explicit. Understanding how transition words work is a key entry point into complex texts and the English language and will enhance students' own writing. This lesson serves an important role in preparing students for the narrative writing task on the end of unit assessment.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to use transition words. ELLs may not have learned or may not remember the meaning of most of them. Highlight one or two examples of effective use of linking words and one or two examples for improvement in ELLs own writing in advance or having students identify and highlight transition words within the Model narrative for examples of usage

Vocabulary

  • pacing, transition (A)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening B)
  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart (example for teacher reference; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time D)
  • Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time D)
  • Storyboard graphic organizer (example for teacher reference) (from Unit 2, Lesson 8, Work Time A)
  • Vocabulary logs (one per student; from Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Summer of the Mariposas (text; one per student; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time C)
  • Model Narrative: "Peuchen" (one per student; from Unit 2, Lesson 6, Work Time A)
  • Character and Setting planner (one per student; from Unit 2, Lesson 8, Work Time C)
  • Storyboard graphic organizer (one per student; from Unit 2, Lesson 9, Work Time A)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Model Narrative: Pacing (example for teacher reference)
  • Equity Sticks
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 (one per student)
  • Purple colored pencils (one per student)
  • Green colored pencils (one per student)
  • Transition Words handout (one per student)
  • Homework: Selected Response Questions: Narrative Techniques (one per student; from Homework Resources)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningLevels of Support

A. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine to focus students on the word pacing (the speed of movement; tempo) and to use a dictionary to define the word or the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart. With students' support, record the meaning of pacing on the academic word wall. Invite students to record the word in their vocabulary logs. 

For Lighter Support

  • While reviewing the definition of pacing, invite students to demonstrate "speeding up" and "slowing down" using their bodies. Have students form a circle and start walking counter clockwise. Call out "speed up" and then "slow down" at varied intervals. This quick exercise will reinforce the concept of pacing while also help students to release any excess energy before sitting down to focus for the lesson.

For Heavier Support

  • In preparation for the mini lessons on pacing in Work Time A and B, display and review the questions that will be posed to the class so that students have a foundation for understanding the discussion that will follow and a reference point that they can access visually while exploring pacing in the model narrative.

Work Time

Work Time

A. Mini Lesson: Speed Up Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can identify where to speed up and slow down pacing in my narrative to engage the reader."

  • Display and invite students to retrieve their Model Narrative: "Peuchen," Character and Setting planner, and Storyboard graphic organizers. Tell students they have read this text multiple times now, and explain that this author sped up time at certain points in this story when nothing relevant to the plot was happening.
  • Direct students to Think-Pair-Share:

"How many hours do you think are captured in the model narrative? Why?" (Approximately 3-4, because there was enough time to find the cave, settle down, fall asleep, face the monsters, then escape.)

"If the author wrote about every single thing that happened in that time, what impact would that have on the reader?" (Student responses will vary, but may include it would be boring because a lot of unimportant things probably happened.) 

  • Remind students that in movies we can often watch days or even weeks in the space of a couple of hours and the way the director does this is to skip the unimportant things and focus on the important things. The same applies in novels.
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"How can you ensure in your narrative that you focus on the important events?" (Student responses will vary, but may include focusing on the events outlined on the Storyboard graphic organizer and skipping over the small things that happen between.)

  • Invite pairs to whisper-read the model narrative together and determine places in the text where the author sped up time and how it was done.
  • Distribute purple colored pencils and invite students to annotate where and how the author sped up, and/or jumped forward in time.
  • Circulate as students work. Identify and clarify misunderstandings and select students who have correctly identified places in the narrative to share with the whole group after students have finished working.
  • After 5 minutes, refocus the whole group.
  • Invite selected students to come up and use the displayed narrative to underline places where the author sped up time. See the Model Narrative: Pacing (example for teacher reference).
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"Where do you notice that the author sped up time and what words cue this?" (The author uses transitional and temporal words or phrases to jump ahead a period of time or to simply quickly summarize a section of text. For example: "Thirty minutes later, everyone was sound asleep" [paragraph 3].)

B. Mini Lesson: Slow Down Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

  • Tell students that when looking for where the author has slowed down time, they are looking for where the reader spends a long time in a specific moment, which may be only a few seconds in real time but seems longer because the author spends a lot of time describing it.
  • Invite pairs to whisper-read the model narrative together and determine places in the text where the author slowed down time and how it was done.
  • Distribute green colored pencils, and invite students to annotate where and how the author slowed down time.
  • Circulate as students work. Identify and clarify misunderstandings and select students who have correctly identified places in the narrative to share with the whole group after students have finished working.
  • After 5 minutes, refocus the whole group.
  • Invite selected students to come up and underline places in the displayed narrative where the author slowed time. See the Model Narrative: Pacing (example for teacher reference).
  • Using equity sticks, invite responses from the group:

"Looking across the parts you have underlined in green, what do you notice about what the author did to slow down time?" (The author described interesting/exciting moments and action in great detail and used dialogue to show the character response. In particular, this is done in paragraphs 5-14, the rising action, climax, and resolution where the peuchens appear and fight, and the girls escape.)

  • If productive, cue students with a challenge:

"Can you figure out why the author slowed down time in these places _____? I'll give you time to think and discuss with a partner." (Because they are big moments, interesting/exciting points in the story that really engage the readers' attention and draw them into the action. It also builds anticipation. For example, when the figure calls Odilia out of the cave it probably only took a few minutes, but it in the narrative it seems to take much longer because of the detailed descriptions of how she looked and spoke and because the things she and Odilia said are both written in dialogue.)

C. Practice: Speed Up and Slow Down Pacing - W.8.3b (10 minutes)

  • Invite students to look over their Storyboard graphic organizer and to consider portions in which they want to speed up time because nothing important is happening. Invite students to mark these sections with an x. Invite students to identify at least two significant parts of their narrative in which they want to slow down time because something big and important is happening. Invite students to mark those rows with a star so they know to spend some time focusing there when they write their narratives in the end of unit assessment in the next lesson. If time, invite students to add detail to this section of their graphic organizer.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

D. Introduce Transition Words - W.8.3c (5 minutes)

  • Remind students of the question they responded to on Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 as they entered the classroom. Refer to Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 10 (answers for teacher reference) as needed.
  • Invite students to Turn and Talk about their chosen response and any difficulties they had narrowing down the answer. Confirm the correct answer, and explain while using the descriptions in parentheses above.
  • Remind students that one of the ways the author of the model narrative sped up time was to use transitional words and phrases. Distribute the Transition Words handout to each student. Focus students on the word transition. With students' support, record the meanings of transition on the academic word wall, with translations in students' home languages. Write synonyms or sketch a visual above each key term to scaffold students' understanding. Invite students to record this word in their vocabulary logs. 
  • Ask students to Think-Pair-Share:

"Explain to your partner where you can see adding transition words and phrases when you are writing."

"How do you think this will help you speed up or slow down the pacing in your narrative?" (Student answers will vary based off of their individual plans.)

  • Encourage students to use this tool when writing their narrative to sequence the events in the story, to skip time, and to ensure that their story flows seamlessly from one event to the next in a clear and organized fashion.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Reflect on Learning Targets (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets
  • Incorporate reflection on and awareness of the following academic mindsets: "I can succeed at this," and "My ability and competence grow with my effort."
  • Ask students to Turn and Talk about the following sequence of questions: 

"What helped you to be successful at that task? How much effort did you put in on this task? How did your effort affect your learning?" (Possible responses: I was successful at that task because I focused and worked hard. I also worked and talked with my peers, which grew my learning.)

For Lighter Support

  • Give students time to plot which transition words they will use in their narrative writing, and invite them to share with a partner or small group for feedback and suggestions for improvement. 

For Heavier Support

  • Before distributing the Transition words handout, generate a list of known transition words in small groups or as a whole class to pull from students' previous knowledge, which will build confidence and help students to draw connections between different tasks. Ask students to categorize transition words using a list of predetermined types (e.g., cause and effect, sequence, contrast). Create a practice handout that has sentences with blanks for transition words. Provide a word bank with several options and have students match the appropriate transition word to the sentence. Invite students to create an anchor chart for display in the classroom based on their work for reinforcement.

Homework

Homework

A. Selected Response Questions

Using Homework: Selected Response Questions: Narrative Techniques, students answer selected response questions about transition words and phrases.

B. Independent Research Reading

  • Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

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