Personal Narrative The time I learned…..

Writing Unit 13 TSW’s Create his/her own personal narrative using the writing process and emphasizing the writing traits ideas, voice, and word choice. Craft dialogue and incorporate it into their personal narratives. Brainstorm and narrow topics. Use the writing process and word choice to write descriptive paragraphs.

In what ways will a personal narrative be different to our fables? Your Assignment Think about the fables we read. In each one a main character has learned a valuable lesson. For this narrative, you are to write a story about a time you learned a valuable lesson. In what ways will a personal narrative be different to our fables?

Our Structure Guide For this story you will follow a ‘set structure’. This means a provided structure, as set out below. Short introduction (The day I learned….) A description of a place (where you were) A description of a character (who was there?) An event (what actually happened) The lesson learned, and how you felt.

Short introduction For this story your introduction can be very simple: This is a story about the day I learned…… Often we ask for an interesting attention grabbing introduction – you can try. Onions. Onions, onions onions…. Ugh. This is a story about the day I learned I never wanted to see another onion! And that sometimes curiousity is not a good thing. BUT – you must keep it very short, no more than three sentences.

TSW: Brainstorm a narrow topic Your narrow topic is the time you learned a valuable lesson… just like the sorts of lessons Anansi learnt. BUT… instead of going straight into the story, you will have a short intro; then describe setting, then describe character… THEN the event!

SETTING – what is your setting This is just one event Time – day / time of day Weather Where Planning notes Just after lunch, Wednesday. Hot outside. In a classroom.

Descriptive Paragraph - Setting Remember the five senses…. Sight – what objects / colors stand out? Sound – what can you hear that adds impact to your story? Smell – it may literally be a smell of lavender, or you may use similes (it smelt like fear / fun / trouble) Feeling – this may be the feel of leaves under your feet, or a smooth surface, or an emotional feeling. Taste – like smell; this can be literal like taste of chocolate, or could be figurative – a taste of fear; a taste of trouble; a taste of what would happen later…

5 senses… If you are describing a room like this, think what details and sounds you will focus on.

Descriptive setting example I could taste the excitement. It was going to be a great game; but it was so hot! I looked up at the buildings around me, the glass in the windows shimmered as though they were melting in the heat. The solid grey concrete towers closed us in, our one small rectangle of green. Not the green of real grass though; the green of the fake stuff. Really bright. And not cool like real grass; in the heat if you did not have shoes on you would burn your feet on this stuff. This would be for a story about something I learned in a football game; based in the city.

Character List all the words you would use to describe this character!

Characters cont… Characters are things we see, what they like, how they smell, how they talk, expressions, things they do, things they wear, favorite activities etc etc etc… For YOUR character make a list of all the things you can think of for your character… then decide what you may use in your paragraph.