Attention-Grabbers Lesson – Narrative Stories

A good introduction is one that doesn’t always start at the beginning of the story. A good introduction uses figurative language, interesting detail, and grabs the reader’s attention and makes him/her want to keep going! This is something I emphasized with my sophomores when writing their narrative pieces.

The second major writing assignment for my Mason City High School sophomores was what I called the ‘Moment Story.’ They were to take a moment from their timeline and work to create a first-person story based on that event.

To preview and get the students ready for writing, we studied introductions, and in this lesson specifically, attention-grabbing introductions.

This worksheet: Don’t Begin at the Beginning, was projected on the SmartBoard for students to follow along with. They were also given a copy on their computers to take notes on. We talked about ways to start an introduction; then I split the students into groups and they were asked to take one of the introduction examples and decide which strategy from the worksheet was being implemented.

We shared as a class which allowed students to see examples and ideas they could integrate in their own stories.

For the complete lesson plan, click here: Attention-Grabbers Lesson Plan

For my notes, click here: Attention-Grabber Notes

This is a preview of the rubric I used to assess my student’s short stories, Moment Story Rubric: