Assignment for Monday and Tuesday: Work on Personal Narratives. Read assignment below.
Personal Narrative is due 12/8
Personal
Narrative
A Personal Narrative is a form of writing in which
the writer relates an event, incident, or experience in his or her own life. It
is usually focused on one idea. The
events of a personal narrative are most often presented in chronological order,
the order in which they actually occurred in time. The personal narrative
incorporates vivid descriptive details as well as the thoughts, feelings,
and reactions of the writer.
Remember the first paragraph, just like an essay, should have
a grabber or an attention getting statement and it can set up your reason for
writing—it could contain a controlling idea and can also state a list of topics
that you will discuss in your essay (these are not bad things to practice and
you should look at the student examples). It should follow a plot with an exposition,
inciting event and a resolution.
Some things
you can discuss:
1) Who
are you and where are you from? What is
your family like? What do your parents
or relatives do?
2) Tell
me something was important in your life (example: describe winning a race, or
attending your sister’s marriage, etc.)
3) Tell
a story about your past (maybe this past summer—such as your job)?
4) Overcoming
some problem or situation (example: I had a girl in the Marshall
Islands write about battling
anorexia).
5) Take
an experience from your life, an experience that taught you something about
life (either about suffering, about healing, about people, about yourself)
–Think about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s statement: “What most people are ashamed of
usually makes a good story.”
I’m looking for passion,
excitement, description, dialogue, and your voice coming out and calling the
reader to pay attention because what you have to say is important!
Please use details, imagery and if
possible figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, etc.) If you don’t know these terms do not worry,
we will cover them in class during the year.
Before you begin writing I’d like you to begin by pre-writing and
thinking about organization. Never just
start writing without jotting down ideas or writing out some sort of map or
outline.
The purpose of this assignment is
for you to start to format letters/ideas for you to use as a senior when you
apply to colleges and for scholarships.
It will also give you valuable writing practice for writing is a skill
that needs constant practice and developing.
Requirements: Your narrative needs to be at least 3 pages
long (it can be double-spaced). There is
no maximum length. You will be graded on
a rubric broken into ideas, organization, voice, word choice (usage), sentence
fluidity (structure), and conventions.
Grade: This assignment will be worth 150 points.
Unit
Learning goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the structure of
fiction by breaking down the essential building blocks (literary elements) of
short stories by plot, dialogue, imagery, character development, figurative
language (metaphor, symbolism, irony), point of view, connecting these blocks
to the overall meaning (or theme) of the text, and final writing a personal
narrative using some of these devices.
Scale/Rubric
relating to learning goal:
4 – The student can analyze the elements of a short story
come up with a valid theme (or themes) of a text and relate this theme to other
texts and/or movies and real world situations.
The student is able to write a personal narrative using these elements
to create a text with a realistic theme that relates to the student’s life.
3 – The student can analyze elements of a short story and
come up with a valid theme for a text.
The student is able to write a personal narrative using some of these
elements to create a text with a valid theme that relates to the student’s life.
2 – With some direction/help from the teacher the student
can analyze the elements of a short story and come up with a theme for a
text. With some direction/help from the
teacher the student is able to write a personal narrative using some of these
elements to create a text with a valid theme that relates to the student’s
life.
1 – Even with help from the teacher the student is unable
to analyze elements of a short story and come up with a theme for a text. Even with help from the teacher the student
in unable to write a personal narrative using some of these elements to create
a text with a valid theme that relates to the student’s life.
Personal Narrative Rubric
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4
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3
|
2
|
1
|
Ideas:
Introduction to the topic. Engaging
and orienting the reader by setting out a problem or a situation. This should include a controlling idea or
suggested theme.
(W2a,
W3a)
|
Topic
– controlling idea or theme is clear, and engaging. There is a problem or conflict in the
personal narrative. The controlling
idea links all sections of the narrative.
The presentation is near poetic in effect.
|
Topic
– controlling idea or theme is clear and engaging.
|
Topic
– controlling idea or theme is not clear, or the introduction is not
engaging. There might be no conflict
or problem or the intro. is wordy and /or rambles without getting to the
point.
|
The
introduction is hard to read or to understand as far as it relates to a
central idea or theme.
|
Details:
Use of narrative techniques such as dialogue, descriptions, concrete
details. This could include figurative
language (metaphor, similes, symbols, personification), use of allusions, irony,
and/or effective dialect.
(W2b,
W3b, W3c, W3d)
|
Details
are effective and add depth to the narrative.
The use of strategies such as figurative language relate back to the
controlling idea or theme. Use of many
techniques or strategies.
|
Details
are effective and concrete. Use of
many techniques or strategies.
|
The
narrative could use more details to develop the setting, problem or the
readers understanding of the storyline.
|
No
specific details. Narrative is a
collection of generalizations.
|
Organization:
Use of transitions to idea with idea, sequencing of events or plot
strategies, the presentation of ideas in a logical format.
(W2c,
W2f, W3b, W3c, W3e)
|
The
sequence of events and/or use of transitions to connect ideas and adds to the
text’s meaning or is innovative.
Techniques such as flashback, foreshadowing, use of parallelism, and
sentence organization (loose and/or periodic structures) might be used.
|
The
sequence of events and/or use of transitions is effective.
|
Narrative
is either missing transitions or the sequence of events are out of order,
illogical, or confusing as presented.
|
Narrative
lacks structure or organization.
|
Word
Choice/Syntax: Use of precise language, interesting word choice, SAT
vocabulary and varied syntax
(w2d,
w2e, L3)
|
Impressive
and effective vocabulary. Effective
and engaging syntax. Use of high-level
vocabulary and many types of sentences and sentence lengths for effect.
|
Precise
and effective language/vocabulary.
Varied syntax.
|
Overuse
of “to be” verbs or repetitious language.
Syntax is not varied much.
|
No
variation in syntax. Word choice is
simplistic.
|
Conventions/Spelling
(L1,
L2)
|
No
noticeable grammar errors
|
1-3
noticeable errors, but errors do not distract from the readability of the
narrative.
|
3
or more noticeable errors, or an error or errors that distract from the
readability of the narrative.
|
Narrative
is plagued with grammar errors and is hard to read |
