For my Narrative Unit [with my Mason City High School sophomores], I had them first create a narrative ‘Day in the Life’ Comic, and then work on taking their comic and creating a short [1-2 paragraph] narrative story based on it.
[Click here to see previous lessons: Day in the Life Comic & Narrative Comic to Short Story]
After the students created their short narrative, I lead them in a group discussion about introductions–how they can be attention-grabbing, how they set the stage for a piece of writing, and how they incorporate aspects of figurative language.
Together with the students, I showed them some example introductions and had them evaluate the introductions.
Here are the examples I used in class:
Example 1:
Today is Tuesday. I wake up early. I don’t want to be up. I look at stuff. I think about my day. I like Tuesdays, especially today, because I’m going to Cancun. I get out of bed and decide to get dressed, so I walk to my closet and pick out an outfit that I really like.
What do we notice here?
- Introduction: not very interesting
- Sentences: short, choppy, not very developed
- Word Choice: ambiguous words – ‘early,’ ‘stuff,’ ‘think about,’ ‘an outfit’
- Detail/Imagery: lacking, nothing to really picture
- Transitions: story goes from one thing to another, nothing flows nicely, very factual, not interesting or engaging to the reader
Example 2:
On this particular Tuesday, I woke up a quarter past six. It was fifteen minutes before my alarm went off, and I wanted nothing more than to just fall back asleep for a few minutes. As I lay there, I studied my ceiling. There were little glow-in-the-dark stars covering every surface. I was warm, wrapped tightly in my soft, checkered quilt. I thought about my day. Tuesdays are usually the same routine—a waffle with peanut butter for breakfast, work at 7am to 11am, classes, then practice. But today wasn’t a typical Tuesday. Today, I was leaving for the airport to head to Cancun.
After laying in my bed for what seemed like three seconds, I got up and started getting dressed. I had already picked out my outfit—a cotton dress, blue, like over-ripened blueberries with a thin white sweater jacket and matching white shoes.
What do we notice here?
- Starting with the day to ground us in a specific moment
- Detail: time, ceiling, quilt, Tuesday routine
- Setting: bed, quilt, bedroom
- Narration: first person, thoughts, feelings/emotion
- Literary devices: exaggeration, visual/tactile/gustatory imagery, simile
- Transition: leading into next part of the story
- Interest: story is interesting, we have description and detail rather than stated facts
For the peer editing sheet, click here: Peer Editing Rubric.
Here is the complete lesson plan on Developing Introductions.