Narrative Writing is an important style of writing that students at different grade levels experience. By creating and telling a narrative/story, ‘our students learn to organize their thoughts and use written language to creatively communicate with readers in a variety of ways’. Writing in the narrative style improves our students’ abilities to read and understand narratives written by other people.
But as much fun as it can be, writing a story can also seem like a challenge to a child, or even to an adult. Our students are beginning to write personal stories which include dialogue. They will be learning how to use descriptive details and other techniques to make their stories more interesting and engaging. They are encouraged to use their imaginations to think outside of the box and craft unique and exciting stories.
Our Grade Two students are becoming familiarized with how authors craft stories and what the different parts of a story are. Introducing visuals or written prompts might inspire them to think of story ideas. Moreover, employing graphic organizers will assist them in sorting their ideas and planning the sequence of their stories, more effectively, before starting to write. Our goal is for the children to learn to effectively organize a writing piece, which includes proper conventions and varies word choice, as well as to edit and revise.
By using authors as their mentors, our students will realize that they themselves can write like writers. They can write stories like the authors they admire.
“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” -Jane Hyatt Yolen
– Mrs. Hind Zahr, Grade 2 Teacher
