A brief guide to engaging students in narrative writing by having them program robots to act out their stories.

A story with all action and not enough reflection sounds childish and lacks depth. But a story that is all reflective thoughts and emotions can bore a reader and run the risk of not teling a story at all. Today’s mini move will help us think about the see-sawing effect of balancing actions with thoughts and emotions so that our story has the perfect amount of both!

This lesson gives students the opportunity to learn iMovie and integrate their knowledge into creating a book trailer. By creating the book trailer, students are showing their ability to integrate media into a presentation and analyze various parts of literature. Photo from iphotostock.com

Students will use what they have learned about descriptive writing--show don’t tell, vivid verbs and adjectives, sensory details, and figurative language--to write a snapshot detailed description of a picture they find or create.  Students select a picture of their choice and then write an extended paragraph. 

This is an activity you can do with older students as a way to encourage digital story telling.

Earl E. Literacy, spokespuppet of the Salt Lake City Public Library, interviews author Brando Mull about his many books, his workstyle as an author, and how kids can become better writes themselves.

City Library Spokespuppet Earl E. Literacy interviews "Ranger's Apprentice" series author John Flanagan. They talk about John's new book, his connection to his characters, how his books connect to his family and how young writers can better plan their stories.

Successful personal essays connect with the reader through detail and specificity -- by zooming in on single moments and then exploding them with meaning. In this video, we’ll talk about exactly why and how writers explode moments into statements of deep significance in personal narratives.

Often the difference between a drab, lifeless personal narrative and an engaging, lively one is the use of concrete details. In this video, we will learn about how concrete details help us take the guesswork out of reading our narrative while showing our unique voice and perspective.

Writing complete sentences is harder than you might think, and it’s a fundamental writing skill that’s worthy of review. In this video, you’ll learn about what makes a complete sentence, tips for making sure your sentences are complete, and circumstances in which writers break this rule effectively.

Marshfield Dreams by Ralph Fletcher is the perfect, bite-sized mentor text for narrative writing!

"Why You're Never Too Old to Build Castles in the Air" by Miles Howard is a charming blend of persuasion and narrative with a dash of research. It's approachable and accessible in every way-- from the conversational writing style tot the topic of adult Legos. Bring this one into an argument unit or a personal essay unit!

Each Mini Moves for Writers video teaches you how to use one professional writing move that will enhance your writing style|argumentation|voice|grammar|or organization. Check out just one to help you master a specific move|or watch multiple videos to make your writing into a professional masterpiece.

 This speech therapy lesson focuses on building a personal narrative of something that is special about the student themselves, in order to help students build expressive language skills and vocabulary skills, as well as create a personal digital storytelling video to showcase to others. Students will complete a digital story using their school chromebook devices. The face-to-face instructions/lesson of vocabulary and sentence starter examples will take two 25-minute speech therapy sessions. The students will be given time to work on their projects during a third and fourth 25-minute speech therapy session. An additional session will be reserved for students to share their projects in a small group. This lesson plan is designed for middle school to high school grade levels. 

Writing dialogue in a narrative is both an art and a science. Dialogue needs to accomplish something in the story, but it also needs to be written conventionally so that a reader can easily understand who is speaking and when. In this video, you’ll learn the two purposes for dialogue (a great self-check when you’re tempted to add dialogue to a story!) and five tips for writing it conventionally!

A great first lesson to introduce your students to writing creative scary stories!

This lesson plan walks students through the elements of a short story to prepare them to write their own stories and then turn them into digital storoes that they will share with the class. 

This resource will be used to write a narrative story. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of literary elements and elements of a fairy tale. 

Students will have the opportunity to write a personal narrative which they will turn into a storyboard to make a digial story. Image citation: https://unsplash.com/photos/Z5JJifMtbCo

The Common Core State Standards are national standards that indicate what K-12 students are expected to learn in math and the English language arts. The standards themselves are lengthy and span K-12, but it's important for parents to understand the goals of the standards and ways to support school instruction at home.