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Building Focused Personal Narratives

July 20, 2011

Getting students to create personal narratives that are engaging and focused is one of the biggest challenges I face in writing. I’ve been using the Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study for a few years now. One of my favorite parts is the analogy watermelons and seeds during the idea generation process for personal narrative writing. I’ve found my students really love to tell their stories, but they want to tell everything from the moment they got in the car to drive to the airport to the exact second they hopped into bed after returning from their trip. In other words, their stories turn into long…or really short…lists rather than giving the reader a deeper look into their experience.
personal narratives_tips and tricks

My solution has been to go more in depth on this important analogy. Personal narratives should be filled with emotion and the reader should be able to feel like they are there with the author. However, when students focus on a large event, they don’t give these descriptive details because most of them just want to get the story out…and it is a long story! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten the story that goes from the moment they got in the car to go to Grandma’s house until the moment they got out of the car when they returned…and 10 pages of writing later, it isn’t at all engaging.

Focusing Personal Narratives – Start from the beginning.

focusing personal narrativesI’ve found by spending time on the front end really focusing in on what a small moment is I can delve deeper into the nuances of adding description more quickly and grow my writers more fully. To do this, I dedicate about half of our first personal narrative unit to finding and narrowing in on ideas. Yes, it sounds like a long time, but for my students that is what it takes. We even cut an actual watermelon to give them a connection to hang on to as they think about the topic. (Quick side note, don’t buy seedless!! Did that on accident one year and had to scramble to come up with a connection… Sometimes authors forget to focus on the seeds, and their stories are a lot less interesting. *Whew*)

I try to work in a number of engaging activities that work through the gradual release model. First, I provide models and we work to sort them. Next, students generate their own examples and non-examples. Finally, we start moving into the process of picking an idea and focusing our topic into a specific small moment. It takes some time, and I try to give tons of models from my own life. However, within this first round of lessons about 80% of my kids really get the idea and start producing focused small moment writing. The other 20% typically need a little more one-on-one support to really get there, but they definitely make significant gains.

Generating Ideas for Personal Narratives

Modeling Small Moments for personal narrativesHere is a sample of one of the first activities we do to help my students generate ideas for personal narratives. This activity has them sorting examples and non-examples. They are given the ideas, and we discuss as a class. Students color-code the ideas as we work through them together. Then they cut and paste them into the correct category. I have a similar sort that they complete independently after we do this model together. I also put a card sort that is similar into my language arts centers to help give students extra practice.

The next step from here is having students take a blank organizer and generate 3 ideas that are watermelons and identify seeds within each. I have a graphic organizer to help them with this, and it really seems to help. Finally, from there we move on to actually starting to pick an idea and lay out their personal narratives (which is a completely different process).

I’ve discovered that this process really changes the tone of my writing classroom for the rest of the year. Any time I ask the students to write about a personal experience, they are much more focused and discussing the deeper pieces of the event instead of just giving the play-by-play. It also helps us build a shared vocabulary as we move forward.

Want your own copy of some of the materials I use for these lessons? Enter your email below for a free personal narrative mini-pack!

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I hope this article gave you some ideas for helping your writers focus their personal narratives. If you’d like more ideas from The Third Wheel, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram to keep up to date and on the latest tips, tools, and freebies for your classroom.

Filed Under: Writing 26 Comments

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Comments

  1. Mrs. Bangert says

    July 20, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    I Love Lucy's writing. This worksheet will be a great help.

    Reply
  2. Becky says

    July 20, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    I am using Lucy Calkins too! Thanks for sharing! Great worksheet!

    Reply
  3. Heather says

    July 20, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    I like this graphic organizer – it's cute and demonstrates the seed vs. watermelon idea nicely. Thanks for sharing! I used parts of Lucy Calkins' units last year, and although I found her style to be a little to intense and wordy for my taste, I was able to glean some brilliant ideas (including this watermelon vs. seed idea) and modify to suit my own needs. : )

    http://mrsrobinsonsclassroomblog.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  4. Inspired Teacher says

    July 20, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    Lucy Calkins ROCKS! Thank you so much for sharing the ADORABLE Worksheet! =)

    Beth
    http://inspiredwritingteacher.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  5. Mrs. E says

    July 20, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    Love this..and we use LC too! Watermelon vs Seed stories was hard for my kids last year. I think this will help! Thank you for sharing!
    -Audrey
    The Sweet Life of Third Grade

    Reply
  6. Sapphire Dawn says

    July 21, 2011 at 7:17 am

    Your watermelon sheet is too cute. I'm unfamiliar with LC, but your presentation can certainly help with kiddos narrowing their ideas.

    Teaching overseas
    Sapphire Dawn

    Reply
  7. sydney says

    July 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    I absolutely LOVE this seed writing paper your created. Thank you so much for sharing it!
    Lessons Learned

    Reply
  8. Miss Ice says

    July 23, 2011 at 3:04 am

    Last year was my first year using Lucky and I have to admit I struggled with all the wording in the lessons. I'm hoping to find other teachers and bloggers who can provide neat things like this to help me teach it better this year. Thanks!

    Reply
  9. cindi says

    July 23, 2011 at 4:36 am

    Love this organizer. We use UoS as well and this will be my first year in 3rd so I am excited to have this to use. (tear) I can't get the cute title to download correctly, but thanks for posting!!

    Reply
  10. Mrs. D says

    July 23, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    Cindi,

    Drop me a comment with an email address, and I would be happy to send it your way 🙂

    Mrs. D

    Reply
  11. Teaching Mommy says

    July 25, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    I teach 4th grade, and we're using it this year for the first time, too. I think the watermelon paper is great! I've tried out the writer's workshop before and can honestly say more of my kids enjoyed writing than with other ways I've taught it, but it's hard to figure out exactly what to teach, I think. I'm hoping her books will help with this. And I think when you're thinking about how wordy she is, remember this – you want to get the point across, but you can do it in your own way. We also have less time for writing than she calls for, so we're going to do each session in 2 days, using the mid lesson teaching point as a minilesson to start off the next day. We'll see how it goes!

    Reply
  12. Sara says

    September 3, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    I love the Units of Study, but I also love spicing it up! Thanks for sharing this. One thing I would add about Lucy's work is that all of that wording is just the way ONE teacher made it work in her classroom. If you focus on the bold print in the text and make it work for you, you'll be much happier. 🙂 Good luck this school year!

    Reply
  13. Bee Isme says

    August 4, 2012 at 8:27 pm

    I just stumbled upon your blog when looking for resources for seed story lessons, and I love your handout! I can't seem to download it though. Can you email it to me instead? Thank you!
    Bee
    Bee Teaches

    Reply
  14. Cheri Hall says

    November 28, 2012 at 4:53 am

    I love Lucy Calkins, also and I LOVE this graphic organizer!!! Thanks for sharing it! Would you be so kind as to email it to me, as well? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

    Reply
  15. Mrs. D says

    November 29, 2012 at 1:59 am

    Cheri,
    So glad you like it. You can download it from my TpT store for free here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thethirdwheel

    Enjoy!

    Reply
  16. jivey says

    March 7, 2013 at 10:05 pm

    Thanks for linking up!! 🙂 Do you mind to link back to my blog on the button? I appreciate it! 🙂
    Jivey
    ideas by jivey

    Reply
  17. Mrs. D says

    March 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm

    Crud! I had it linked…must have gotten messed up when I put the link to Amazon in just a minute ago. Off to fix the problem!

    Mrs. D

    Reply
  18. Teach80 says

    July 23, 2013 at 10:08 pm

    Just found your blog. We are going to be using Lucy Calkins this year. Is there any way I can get a copy of the Seed Writing sheet? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Mrs. D says

      December 24, 2016 at 4:22 pm

      Just enter your email on the post, and it will arrive right to your inbox.

      Reply
  19. Mrs. D says

    July 28, 2013 at 8:25 pm

    I think you will really like the idea of seed stories. I feel like my students have such a better grasp with this analogy. Here is the link to the seed story item in my TpT store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Seeds-of-a-Great-Story-for-Personal-Narrative-Writing-404890

    Reply
  20. Maria says

    September 16, 2016 at 8:13 pm

    Is it still possible to get a copy of this Small Moments seed organizer sheet?

    Reply
    • Mrs. D says

      December 24, 2016 at 4:46 pm

      Yes! Just add your email into the form at the bottom of the post, and it will come right to your inbox.

      Reply
  21. Idalia Laber says

    September 28, 2016 at 2:57 am

    Where can I find the handout regarding “Generating Small Moments”?

    Reply
    • Mrs. D says

      December 24, 2016 at 4:22 pm

      Just enter your email on the post, and it will arrive right to your inbox.

      Reply
  22. Erin says

    October 30, 2016 at 12:59 am

    I would love a copy of this organizer!

    Reply
    • Mrs. D says

      December 24, 2016 at 4:22 pm

      Just enter your email on the post, and it will arrive right to your inbox.

      Reply

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