Mr. Rick Shelton, writing consultant and author, joined the Sparkman Middle School ELA teachers and their classes for two days in order to model HOW to write a reflective narrative.
Mr. Shelton noted, "In almost every classroom I have found that students, when equipped with a few straightforward strategies and some real-world motivation, quickly come to see themselves as competent writers. When kids are given permission to discover, organize, and write about what they know and where they are, their fear of writing can disappear in a moment. This transformation of attitude often leads students to write more, and more expressively. My work also focuses on helping teachers become more confident writers, themselves, and giving them practical and efficient approaches for writing instruction."
Our students absolutely loved him! He engaged them with his sense of humor and meaningful, relevant stories. He revealed his thinking process to the students and modeled his response to a prompt during a timed writing.
Mr. Shelton noted, "In almost every classroom I have found that students, when equipped with a few straightforward strategies and some real-world motivation, quickly come to see themselves as competent writers. When kids are given permission to discover, organize, and write about what they know and where they are, their fear of writing can disappear in a moment. This transformation of attitude often leads students to write more, and more expressively. My work also focuses on helping teachers become more confident writers, themselves, and giving them practical and efficient approaches for writing instruction."
Our students absolutely loved him! He engaged them with his sense of humor and meaningful, relevant stories. He revealed his thinking process to the students and modeled his response to a prompt during a timed writing.
Reflective Narrative Writing- Day 1
Reflective narratives are stories. During the story, the writer tells what it means to him/her, or how it felt when it was happening. For example, "I thought to myself, 'What am I doing? This is so crazy! My heart was about to jump out of my chest, and my knees felt like jello!'"
Mr. Shelton said there are 5 essential things that students need to consider when given a reflective narrative writing prompt:
1. Focus on ONE main event.
Do not talk about 3 different things in one story. We don't want to hear about your fishing trip, the roller coaster ride, AND your birthday party. It is imperative that the students decide which ONE event they want to write about. Mr. Shelton said, "Keep it simple!"
2. Decide on the BIG moment.
This must be done BEFORE the student begins to write the story. A plan must be mapped out before writing the story. He goes into detail about this on Day 2.
3. Write 3 scenes.
Scene 1: JUST before (not way before; we don't want to hear about waking up, getting ready, driving over to the event, etc.). The reader wants to know what happens JUST before the main event.
Scene 2: During- This includes the BIG moment!
Scene 3: After- What happened right after? Not the next day or next week.
This is Mr. Shelton's example of the JUST before scene. He wrote it in less than 3 minutes while the students watched and listened. He modeled the writing of all three scenes. He explained to the students that this is NOT a long scene, and that they cannot get away with writing only half of a page for the entire narrative. He told them that if they would think of one main event that has actually happened to them, it would be easy to write more than one page, because the reader wants to know what happened, how the student felt, and what he/she learned.
Mr. Shelton said there are 5 essential things that students need to consider when given a reflective narrative writing prompt:
1. Focus on ONE main event.
Do not talk about 3 different things in one story. We don't want to hear about your fishing trip, the roller coaster ride, AND your birthday party. It is imperative that the students decide which ONE event they want to write about. Mr. Shelton said, "Keep it simple!"
2. Decide on the BIG moment.
This must be done BEFORE the student begins to write the story. A plan must be mapped out before writing the story. He goes into detail about this on Day 2.
3. Write 3 scenes.
Scene 1: JUST before (not way before; we don't want to hear about waking up, getting ready, driving over to the event, etc.). The reader wants to know what happens JUST before the main event.
Scene 2: During- This includes the BIG moment!
Scene 3: After- What happened right after? Not the next day or next week.
This is Mr. Shelton's example of the JUST before scene. He wrote it in less than 3 minutes while the students watched and listened. He modeled the writing of all three scenes. He explained to the students that this is NOT a long scene, and that they cannot get away with writing only half of a page for the entire narrative. He told them that if they would think of one main event that has actually happened to them, it would be easy to write more than one page, because the reader wants to know what happened, how the student felt, and what he/she learned.
4. Start with a person... in a place... doing SOMETHING.
The story needs to start of with some action.
Unfortunately, some of our students will begin and end stories this way:
"Hi, my name is Jill. I'm going to tell you a story about the first time I rode a roller coaster.... Thank you for reading my story."
The picture above illustrates the "JUST before" scene in Mr. Shelton's story.
5. Write how the characters feel or how they learn.
What are the characters thinking? This is called the "brain-probe." The readers want to know what is going on in the character's brain.
The story needs to start of with some action.
Unfortunately, some of our students will begin and end stories this way:
"Hi, my name is Jill. I'm going to tell you a story about the first time I rode a roller coaster.... Thank you for reading my story."
The picture above illustrates the "JUST before" scene in Mr. Shelton's story.
5. Write how the characters feel or how they learn.
What are the characters thinking? This is called the "brain-probe." The readers want to know what is going on in the character's brain.
Day 2
Prompt: Think of a time when you had to do something on your own or when you felt like it "was all up to you." Write a story about this experience. Remember to reflect on what the experience meant to you, how you felt about it, and/or what you learned from it.
Mr. Shelton had the students "map out" their plans on scratch paper. Here is his example of creating a plan before beginning to write the narrative:
Scratch Paper
The main event: the time I was Master of Ceremonies for the junior high talent show
The BIG moment: the moment when the curtains opened
3 scenes:
JUST before: back stage
During: standing on stage in front of 500 people
After: sitting in a chair recovering from the experience
Scratch Paper
The main event: the time I was Master of Ceremonies for the junior high talent show
The BIG moment: the moment when the curtains opened
3 scenes:
JUST before: back stage
During: standing on stage in front of 500 people
After: sitting in a chair recovering from the experience
And that's it! That should take the student less than 5 minutes to write, which means he/she has 25 minutes left to write the reflective narrative. Writing a story will be MUCH simpler with a written plan in place. If we teach our 6th grade students to map out a plan and practice it multiple times before the ACT Aspire Writing Assessment, the students will have a much easier time knowing how to write what the prompt requires of them.
www.rickshelton.us