Narrative Writing  

Lesson Plan for Grade 1, English Language Arts 

Prepared by Mrs. Stone 

Monday 
Scholars will use the​ “Small Moments” organizer ​to brainstorm four major memories 
from their life. The graphic organizer has 4 “moment” sections: school, family, holiday, 
and emotion. Scholars are not limited to only those 4 memory sections, if they have 
another specific memory that they would like to discuss. Just mark out one of the topic 
sections or add to it by drawing it onto the organizer. Inside of each box on the lines, 
scholars will write about a memory they have from their own personal life related to 
that topic.  

Example: School Moment-I remember when I was in 10th grade, my math teacher sold 
drinks and snacks to us in class. I would always bring $.75 to school to buy a small 
gatorade and a bag of Doritos.  

Scholars will choose one of the memories from the previous organizer to write about. 
The experience should be a memory from their life that they clearly understand, 
remember and can explain on their own. Scholars will use the​ “My Small Moment” 
organizer ​to brainstorm the events from their memory. The events should be written on 
the organizer around the middle of the circle. Make sure every step or part of the 
experience (memory) is written on the sheet. If a step is missed, the writing piece is going 
to have a gap. Be sure your scholar has at least 5 events to the story. Start from the very 
beginning, give each part in the middle, and give a clear ending. Later, the events will 
have to be placed in sequential order but for now they just need to be written on the 
organizer.  

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Tuesday 
On the “My Small Moments” sheet, scholars should take a colored pencil, marker, crayon 
or pen and label each event in order from 1-5. If there are more than 5 events on the 
organizer, then only choose the best “top” 5 and label them. Make sure that the five 
events that are chosen are able to connect together like a puzzle. You don’t want gaps in 
between the events that are chosen because they will not line up and make sense.  

Scholars will need 2 or 3 “Draw It Out” sheets to fit their entire story. In each box, 
scholars should draw out a picture that matches each event. The first box will be used to 
draw the picture for the ‘opening’ topic sentence. The opening sentence should give a 
clear image of what the story is going to be about. This story is a “Personal Narrative”, 
which means it is all about a memory. When writing a personal narrative we use 
transitional words such as first, next, then, then , last or finally. The boxes on the graphic 
organizer should match up to the numbered events for the story. The narrative should be 
laid out as : Opening Sentence, First, Next, Then, Then, Last, Closing Sentence. It should 
take at least 7 boxes each labeled with each of the above transition words. The drawings 
in each box should have a lot of color and details, it should not be a outline or quick 
draw. 

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Wednesday 
In today’s writing task, scholars will be identifying all transition words, any ALL CAPS 
words, and two Ellipses that can be used in their personal narrative. The sheets below do 
not have to be printed out, to save ink and copies, just have your scholar write all of the 
transitions, all caps and ellipses’ on a seperate sheet of paper (labeled). By using the 
“Small Moment” topic that was chosen on Monday and the Draw it Out events from 
Tuesday, scholars will come up with 4 all CAPS words that would fit. Once they have 
come up with 4 ALL CAPS words, they will choose one of the words to write a practice 
sentence for their story. Make sure the chosen word makes sense and fits smoothly into 
the story.  

Writers use Ellipses to let the reader know what is coming in the story. They add 
hesitation and suspense to what is about to happen. The Anchor Chart (on the Weebly 
Page) has a list of 3 major examples of Ellipses to help scholars identify and understand 
the point of one. Being sure to keep the events and parts of the story in mind, scholars 
will work to create two different Ellipses’ that can be used in their story. Remember to 
double check that it fits and flows smoothly in the story. If you try to say the sentence 
and it doesn’t link up the parts before or after it then it may need to be changed or 
redone.  

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Thursday 
Scholars should use all of the activity sheets from the week to create a strong rough draft. A 
personal narrative is a story of a memory or experience. It should have characters, a setting, and 
several events that happen in order of how they happened in real life. While some personal 
narratives can be make-believe or “fiction”, the focus of this personal narrative should be a real 
nonfiction experience or memory that your scholar has from their past. Make sure that your 
scholar has access to their ellipsis, sound word, transition words and their all CAPS words that 
were chosen that match and fit perfectly into their story.  

Use the lined writing paper (if printed) or just write on regular lined paper. Begin writing with a 
clear ​opening sentence​ that explains the moment or experience that they are going to be writing 
about. Signify the transition word as the first word of your sentence (​First​). Your ‘first’ sentence 
should explain to the reader the very first event , could be leading the story into the place it 
should be. ‘​Next​’ should be the third sentence of the personal narrative and it gives the second 
event or step of the story (First I did___, Next I did/went ___). The next event or step of the writing 
piece should start with the transition word ​“Then’​. To make the story even longer, the word ‘next 
and the word ‘then’ can be swapped out and reused back and forth to extend the story and add 
specific events. The next to last sentence should begin with the word ​‘last’ ​or ​‘finally’.​ That 
sentence should be the last event that closes off and ‘wraps up’ the story. The very last sentence of 
the personal narrative is not meant to be part of the story but to give an opinion, ask a question or 
give a clear statement about the story topic. That sentence is called the ‘closing sentence’ and 
should be at least sentence number 7 if all of the components of the story and transition words 
were used correctly.  

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 Friday Final Draft 
Before starting your final draft, scholars should slowly read through their narrative. Make sure that 
all of the transitions are clean, spelling is corrected, sentences are added to or taken out to create 
stronger writing. When you think that your personal narrative is ready, start by transferring the 
sentences and events one at a time. Scholars should be taking their time to copy the sentences 
correctly in the best handwriting possible.Once scholars are satisfied with their final draft, they can 
draw and color a picture that matches the story. The picture should include the major characters, 
setting and a matching event that explains what the personal narrative is mostly about.  

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