Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure. Overview Featured Resources From Theory to Practice A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure.
Back to top Plot Structure Graphic Organizer: Students can use this printable sheet to record or plan the elements of plot in a piece they are reading or writing. The plot of a narrative is comprised of a series of "things that characters do, feel, think, or say" (Dibell, p. 6); however, each of the events must be important to the outcome of the story. In this lesson, students sketch out the series of events that occur in their stories, using comic strips as traditional storyboards.
Further Reading Dibell, Ansen. 1988. Moon, B. (1999). Narrative Writing Lesson Plans. Graphic Organizers for Personal Narratives. Just write about a small moment from your life. Include enough details, but not too many. Don’t forget transition words! And you better make it interesting. You have 30 minutes. Go. After hours of mini-lessons, anchor charts, and extensive modeling, I imagine that these words are all that echo through my third graders' minds when the time comes to write a personal narrative. Generating Ideas Each year my students create an authority list in their writer’s notebooks, an idea that came from a writing program we use.
Prewriting Using Graphic Organizers I’ve discovered the key to helping my students write a narrative that tells an interesting, sequential story is using graphic organizers for planning. The following graphic organizer is made for legal-sized paper. Mini Anchor Charts Whenever I create anchor charts with my class during our mini-lessons, I have my students create versions of the chart in their writer's notebooks.
Graphic Organizers I Use for Character Development. Fiction Writing. How to write Narratives.