I LOVE writing Personal Narratives with my students! I have a way to get them writing that works every time. I always get compliments on how detailed their writing is, and on how much writing is on each page of their narratives.

The process starts with a lesson that gets their creative juices going! This is the lesson where we gather ideas for stories that we want to write. 

Step 1

• I prepare my easel with a piece of chart paper divided into four boxes. I label each box with an emotion like Happy, Sad, Mad, and Scared. I also hand out a similar looking paper to each student, and ask them to keep it on their desks (More about this later.)

I make this chart ahead of time. With the kids gathered on the carpet, I explain that our next writing unit will be all about writing Personal Narratives.  I tell them that to write good personal narratives we need to remember things that happened to us, so we can tell those stories to our audience. Using the chart I made, I model “remembering”. I think out loud as I share a memory of an event that made me feel happy, and I make a quick sketch of that memory on the box labeled “Happy”.

I make a quick sketch of a memory.

• Next, I remember something that made me sad, and sketch it. I remember and sketch for each of the emotions on the chart paper.

I practiced drawing the foot before teaching the lesson to save valuable time.

Note: Think about the stories you want to tell and the sketches you want to make. I even practice drawing so I don’t take up too much of the lesson trying to figure out what to do.

Step 2

This is where I think the success of my lesson lays. 

• Before I ask my students to work independently on their sketches, I give them time to remember their experiences on a safe, collaborative environment, and I give them an opportunity to share their memories with a friend.
• I have students turn to a partner on the carpet. They decide who “Partner 1” is and who “Partner 2” is. Partner 1 tells Partner 2 his happy memory. Then Partner 2 tells Partner 1 his happy memory. They take turns telling each other a memory for each of the feelings on my chart.

Note: If you can, sit on the carpet with students you know need encouragement. Then, walk around and jump in when students are off task, or not engaged.

Step 3

• When I sense that most students had a chance to share a few stories, I call on 2 kids to share a story with the class.
• I remind students that writers work quietly and stay focused, and that I expect to see everyone doing their best work until the end of our writing lesson.

Step 4

• I turn on soft classical music, and ask students go to their seats to sketch their memories on the papers I handed out earlier. 

This is what the paper looks like:

Personal Narrative Writing Template

• If you don’t have atemplate like this one, you can ask your students to fold a piece of paper into 4 boxes and copy the headings from your chart. I have done this lesson both ways, and they work just fine!
• At the end of the lesson students put a checkmark in the box next to the story they want to write. Then, they put their papers in their Writing Folders until the next day. 

There you have it!

A 1st Grade student’s Personal Narrative sketches.

• Your students have 4 potential stories that they remembered, talked about, and sketched. 
• Becausethey know their stories intimately, it is easy to help someone who gets stuck once the writing process starts. Just ask them to tell you what happened!
• Also, having a sketch is avisual reminderfor days to come, and a good point to start a conversation when you confer!

If you liked this post and want to see how this process continues, check out my next post on writing Personal Narratives:

Writing Personal Narratives: Using Graphic Organizers and Kinesthetic Learning

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