Narrative Essays
Narrative essays are short stories. To teach students to write narrative essays, we teach them to write short stories.
Narratives are not easily formularized. Narratives are often deeply personal. I like to think of the narrative as an author's quest to find his or her voice. Here are some resources that may help your students find their voices. God speed!
Brainstorming Story Ideas Worksheet
Here's a super-useful worksheet on brainstorming story topics. Students think about broad, thematic questions. Then they put their ideas into graphic organizers. This is a great way to start a unit on narrative essays.
Starting Your Story Worksheet
Here's a crucial worksheet to help your students start their narrative essays in more interesting ways. It focuses on teaching them three techniques. It gives them examples and the opportunity to practice. The answer key provides more examples for you.
Imagery and Sensory Details Worksheet
Here's a very rad worksheet on adding imagery and sensory details to narrative essays. Each problem has a timeline with two events. Students use their senses to add imagery between these two key moments. This helps them learn to slow down time to increase tension at points in a story.
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