Narrative Writing Mini Lessons
These videos and accompanying materials provided to you by your teacher cover all of the aspects of a personal narrative that you'll need to include. From leads to endings and dialogue to transitions, we've got you covered!
What is Narrative Writing?
The Mini Lessons
The Writing Process
Brainstorming for Your Narrative
In this video, we'll get you set up for success by brainstorming various topics to choose from for your own personal narrative.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Personal Narrative Brainstorming Handout
- Narrative Writing Quilt
The Story Arc
In this video, we'll be covering the important aspects of a narrative - exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. You'll start creating your own story arc for the topic you've chosen to write about.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Personal Narrative Story Arc
Point of View
In this video, we'll be talking about the four main points of view (first person, first person omniscient, third person, and third person omniscient). While there are other points of view in literature, you will be choosing one of these four for the point of view for your narrative.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Understanding Point of View Handout
Leads in Narratives
In this video, we cover the six different types of leads you can use to begin your personal narrative piece. You'll practice writing various leads for your chosen topic, picking your best one to begin your narrative.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Narrative Writing Leads Handout
- Writing Your Own Leads Handout
Endings in Narratives
That's right! In this video, we're moving right from writing our leads into composing our endings. Our narratives will have quite a bit more direction when we work with the end in mind. Get ready to learn about the eight different ways you can finish you narrative.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Narrative Writing Creating Endings Handout
- Writing Your Own Endings Handout
Dialogue
In this video, we're going to cover the four main rules you'll need to understand when it comes to using dialogue in your narrative. Dialogue is an extremely important aspect of narratives and it helps move the plot along and propel events forward.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Narrative Writing Dialogue Handout
- Dialogue Rules in Action Handout
Crafting Stronger Sentences
In any type of writing, you always want to put your best foot forward, and one of the best ways to do that is through crafting stronger sentences. This video walks you through the activity you will be working on to enhance your writing through stronger sentences.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Crafting Stronger Sentences Handout
Expanding Sentences
In this video, we'll talk about the various ways you can expand your sentences - from adding adjectives and prepositional phrases to dynamic sentence structure - you'll be writing beautiful sentences in no time!
For this lesson, you will need:
- Expanding Sentences Handout
Transition Words
In this video, we'll cover the importance of using transitional words and phrases in your writing to enhance sentence fluency. We'll go through a quick cheat sheet of transition words as well as a short activity to help you practice using transitions.
For this lesson, you will need:
- Narrative Writing Transition Words Handout
