1. Chapter 5 Nonfiction Narration
Coaches Notes:
Editable PowerPoint™ Presentations that include:
Writing Instruction and
Practice
Grammar Instruction
and Practice
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2. What Do You Remember? Introducing Nonfiction Narration
Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
What Do You Remember?
Using vivid details to describe your memories will make them more interesting to others.
Think about one of your favorite memories. Consider these questions as you participate in an extended discussion with a partner. Take turns expressing your ideas and feelings.
What happened?
Where were you?
Who was there?
How did you feel during the experience?
What did you see, smell, touch, feel, and hear during the experience?
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3. Choose and Narrow Your Topic
Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
Choose and Narrow Your Topic
Narrowing your topic will help ensure that your personal narrative has a clearly defined focus, or main point.
Use a graphic organizer like the one shown to narrow your topic. Record your general topic—your broadest story idea—in the top box; then narrow your topic as you move down the chart. Your final box should hold your narrowest story idea, the new focus of your personal narrative.
My interests
I enjoy sports
I love playing soccer
When I played soccer in the championship game, I got hurt, but we won anyway.
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4. Plan Your Piece Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
You will use a graphic organizer like the one shown to identify your characters and setting, and to organize your story’s plot details. When it is complete, you will be ready to write your first draft.
Characters:
Me and my teammates
Setting:
The championship game at Hart Stadium
Beginning
(Introduce the problem.)
Middle
I got hurt just after halftime when somebody accidentally kicked my leg instead of the ball.
(Tell how the problem got worse.)
End
(Tell how the problem was resolved and why events were important.)
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5. The Organization of a Personal Narrative
Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
The Organization of a Personal Narrative
Grab Your Reader
Interesting opening • Introduce focus, or main idea
Develop Your Plot
Sequence of events in chronological order, or time order • Development of interesting plot, setting, and characters • Narrative devices, including suspense and dialogue • Details that appeal to the senses of sight, touch, hearing, and smell
Wrap It Up
Resolution • Ending that reflects the focus
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6. Revising: Making It Better
Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
Revising: Making It Better
Now that you have finished your first draft, you are ready to revise. You can use the Revision RADaR strategy as a guide for making changes to improve your draft. Remember—you can use the steps in Revision RADaR in any order.
Revision RADaR
Replace . . .
Words that
are not
specific
are overused
Sentences
that are
unclear
Add . . .
New
information
Descriptive
adjectives
and adverbs
Rhetorical or
literary devices
Delete . . .
Unrelated ideas
Sentences that
sound good,
but do not
make sense
Repeated words
or phrases
Unnecessary
details
Reorder . . .
So most
important
points are last
To make better
sense or to
flow better
So details
support main
ideas
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7. Fine-Tune Your Draft Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
Use the revision suggestions to prepare your final draft
after rethinking how well questions of purpose, audience, and
genre have been addressed.
Ensure Sentence Variety Raise the interest level by including
both long, compound sentences with two main clauses with their own subjects and verbs and short, simple sentences with only one clause.
Clarify Meaning Add words and phrases that clarify meaning by adding transition words that show the sequence of events and the relationship among them, such as first, later, and on the other hand.
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8. Making It Correct Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
When you edit your work, you polish your writing and correct errors.
Before you edit, make sure that you have used a consistent verb tense, and have not included multiple verb tenses without a reason. Look at these lines from Roomates:
Most of my clothes were in a pile on the floor of my closet. I was digging through the pile, sniffing for one that was not too smelly. In the first sentence, the verb were is the past tense of the verb are. The verb was digging in the second sentence is a little more unusual.
A progressive tense verb shows that an action is or was happening for a period of time. Progressive tense verbs consist of a form of the helping verb be, such as is, are, was, or were, with the present participle of the main verb, which ends in -ing. The past progressive tense “was digging” shows the action the author was completing for a period of time.
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9. Grammar Mini-Lesson: Consistent Tenses
Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
Grammar Mini-Lesson: Consistent Tenses
Usually, you should use one verb tense for consistency. Sometimes, though, you must change tense to show the sequence of events. For example, a writer may use the past tense when the narrator discusses events, but change to the present tense when characters speak in dialogue. Consistent verb tense is especially important in sentences that have more than one action and more than one clause. “She went to Africa, and she will go to India.”
Rewrite these sentences so that they use verb tenses consistently, and shift tenses only to make the sequence clear. Write the answers in your journal.
1. Lightning frightens me, but it’s thunder that scared my dog!
2. Bowling sounds like a fun activity for the birthday party, but we went
last week.
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10. Publish Your Piece Chapter 5 • Nonfiction Narration
Share your experiences by publishing your personal narrative. Use this chart to identify a way to publish your personal narrative for the appropriate audiences.
Classmates and teachers at school
Reading it aloud • Submitting it to the school newspaper or Web site
People in your town or around the world that you may never meet
Posting it to a blog for people who share your interests • Submitting it to a print or online magazine
that publishes first-person, true-life accounts
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