Unit Guide

Facilitating Narrative Writing for ELL Newcomers Using Oral Histories

Brittany F. Zezima

This unit was written as part of the Delaware Teacher Institute, a subgroup of an organization created by Yale University. Written during the 2019-2020 school year, its purpose is to introduce a process for facilitating narrative writing for students by connecting the concept of a narrative to familial oral histories which are both personally and culturally relevant. In the field of English as a Second Language, it is universally accepted that writing is the final skill students acquire linguistically, both in the L1 and L2. Since the first ELA unit of the school year for my middle school students includes narrative writing, I was interested in creating a unit that provided a more productive exploration of the narrative writing process for my students. Using the Language Experience Approach (LEA).as the main framework for this unit, I will introduce the concept of oral histories as a springboard for narrative writing that is meaningful to my students as authors and as individuals. Students will examine multimodal texts that model the different manifestations of oral histories and narrative writing, including graphic novels. The curriculum unit will culminate in students producing their own narrative piece supported by both oral and graphic mediums.