Avoid aligning every task you administer to a standardized test-like prompt or situation. Teaching writing effectively across a range of genres supplies the necessary skills to embolden students to approach any writing situation with courage and assurance.
The Fundamentals of Narrative Writing
The following sections present a brief overview of the fundamentals of narrative writing and describe additional information available in the appendices at the end of this book, specifically:
• Appendix A: Narrative and Descriptive Text Types
• Appendix B: Elements of Literature
• Appendix C: Literary Devices and Figurative Language
If you require more guidance on narrative writing before you begin your work creating unit plans in chapter 1, refer to these appendices. While English language arts teachers and others conversant in narrative and descriptive text types, narrative genres, elements of literature, figurative language, and literary devices will likely find this information familiar, teachers from other disciplines looking to infuse narrative and descriptive writing into their subject areas might find this overview valuable. With that said, however, those familiar with these topics might still like to peruse the appendices to determine how the examples featured might be used within lesson planning.
Narrative and Descriptive Writing
Narrative and descriptive writing are text types also known as categories or modes of writing. (Expository and persuasive are the other two text types, the subject of other books in this series.) Any text type aligns to a writer’s purpose for crafting the piece—to entertain, inform, explain, and so forth—which in turn dictates other writing factors like audience and style. Various genres reside within text types, which represent different works that are grouped together because they share commonalities—like a distinctive style, form, or element. Table I.1, an excerpt from chapter 1 of The Fundamentals of (Re)-designing Writing Units (Glass, 2017a), lists the narrative and descriptive text types, their unique characteristics, the primary purposes of each, and the genres and subgenres within narrative writing, essentially serving as an outline for appendix A (page 123). Descriptive writing is interwoven throughout various genres across text types and doesn’t necessarily have dedicated genres, which appendix A addresses in more detail. Although this resource provides an overview of the most common narrative genres and subgenres, there are even more that you can find when conducting your own research. Furthermore, there are various definitions, classifications, and nuances within some of them.
Elements of Literature
The elements of literature—or narrative elements—are the heart and soul of fictional narrative. They include character, setting, plot, point of view, and theme. Without them, a work of fiction seems incomplete, undeveloped, or inadequate. These elements appear to some degree in nonfiction narrative.
Most standards documents list expectations around elements of literature for both writing and reading, including the English language arts Common Core (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010). The genre can affect the treatment, so students need to know which kind of narrative they are expected to write so they can make decisions about elements. For example, in historical fiction the setting is altogether critical to the telling of the story and affects characters, plot, and theme. In myths, the setting might be an ill-defined, amorphous, and remote past, but the principal characters are pronounced and can possess supernatural powers. In mysteries, authors fashion a plotline with a crime that launches the story.
Appendix B (page 131) presents a thorough explanation of each element for those needing this information or a review of it.
Literary Devices and Figurative Language
Authors select and employ literary devices and figurative language to suit the purpose for which they are writing and enhance a work of narration. Literary devices, such as allusion, analogy, mood, tone, flashback, foreshadowing, dialect, dialogue, irony, and others, are techniques that writers use to enrich and add dimension to their work.
Table I.1: Narrative and Descriptive Writing Overview
Source: Glass, 2017a.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for a free reproducible version of this table.
Figurative language refers to simile, metaphor, imagery, personification, and hyperbole. It enhances setting, character, plot elements, feelings, ideas, and other content to make the text vivid, realistic or fantastical, and compelling. When authors use figurative language, they want readers to understand the connotation rather than the literal interpretation of their words. As a result, readers must use interpretation skills once they recognize and identify instances where the writer uses these figures of speech.
You can explore the definitions and extensive examples of literary devices and figurative language in more detail in appendix C (page 137) should you need this support or as a tool for planning lessons.
Book Organization and Contents Overview
This book takes a sequential approach to building a narrative writing unit. Therefore, many chapters include exercises suggesting how you can apply what you read, so that by the time you finish the last page you will have a draft of your unit ready to develop and pilot. For this reason, I suggest targeting a particular area of your curriculum in which producing a narrative is the culminating assessment.
Chapter 1 presents a host of options for developing and supporting narrative maps. You can download and use items from the sample template that feature learning outcomes and guiding questions as a resource for developing your own unit. Or use one of the two blank templates in the chapter and start fresh.
Chapter 2 includes suggestions and specific examples for crafting a preassessment and a performance assessment task aligned to narrative writing. In addition, I offer a narrative checklist and rubric to use during instruction that you can adapt for your teaching purposes; the latter is also used to score the final writing piece. Since presenting the checklist or rubric is critical to setting clear expectations, I share strategies for introducing and using these tools with students. The chapter also features grading suggestions.
In chapter 3, you will find a detailed example for teaching students how to write a setting with imagery using the components of the gradual release of responsibility design model. It includes the step-by-step sequence and student materials so you can conduct the lesson.
Chapter 4 focuses on strategies, resources, activities, and assessments specific to teaching skills related to narrative. You can use what this chapter features to redesign or build your own lessons—for example, learning experiences related to writing plot, theme, introductions for narratives, dialogue, and more.
Because reading and writing are intrinsically