How to Teach Narrative Writing to High School Students
Narrative writing finds a natural home in high school classrooms. High school students are dealing with issues of identity and self-expression -- issues that naturally lend themselves to narrative writing. Through the use of creative writing lesson plans, you can teach students how to understand the writing process while helping them to understand themselves.
Instructions
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Assign short stories, narrative essays, or both for them to read. Works of fewer than 10 pages are ideal, since they allow students to consciously imitate the structure.
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Analyze the structure of several pieces of narrative writing. Short narrative nonfiction is ideal, since it can be used as a model for both essays and short fiction.
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Have students write several short, informal response pieces to narrative essays or stories. Have them react to different aspects of the piece in each essay. Some writing prompts are:
How did the narrator change from the beginning to the end of the story/essay?
How does the narrator feel about the main event?
Does the author like who he was before the main event?
Discuss an event in your life that was similar to the episode in this story. -
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Have the class elaborate on their response pieces. Tie the assignment to the reactions they have been writing and the compositions they have been reading. For example, if your students have just read an essay about overcoming adversity, have them write a narrative essay about a time when they had to overcome something.
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Give the students plenty of practice with narrative writing. Six written responses followed by three more polished narrative pieces is a good length for a unit. If you are going to teach both imaginative and essay writing, give them even more assignments.
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References
Resources
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