Writing Personal Narratives

[Kelly Knudsen]

Hello!  I am looking for ways to enhance my teaching of personal narratives.
What can I do to get them into writing about their life so far and make it POP?
We've looked through about 20 autobiographies from Anne Frank to TUPAC and soon they will practice writing their own. 

Any suggestions?

[Ryan Goble]

I've found students always enjoy listening to "This American Life" radio broadcasts - usually they have pretty incredible personal narratives, sometimes written by the author, sometimes crafted by a radio host.

Sarah Vowell's essay "Shooting Dad" was turned into a TAL 81: Guns - Act 1 - students love this story.

I've also found this TAL 75: Babysitting: Act 1 to be SUPER high interest for students.

And many students are moved by this oldie but goodie Ghetto Life 101

To make it a more multi-modal experience, you might also use a short film like "Something Other Than Other"

These models allow your auditory and visual students ways into personal narrative...

With these models, I always have students define the conflicts and the changes that occur to the narrator over time. Often students write flat narratives with no revelations or turning points. These stories have a wide range of AHA moments for the narrator.

You might also check out some of David Sedaris' work on This American Life & NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5023232

If you are interested in Graphic Novel personal narratives ask that question over in the Comics group and you'll get a huge list as there are lots of great comic narratives as well!

Hope this isn't redundant to the work you've already done. I just like to add points of entry for the students who are not in love with print. Sometimes the concepts are held in relief when we use other, more pop, mediums...

RRG:)

[Kelly Knudsen]

Thanks so much! These will be great to get them going. This is the 4th day of class and over half of them say they hate writing. I think this may spark some of them.

[Ryan Goble]

Yeah, if they don't dig writing try those other media!! Let me know how it goes - Babysitting is off the hook - do preview the whole things because the message of the story is a bit controversial. Pin drop kind of listening! Make sure you give them good graphic organizers for their guided listening :)

Hopefully more folks will drop by and share other, better ideas!

RRG:)