Writing a Narrative: Learning to Write About an Experience

Cindel M. Berlin

Teaching writing to first graders can be an extremely difficult task. They often understand that they have to use letters, however some do not understand the concept of sounding out words to write, writing a complete sentence, grammar, and punctuation. This brings the challenge to educators of teaching the basics of writing. Especially when students are expected to respond to prompts with multiple sentences, while using grammar and punctuation correctly. This unit is designed to help first grade teachers and any other early elementary grade teachers to teach the basics of writing while teaching their students to write a narrative about a trip they took. Writing a Narrative: Learning to Write About an Experience is a unit to help students understand writing a narrative with hands on activities, and activities while meeting Common Core Writing Standards. Students will be able to connect the standards to bridge the gap with writing. The standards that are used are “Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.” “With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.” “Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.” “Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures.).” “Ask and answer questions to help determine of clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. “