Page 82 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade6_Flipbook

4. Plot: Beginning, Middle, and End
Create a graphic organizer using the heading below to divide the story
into three parts. Consider how much description and detail each will need, considering that you want a narrative with pacing that will keep your audience interested.
Beginning:
Middle:
Sets up the characters, setting, Explains a problem or challenge, Solves the problem, meets the and situation. details main events. challenge, learns a lesson.
5. Brainstorm sensory details you might use to describe the setting of the teacher’s narrative. Try to use all the senses, if possible (sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell).
6. An important technique writers use to express the significance of an experience is to state how they felt as events took place—a technique that also serves to characterize the narrator to the reader. Skim back through Paulsen’s narrative, underlining spots where he relates his own feelings and thoughts at the time of the experience.
Drafting the Essay
7. With your classmates and your teacher, you will now use your notes and your reading of the sample text to draft the beginning of your narrative essay. Be sure to include the following elements:
• Context (the situation, characters, and/or conflict that is central to the story)
• Provocative statement (a statement to grab the reader’s attention and perhaps preview the story)
• Setting (when and where the story takes place)
To check your understanding: Look at the first paragraphs of Paulsen’s narrative, and identify these elements. Then, as a class, draft the introduction to your class-constructed essay. Copy your draft below.
Writing Workshop 7 • Narrative Nonfiction 5
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