EDUC 591 Introduction to Narrative and Writing for Publication

Narrative: A Story Rosemary J. MacKay defines story: “…an absorbing account of a piece of work that carries the reader along so that we are sorry when we come to the end of the paper.” (p. 2, Writing readable papers: How to tell a good story,” htm

Goodson (1994) Studying teachers’ lives and understanding how they experience their work is a way to place the teacher’s voice at the center of reform efforts. (Chapter 1, Preskill & Jacobvitz)

Important Elements of Narrative: 4 Includes incidents (brief stories) that illustrate the ideas being presented 4 Increases reader interest and also make the writer’s ideas easier to understand and remember 4 Requires dramatizing, not just reporting 4 Illustrates a point; must relate to the rest of the article

Important Questions to Ask Before Writing: 1 Who is my audience? 2 Why should my audience be interested (the hook)? 3 What key points will they take away from their reading? 4 What will they do with the information they receive?

More Tips (with help from Rosemary): Don’t be so scientific, formal, and stilted that your paper has no spark or heart. éUse the first person The author realized there were discipline problems that had to be addressed. I realized there were discipline problems. éUse active voice The papers were collected by the author. I collected the papers. éRead other people’s work!

On with the Opener!

The funnel 4 Most common opening paragraph. 4 Begin with general information and become more specific. 4 The purpose sentence is the last sentence in the funnel introduction. –The purpose of this paper is...

Student Example: Funnel Teaching writing in the primary grades is not an easy task. Although formal assessments often serve as gatekeepers at grades 5, 8, and 11, the pressure to prepare students for these assessments exists at all grade levels (Strickland, 2001). State and national standards and assessments have added to this pressure.

Educators are following directives from superiors to address the standards in both curriculum and daily lessons. These standards call for higher student expectations in writing performance, as well as reflect changes in the writing curriculum (Strickland, 2001).

The purpose of this paper is to share my struggle as I attempt to change by teaching methods in my second grade classroom to help my students develop as writers and meet the requirements of the state standards in writing.

Narrative Opening Each morning the sun streams through the windows lighting up the crowns of little heads poised over spiral notebooks. The little hands associated with these little heads are clutching pencils, which glide, scribble, and crawl across the pages. I sit on my stool positioned above them and look out over my “kingdom.” What power I yield!

My height, physical and contrived, conveys this, but is this what my students see? I hope not. In the beginning of my career I think I did want them to see my power. I know I wanted them to feel it, but life experiences tend to soften edges and for that I am grateful.

Relating my teaching career to a garden seems to encompass the ideas I have about the “power thing.” (Baergen, Julie K. (Winter, 1999). Teaching metaphor. Multicultural Education 7 (2),

Writing for Publication 4 icles.html CFM?CFID= &CFTOKEN=