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Strategies for Writing a Personal Narrative Essay

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This mini lesson on prewriting strategies for 5th-8th graders is designed to help students generate ideas for a personal narrative essay in which the writer tells a story about a real-life experience.  Prewriting is particularly important because it helps the student plan how to start the narrative essay and to think about the details to include.  The four strategies covered in this lesson (using sentence starters, freewriting, listing, and mind mapping) can help writers select which personal experiences have the most significance for them.  If the writer feels a strong connection to their topic, then it will be easier for them to convey a message and write an effective narrative essay.Sentence starters is a technique to help students understand the need to focus on a personal experience and can help them frame the initial sentences of their essay.  Freewriting helps writers get started without overthinking, which can cause more anxiety and sometimes leads to writer's block.  Freewriting helps students write continuously for a set period of time in order to get initial thoughts on paper. Listing and mind mapping are brainstorming techniques which are both helpful in generating essay topics, themes, and supporting details.Throughout the lesson, students can practice each technique, so that by the end of the lesson they can begin writing the first paragraph of their personal narrative essay.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan

Author: Charryse Fredrick

The Personal Point of View

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You’ve probably learned about point of view in previous English classes, even as far back as elementary school. It’s an important aspect of storytelling, including storytelling in the form of the personal narrative. In this seminar, you will refresh your memory about point of view and push your learning to determine the role it plays in a narrative. You will also be imagining different stories that you have to tell, considering how your personal narratives might change depending on the point of view. Seeing a conflict from a different perspective is important, so analyzing it through the lens of someone else could have a strong impact on your writing. In short, you will focus not just on the story itself but also the voice telling the story.StandardsCC.1.4.9-10.MWrite narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.CC.1.4.9-10.NEngage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple points of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters.CC.1.4.9-10.PCreate a smooth progression of experiences or events using a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole; provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.  

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Tracy Rains

Are we through with prepositional phrases?

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The ability to identify prepositional phrases strengthens a writer's ability to write and punctuate complete, grammatically sound sentences.This plan has been created by Cherie J. Johnson for the purpose of helping middle school students on their way to becoming clean, clear, fluent writers. This material was put together while participating in the workshop- Nebraska’s OER Common’s Hub for ELA & Reading; July 22-24, 2020. 

Material Type: Homework/Assignment

Author: Cherie Johnson

Remote Learning Plan - Kinds of Sentences/End Punctuation

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This lesson is for upper elementary, middle school, and special education students.The duration of this lesson is one class period of approximately 45 minutes.This lesson allows the teacher to lead students in a review of the four kinds of sentences and the end punctuation needed for each of the sentence.  Lesson:Use Google Slide Presentation - Kinds of Sentences   Reveiw the types of sentence and end puntucation with students as you proceed through the presentation.   Administer assessment on Kinds of Sentences/End Punctuation with is a Google Form Assessment.

Material Type: Assessment, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Kim Knobbe

To . or to ; that is the ?

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This learning plan is for middle school ELA. Scholars will be able to (SWBAT) produce the IC/DC chart from memory and use to correctly punctuate sentences. Punctuating clearly is a part of clean, fluent communication.This plan has been created by Cherie J. Johnson for the purpose of helping middle school students on their way to becoming clean, clear, fluent writers. This material was put together while participating in the workshop- Nebraska’s OER Common’s Hub for ELA & Reading; July 22-24, 2020. 

Material Type: Homework/Assignment

Author: Cherie Johnson

Sensory Details for Narrative Essays

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This is an activity that can help students to get more sensory details into their narrative essays.  It could be used in the traditional classroom or online but only if the course is sychronous (i.e. via Zoom).  This is a fun activity that many students enjoy and should only take about 15-20 minutes depending on how quickly the students are able to guess each item, which is of course dependent upon how well the items have been described.

Material Type: Game

Author: Erin Dark-Herold