This past week, we started a new personal narrative writing unit all about my many memorable firsts. I began this unit with a hook to engage student interest--we talked about roller coasters. Who doesn't have a love-hate relationship with a good ol' roller coaster? Especially in a room of second graders, the feelings are unanimous. "Roller coasters are SO MUCH FUN!" We talked about what it was like to go on a roller coaster for the very first time--how that wait in line feels like forever; how when you get into the cart and put on the seatbelt, your heart starts to race; how as the coaster slowly goes clickit-clackity up the tracks, you are thinking "We are going up so high!" and your heart is beating out of your chest; how at the very top it feels like the world stops for just a moment, and then woosh!; how you scream at the top of your lungs as you zoom down the track and loop upside down. I shared my personal story of the first time I went on the roller coaster The Mantis at Cedar Point, and my students were all in. They couldn't wait to start brainstorming! I modeled how to come up with some ideas to get my students on the right track (no pun intended), and put some common experiences down, like the first time I lost a tooth or the first time I rode a bike, to prevent students from getting "stuck" in a writer's block. Students had to come up with at least 3-5 ideas, but many of my students came up with many more. We did lots of sharing out, and then we each circled one idea on our web that we would write about. The next day, it was time to start some serious planning. I created a pre-writing organizer that would not only engage key information like the "who," the "where," and the "when" but also would engage sensory details right from the get-go. We spent the most time on the "Things on the Outside" section as we went through the five senses. What did I see? Hear? Smell? Feel? Taste? I chose to use the idea of the first time I swam underwater, so I wrote down things like I saw the blue water of the pool, I heard my mom cheering for me, I felt the blazing sun, I smelled chlorine and sunscreen, I tasted salty sweat on my lips as it dripped down my face. Then, it was time for our sequencing organizer to get the meat of our story told using temporal words. I can't wait until we are to the revising/editing portion and can dig into these checklists! If you are interested in this "My Many Memorable Firsts" common core aligned personal narrative writing unit, I just uploaded it to TPT. Just click the picture below! Also, get the "Peer Editing Checklist" as a FREEBIE! :) Click the picture below!

What is narrative therapy? Find its approach, examples & key concepts.

This is a brainstorming and graphic organizer to help your students write a personal narrative. The planning sheet is for students to brainstorm about an event in their life and describe who was there, the event that took place, when it happened, and how they felt. The graphic organizer allows stu...

This page presents narrative therapy worksheets.

Check out these teaching materials for upper elementary students including task and reference cards on writing narrative hooks.

Be inspired by Surrealist and Dadaist artists with these fun surrealist games to unlock your and your students' creativity. Embrace the ridiculous!

Do you need help teaching your child how to write a personal narrative essay? Here is a short video that explains an easy way to organize an...

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Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.

Teaching writing DOESN'T have to be complicated! With these simple strategies, you can improve students' writing without having to work so hard.

Paper artist and illustrator Hollie Chastain from Chattanooga, Tennessee, has both a graphic design and studio art background, which has led her to run her own art studio where she produces mixed media artworks for both personal and commercial projects. Additionally, she teaches workshops across the US and published her first book, If You Can Cut You Can Collage, in 2017. “Collage is a wonderful creative outlet, particularly for people who want to make art, but don’t feel they have […]

Hey there! How are you? We are crazy busy getting ready for our first week of school. We have meet the teacher day tomorrow and then...

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Illustration and explaining personal narratives. Use the image to help students express their ideas about a place they have been. Three different versions with images and scaffolding. *Was used with Emerging/Transitioning/Expanding ELLs in grade 3 who are working on TC personal narrative unit* Word Document so you can modify to fit your students needs :)

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After weeks of researching animal facts, organizing information on graphic organizers and copying from sentence frames, my students had the chance to write a narrative of their choice today and, wow! Was it ever a hit! I made this simple, one-page book which allowed my students to write a story with a beginning, middle and

As an introduction to my series on Organic Architecture, I thought I’d start out with the ol’ granddaddy of plot structures: Arch Plot. You probably already know all about this plot structure, but to make sure we’re all on the same page, I wanted to do a quick overview. Arch plot has lots of names....

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A manipulator alters the narrative and makes you doubt yourself. So, how to manipulate a manipulator? The real question here is how not to be manipulated.

Stop on over and get a First, Next, Then, Last Graphic Organizer- Can be used for Retelling Stories with ordinal words or for a pre-writing activity. You Might Also Like:Free Visual Notetaking Printables to DownloadFree Printable Graphic Organizers for ReadingGraphic Organizers for Informational TextGraphic Organizers for Reading Comprehension – Perfect for Any Book!

Hi bloggy friends! Here's a quick post with two freebies for you. The first is what I called "Spooky Suffixes." We used these in a literacy center and the kiddos basically played Concentration with the cards. You could easily use the cards to play Suffix Go Fish or just a simple matching game. Spooky Suffixes The next is a graphic organizer that I typed for my students to use with the Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then Summarizing Strategy. I was introduced to this strategy by Kathy Bumgardner (http://kbumreading.com/) six or so years ago and it's the best thing I've found to help my students summarize fiction stories. Some of my students don't need the actual organizer and create their own but others benefit from the help of the premade organizer. Hopefully, some of your kiddos can use it too! Summarizing OrganizerIf you download either document, please leave a quick comment on how you plan to use (or even improve on my idea). I love to hear feedback! Thanks and have a terrific week!