1. Writing a Narrative Essay Mr. Warren Vista Heights Middle School

2. Narrative Essay Standard: 2.1 Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories, or narratives: a.Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details. b.Reveal the significance of, or the writer’s attitude about, the subject. c.Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters). Objective: Students should be able to: ► Identify a narrative prompt ► Organize a narrative essay using a graphic organizer ► Write a 3 paragraph narrative essay Real Life Application(s): People often have to retell a personal story in writing. Here are some different situations where it may be necessary for a person to write his/her personal story in writing. ►Police report ►Screen writing ►Writing a thrilling book

3. The Prompt ►Narrative Essay prompts ask you to think about and retell a time or experience in your life. ►The Narrative Essay is NOT a list of events with a “what I learned” or “ this story relates to my life” at the end. ►Think about a time when something unexpected happened. Write a narrative in which you tell about an unexpected event that happened to you or someone you know. Be sure to include specific details so that a reader can follow your story. ►You have made a very important discovery–one that will make you famous throughout the world. Write a story in which you tell about your discovery and how you made it. Be sure to include details about the setting and any characters in the story, and be sure that your story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

4. The Prompt (continued) NOTE: Also when a prompts says give an account of means it will be a narrative prompt Why is the following prompt not a narrative essay prompt? ►Think of what your school is like at lunchtime. Pick one particular place, and picture it in your mind. This place could be large or small. In a composition, describe clearly to a friend what the place is like at lunchtime so your friend can imagine what it is like to be there. ►The essay itself must include a beginning, middle and end.

5. Graphic Organizer “I” Chart I. Topic Sentence II. Beginning Middle End Explain/Details - III. Conclusion

6. Beginning The beginning must introduce: ► characters ► the setting ► the rising action leading up to the climax of the story

7. Beginning (continued) Example beginning: Even though I am the older brother and she's the younger sister, Josie was always a head taller, and a good 40 pounds heavier than me when we were growing up. I hated that. I was the big brother. I was supposed to be dominant and protective. But while she was the biggest kid in school, I was nearly the smallest. Josie's size and strength only made my lack of those two qualities more apparent. I was two years ahead of her in school, which meant that by the time she got to middle school I was already an 8th grader. Kids in middle school are not kind or accepting, and over the years they had continually made fun of my puny size and lack of athletic ability. But the teasing reached a whole new level when Josie entered middle school. Now they had a new angle for tormenting me. They would taunt me and her, I guess that rhyme was hurtful to both of us, but I only felt my own humiliation. It still baffles me that I took no notice of my sister's feelings. The times when the jokes centered around her, like when they called her "Josie the Giant," it was such a relief not to be their target that I did nothing to stop them.

8. Middle The middle of a Narrative essay should: ►include and describe the climax of the story

9. Middle (continued) Example Middle (with climax): That was until the day she snapped. There was a new girl, Ginny, in Josie's class who wore really thick glasses, and without them, was nearly blind. She, had temporarily become the butt of jokes and pranks. It started as a normal lunch break, with Josie and Ginny standing together in line. Suddenly, Tommy Pederson ran up behind Ginny and snatched her glasses off her face. Everyone began to chant as they carelessly tossed her glasses down the line. I watched Josie's face as it was happening. Tommy Pederson had gotten the glasses back and was waving them around in the air. That's when it happened. With one hand Josie grabbed the glasses from him and with the other she punched him in the face. She hit him with such force that he fell over. Everyone froze in shock for a second until the campus supervisor came over and recovered the glasses.

10. End The end of a Narrative essay should: ►resolve the problem or climax

11. End (continued) Example End: In the principals office Tommy got in trouble for taunting and was given 3 days suspension. In addition, Josie received 3 days for punching Tommy. After we found out what the outcome was we were happy that Tommy got in trouble and we were happy that someone finally stood up to the taunting. That day marked a change for us all.

12. Josie's Triumph present by English Works! at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. Even though I am the older brother and she's the younger sister, Josie was always a head taller, and a good 40 pounds heavier than me when we were growing up. I hated that. I was the big brother. I was supposed to be dominant and protective. But while she was the biggest kid in school, I was nearly the smallest. Josie's size and strength only made my lack of those two qualities more apparent. I was two years ahead of her in school, which meant that by the time she got to middle school I was already an 8th grader. Kids in middle school are not kind or accepting, and over the years they had continually made fun of my puny size and lack of athletic ability. But the teasing reached a whole new level when Josie entered middle school. Now they had a new angle for tormenting me. They would taunt me and her, I guess that rhyme was hurtful to both of us, but I only felt my own humiliation. It still baffles me that I took no notice of my sister's feelings. The times when the jokes centered around her, like when they called her "Josie the Giant," it was such a relief not to be their target that I did nothing to stop them. That was until the day she snapped. There was a new girl, Ginny, in Josie's class who wore really thick glasses, and without them, was nearly blind. She, had temporarily become the butt of jokes and pranks. It started as a normal lunch break, with Josie and Ginny standing together in line. Suddenly, Tommy Pederson ran up behind Ginny and snatched her glasses off her face. Everyone began to chant as they carelessly tossed her glasses down the line. I watched Josie's face as it was happening. Tommy Pederson had gotten the glasses back and was waving them around in the air. That's when it happened. With one hand Josie grabbed the glasses from him and with the other she punched him in the face. She hit him with such force that he fell over. Everyone froze in shock for a second until the campus supervisor came over and recovered the glasses. In the principals office Tommy got in trouble for taunting and was given 3 days suspension. In addition, Josie received 3 days for punching Tommy. After we found out what the outcome was we were happy that Tommy got in trouble and we were happy that someone finally stood up to the taunting. That day marked a change for us all.

13. As a general guideline, when writing a Narrative essay: 1.Narratives are generally written in the first person, that is, using I. 2.Narratives rely on concrete, sensory details to express their story. These details should create a clear story. 3. Narratives, as stories, should include these story conventions: beginning, middle (with climax), and end.

14. Your Prompt Write an account of a time when you were really scared.