Day 1

Name: Drexton Sportel

Date: 10/26/15
Lesson Objective: SWBAT provide an example of a narrative text.
Rationale: This lesson connects with the common core standard of CC.4.W.3-Text Types and Purposes:
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive
details, and clear event sequences. It is also important that students understand and comprehend the ideas
of a narrative text as they will be using these skills throughout their schooling careers, writing not only
narratives but other genres as well. I will make this relevant to students lives in a couple of ways. One, I will
allow them to write a narrative about a story of their own choosing and two I will model narratives by using
their day to day lives as examples.
Necessary materials & supplies:

Common Core Coach

Essential Writing Materials
Example narrative texts

PROCEDURES (and approximate time for each event)

INTRODUCTION ( 8-11 Minutes)
Discuss with students different types of genres throughout literacy.
(I Do) We have discussed some genres up to this point in the class.
Can someone tell me the literary genres we have talked about to this
point?
Possible student answers
-Folktales
-Realistic Fiction
-Non Fiction ( 2-3 Minutes)
Now I want you to think way back to the beginning of class when
Mrs. Roberson and I had you think of three ideas that you might
want to write about and what type of genre that was called.
Some students may remember that it was a narrative and others may
not. (1 Minute)
I dont know if you were able to remember back that far but they
were called personal narratives, which means what class?
Potential Student answers.
Stories that are written about yourself
I would then ask them to recall the folktale that we discussed in the
past week called Anansi the Spider.
So would Anansi the Spider be considered a personal narrative?
Potential Student answers
Yes or no
I would then discuss why Anansi the Spider would not be
considered a personal narrative
No Anansi the Spider is not a personal narrative for a couple of
reasons, Anansi isnt written in 1st person which we will discuss
more in detail later and it couldnt really happen in real life because
Anansi is talking and so are other animals. (5-7 Minutes)
OUTLINE of key events (_12-19 Minutes minutes)
I will then discuss the idea of narratives. (I DO)
So the idea of a personal narrative is to tell a story, right? We want
to talk about a time that something exciting, sad, important or
meaningful happened to us. A personal narrative shouldnt just

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
It is important that I
provide Sofia with the
essential details and
feedback throughout the
lesson. I will make sure
that she is correctly
translating the ideas and
that the students around her
and myself are providing
her with the necessary help
she needs. I believe that I
will try to translate some of
the key ideas before the
actual lesson so that she is
able to participate
throughout and she doesnt
feel left out or confused.
I will provide all of the
handouts and lessons to her
before the lesson. I will
also make sure that she is
correctly translating the
worksheets with Google
translate on her IPad. I will
also make sure that I hover
around her group and
check in periodically as I
move around the
classroom, asking to see if
she has any
misconceptions. There will
be only one handout that
she need to translate and
that will be the one handed
out to Sofia previously so

focus on a regular, old day at school or an uneventful day. You

want to make sure that you take your reader on a journey. Now a
narrative doesnt always have to be about a happy time right? If you
want to write about a sad time or a time that you were scared or
upset thats ok too. (1-2 Minutes)
I will provide examples of narrative texts to students. These
example texts are listed below. Each table will get one narrative text
to discuss amongst themselves. I will ask students to describe what
is happening in the personal narrative. I will also ask students what
they think the author was feeling during the narrative and what they
were feeling when they were writing it. (WE DO)
So I have a couple of examples here from a class of kids just like
yall, these personal narratives are written by students your age and
sometimes even younger. These kids are all the way out in Denver,
Colorado and they wrote these stories and now everyone can read
them, so maybe this could be something you can do when youre
done with your narratives. I also want you to think about how the
author is feeling during the time they were writing this story. Were
they sad or happy? (1-2 Minutes)
Narratives
http://holm.dpsk12.org/published-word/my-horrible-haircut/
http://holm.dpsk12.org/published-word/stitches/
http://holm.dpsk12.org/published-word/the-most-embarrassingtime-of-my-life/
http://holm.dpsk12.org/published-word/christmas-at-my-house/
Example of Non-personal Narrative:
http://holm.dpsk12.org/published-word/the-greatest-teacher/
Potential Student Answers
The author was really excited or sad during this time. I can tell that
they were really embarrassed because of the title and the way they
talked about it. I could tell that they were excited because it was
Christmas and they used descriptive words.
I will make sure that I highlight the non-narrative to point out the
differences between it and the actual personal narratives.
Who had the story about the greatest teacher? Who was that
written about? Did the teacher write that narrative? So if it was
written about someone else, does that make it a personal narrative?
Potential student answers. It was written about the teacher and no
that means it isnt a personal narrative.
However some students may be confused and that is when we must
go back to the beginning and highlight all of the elements of a
personal narrative. (10-15 Minutes)

CLOSING ( 5-10 minutes)

Ask students to provide 3 examples of times in their lives that they
think would make great personal narratives. (YOU DO)
I want you everyone to think of three times in their lives that they
think would make interesting and engaging personal narratives that
you would feel comfortable and proud sharing with your classmates
and others. I want you to write those down on a piece of paper in a
list and put your name on it and turn it in to me. We will be using
these later so I will collect them, take a look at them and then pass
them back to you to put in your writing folders.
TRANSITION to next learning activity

that she will be able to

translate that beforehand.

The narrative that will be

handed out to Sofias group
will of course be provided
to her beforehand so that
she is able to translate.

Tomorrow were going to continue to talk about personal

narratives and the important parts that are included. Were going to
talk a lot about the introductions, middle and conclusions of our
personal narratives, so that we can grab our readers attention and
keep it throughout the whole story. (5-10 Minutes)

ASSESSMENT
3 situations that students believe would make good topics for personal
narratives.
Student Exemplar:
1. Time I went to a Bulls game.
2. Our Vacation to Wisconsin Dells.
3. Sleepover at friends.

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
I will make sure that Sofia
understands the ideas and
elements that are included
in a personal narrative. I
will also make sure that she
is aware that she must have
3 separate instances that
she believes would make
interesting stories. I will do
this through the use of
google translate and her
IPad.
I will create a walkthrough
of the assessment
expectations for Sofia and
provide that to her at the
beginning of class so as she
is able to translate it.

Day 2
Name: Drexton Sportel
Date: 10/27/15
Lesson Objective: SWBAT define a narrative text and its elements.
Rationale: This lesson connects with the common core standard of CC.4.W.3-Text Types and Purposes:
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive
details, and clear event sequences. It is also very important that students be able to identify and list the
elements of a narrative text including the setting, characters and plot because while these elements take place
in narratives they also are very often seen in other literary genres as well.
Necessary materials & supplies:

Narrative Check List

Story map
Ideas for personal narratives that students already brainstormed.

PROCEDURES (and approximate time for each event)

INTRODUCTION (7-9 minutes)
I will begin by reintroducing a personal narrative and having
students discuss some of the examples that we talked about the
previous day. (I DO)
So if everyone thinks back to yesterday we started talking about
personal narratives and who can tell me some elements that are
included in personal narratives?
Possible Student responses
It tells a story. Its written about yourself and focuses on an
important time in your life, whether that time be sad, happy or
something else. (3-4 Minutes)
Ok those are super answers everybody, so were done right? Do
you think that anything else needs to be included in a personal
narrative?
Potential student answers.
No, there are other things like settings, characters and problems
and things. Some students may however think that that the
elements we discussed the previous day are the only things and I
must make sure that these are the students that I give the most
attention to through the writing process, it is important that I make
sure that I take note of the students that have the most room for
growth early on as those who are the ones who may have the most
misconceptions throughout the whole writing process. (WE DO) (45 Minutes)
OUTLINE of key events ( 19-27 minutes)
I will define and analyze each individual element of a narrative
including the setting, characters and plot. (I DO)
Alright, those were all really great answers everyone. There are of
course a lot of other elements that take place in a personal narrative.
We of course need to have some characters throughout the story, we
cant tell a story without any characters can we? We also need a
setting right? Every story, especially personal narratives need to
have a place where they take place whether that be the grocery store
or a party or a sports game. Another important part of a personal
narrative and really any story that you ever want to tell is
introduction, middle and the conclusion of the story. This is called
the sequence of events and I want to make sure that everyone really
remembers that because it is SO IMPORTANT when youre writing

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
It is important that I
provide Sofia with the
essential details and
feedback throughout the
lesson. I will make sure
that she is correctly
translating the ideas and
that the students around her
and myself are providing
her with the necessary help
she needs. I believe that I
will try to translate some of
the key ideas before the
actual lesson so that she is
able to participate
throughout and she doesnt
feel left out or confused.
I can make sure that she is
making these correct
translations by spending
more time at her group and
with her personally to
gauge if she is on the
correct track or if she needs
to be redirected. I must
make sure that she
comprehends the key
details so I will provide her
with a list of the key
vocabulary about personal
narratives before the
lesson, including
characters, setting,
introduction, middle and
ending.

your personal narrative. A personal narrative has to have a flow to it

and it has to have a clear beginning, middle and end or else the
reader may become confused and lose interest in the story. (5-8
Minutes)
Most of you may know and some of you may not but Mr. Sportel
lives with Mr. Stewart and you also know that Im never here on
Thursdays. We go to Bronzeville High School to take classes to
help make us better teachers for all of you. We actually made a kind
of online personal narrative about one of our days. However Mr.
Sportel and Mr. Stewart kind of broke one of the rules about
personal narratives, the rule that the story you tell should be
interesting, this story isnt too interesting but I want you to look for
all of the elements of the personal narrative that we know we need.
(2 to 3 Minutes)
Here I will show the story map of our day. (4-5 Minutes)
https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/8129beeb9c7a
e67660e8dc86e6318fa1/day-in-the-life/index.html
When I am narrating the story of our day I will make sure to use
vocabulary that I want students to pick up on like First, and then,
next, finally and other transitional words that determine the
sequence of events. Students should be able to pick up the ideas of
using these sequencing words and also the ideas that while
everyday may not be exciting or interesting, every day can be an
example of a personal narrative.
I dont believe that I will have a script other than simply explaining
and chronicling the events so for example, in the beginning Mr.
Sportel and Mr. Stewart wake up and walk to the green line and
then we take the green line to 51st street. As I discussed earlier I
will do this making sure to use the vocabulary I expect from my
students like, first, then, finally and other sequencing words.
Ok so now that youve watched the very secretive lives of what
Mr. Stewart and Mr. Sportel do on Thursdays can someone help me
identify all of the things we talked about that a personal narrative
needs, can you help me identify those in the story I just showed?
(WE DO)
Potential Student answers. Setting: Your apartment, Bronzeville,
Subway, L-Station, Laundromat. Characters: Mr. Sportel and Mr.
Stewart. Event Sequencing: Beginning, you left your apartment and
went to Cottage Grove. The middle, you had classes and got
Subway. The end, you did laundry and went back home. (5-7
Minutes)
I think those were all great answers and I want to make sure that
you know that while the characters and setting are pretty easy to
identify and name, the story sequence aka the beginning, middle
and end are a little bit more up for debate. Some of you may have
only thought that us leaving our apartment was the beginning, some
of you may have thought that the middle was just our classes or just
going to subway and some of you may have thought the end was
just us getting back to our apartment but some of you might have
thought us doing laundry and going back to our apartment was the
end. Thats ok for now but as we keep working I want you to try
and become more confident of what you think goes where in the
story and even more important is I want to make sure that you have
evidence of why you think something goes that certain place in the
story. (3-4 Minutes)

CLOSING (5-10 minutes)

Students will provide examples of each portion of the narrative that
take place in their own lives. They will do this for one or two of the
examples they had the previous day. I will model this by
completing a few examples of the Story map that I just used to
describe one of the Thursdays that I spend at class. So for example
when talking about Mr. Sportels Thursday the characters would be
Mr. Sportel, Mr. Stewart and my teachers. The setting would be
Bronzeville and perhaps the Green Line. So I want you to think of
those same elements for the ideas that yall have come up with
yesterday. (YOU DO)
So Mr. Sportel is going to pass back out the ideas that you had for
a possible personal narrative that you came up with yesterday. I
want you to try and narrow it down from those three ideas to maybe
one or two and what I want you to do is try and think of those
essential elements of a personal narrative, for that idea that you had.
So if you had the idea of a Christmas party at your grandmas, I want
you to think of where that idea took place, I want you to think of
who was there when it took place and I want you to try and think of
a kind of rough draft of the event sequencing for that story. You
dont have to think of every key detail right now but I want you to
kind of try and get an outline for the story because it might make it
much easier for you if you decide to write about that story. (5-10
Minutes)
Students will then complete a narrative checklist making sure that
they understand all of the elements to a narrative. (YOU DO)
Im also going to pass out this sheet (Page 95. Of Common Core
Coach this worksheet sets a personal narrative up under Topic,
Beginning, People, Setting, Events and Ending. This sheet should
be able to help students understand the elements of narratives even
more and help them visualize the elements that every personal
narrative needs. Tomorrow Im going to be making an anchor chart
and I want you guys to help me with it. We also know how
important it is to make sure that we create these reminders for us
around the classroom. We have anchor charts for all of the
important elements in other examples of literary genres, like
folktales and other important details that take place in all stories,
like plot, settings and characters. We know that these elements will
be important throughout the year and that whenever you may get
confused or have questions you can just look right up at the chart.
TRANSITION to next learning activity
Tomorrow were going to talk a bit more about the event
sequencing part of Personal Narratives and starting to discuss some
things we can do to really make our stories engaging and interesting
for our readers.
ASSESSMENT
Narrative Checklist making sure students understand all the elements of a
narrative and expanding on brainstorming that they did on day 1.
Personal Narrative Idea:
Christmas at Grandmas
Setting: Grandmas house and our house in the beginning of the story.

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
After giving out the
checklist to the class as a
whole I will move around
to the students who I
believe may have a bit
more trouble grasping the
checklist. There is a group

Characters: My mom, dad and sister. Grandma and all of our cousins
too.
Beginning, Middle and End: Beginning we started at our house,
middle when we drove to Grandmas and at Grandmas house and end,
when we came back home after we were done giving presents.

of about four students who

I will personally spend
time with making sure that
I clear up any questions
they may have about both
the checklist and the
narrative in general as it is
important that they be on
the same page as we will
be moving quickly
throughout the lesson.

Day 3
Name: Drexton Sportel
Date: 10-28-15
Lesson Objective: SWBAT identify the elements of a beginning, sequence of events, and an ending.
Rationale: Having a strong understanding of sequencing and separating thoughts into paragraphs is an
important idea to master. Students who understand why and how to place their thoughts into an
introduction, middle, and end will be able to organize their thinking and write personal narratives. It gives
students a purpose for their writing.
Necessary materials & supplies:
Promethean board.
Common Core Coach teacher textbook.
Sequencing lists for students.

PROCEDURES (and approximate time for each event)

INTRODUCTION (7-10) minutes)
(I DO)
We have been talking about the different elements that are found in
a personal narrative. Today we will be diving into a personal
narrative and breaking it down to identify key elements. (1 min)
To refresh our memories, what elements belong in a personal
narrative?
Ask students to share ideas while I write them on the board (5 min)
Answers could include, introduction, a middle, an ending, setting
description, dialogue, and interesting details.

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
Some of my students have
a hard time focusing for
any more than a few
minutes. I will make sure
that for the I do portion,
they are sitting near me.
For the we do and you
do I will make sure these
students receive more of
my attention when it comes

OUTLINE of key events (20-30 minutes)

to understanding what
needs to be done.

We Do

Ask students to take out English language arts books and turn to
page 89.(1 min)
Students will follow along as I read mentor text Swimming to win
pg. 89 of common core coach book stopping after each paragraph.
After the introduction, How did the narrative start? (With a
question) (3 min)
The narrative also made me want to continue reading because I
want to know why he didnt always like swimming. This was the
writers hook.
Tell students that a hook is a statement found in the introduction
and makes the reader want to read the story. It doesnt necessarily
need to be the first sentence. (5 min)
Did the author introduce the experience? The characters? The
setting?
Read the next 4 paragraphs and then talk about how the writer
narrates in order, or in sequence. (Began two years ago, first day of
swim practice, and then a couple of months later
After each paragraph I will ask students to underline the topic
sentence and circle two detail in each. (5-7 min)
Ask students if the story would make sense if the author started
with him in the competition then talking about how he was 2 years
ago? (2 min)
The author also uses dialogue and lively details.
Have students underline lively details and dialogue. (2 min)
Have students share responses in a whole class discussion. (5 min)
Read the ending and discuss how it was ended. What did the author
learn from the experience? (5 min)
Go back and explain the different elements of a personal narrative
as was seen in Swimming to Win so that students are clear on
these concepts. (2 min)

CLOSING (5-7 minutes)

You Do

Have students take out their brainstorming papers (1 min for paper)

Explain to students that they are going to either add to their before
mentioned topics or add another one based on the following question.

What are some experiences you have had in your life where you learned
something? If you feel you have learned something in your other topics
than add to them. If you are thinking about a whole new experience write
about them now.

I will allow five minutes to write and ask students to put their writing in
their writing folders so I can collect them. (5 6 min)

TRANSITION to next learning activity

Today we examined a personal narrative in which someone learned
something. Tomorrow we will practice organizing a personal
narrative into its different elements using a graphic organizer.
ASSESSMENT
Students will write about experiences where they learned something.

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT

Students who need more

guidance

Day 4
Name: Drexton Sportel
Date: 10-29-15
Lesson Objective: SWBAT fill out a graphic organizer using an example narrative.
Rationale: I want my students to see how to fill out a graphic organizer in a whole class before we go into
organizing our own narratives. Students will have a clear understanding of how to organize a narrative into
different parts.
Necessary materials & supplies:

Promethean board
Graphic Organizer
Mentor Text

PROCEDURES (and approximate time for each event)

INTRODUCTION (5 minutes)
I Do

Yesterday we explored the story swimming to win. Can someone

tell me what the purpose of the authors narrative was? (1 min)
What were some of the events that happened to the author as we
read? (3 min)
And what did the author learn from this experience? (1 min)
Today we will read another personal narrative but this time we will
work together filling out a graphic organizer to see how to organize
a narrative.

OUTLINE of key events (25-30 minutes)

We Do

Students will be given a graphic organizer and a personal narrative

to fill out as we read the story Watch out for your little sister. (1
min)
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/curriculum/G4PN2014.pdf

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT
Some of my students have
a hard time focusing for
any more than a few
minutes. I will make sure
that for the I do portion,
they are sitting near me.
For the we do and you
do I will make sure these
students receive more of
my attention when it comes
to understanding what
needs to be done.

Graphic organizer includes: topic, beginning, ending, people,

setting, events.
Before reading I will ask my students to think about a number of
questions: how does the author get the readers attention? What
details does the author use to help the reader visualize the
experience? (2 min)
I will read the story once and then ask students a series of questions.
(5 min)
Lets take a look at the first paragraph?
Can someone tell me did the author tell us what the story was going
to be about in this first paragraph? Which sentence lets us know? (5
min)
How did the author hook the reader in?
What people were involved in this story? (3 min)
Where did the story take place? (3 min)
How did the author end the story? (3 min)
Now that we have looked at how to organize out thoughts into a
graphic organizer, it makes the writing process a lot easier.
It allows us to know how to start our narrative, who and where the
story took place, the events and details we want to add, and how we
want to end our stories (usually by learning from our experiences)
(2 min)
This process is what good writers do before they begin writing.
It is important that we organize our thoughts so that we can
remember why were are writing and to not steer off course. (If we
are writing about how we worked hard to win a swim competition I
probably do not need to add in that I sometimes like to read books
before bed!) (2 min)

CLOSING (5-10 minutes)

You Do

Have students take out there brainstorming papers.

On your papers you should have four ideas that you could possibly
write about. One of which should have details about how you
learned something from the experience.
I now want you to try and narrow this list down to two. Think
about two of your experiences that you feel confident you could
write a personal narrative about
Remember that a personal narrative has an introduction that makes
the reader want to keep reading. It has a statement that hooks the
reader in for more.
Personal narratives also have lively details that are connected to the
main idea of the story.
I will allow (5 10 min) for students to narrow their topics and add
details.

TRANSITION to next learning activity

Tell students that we will be brainstorming topics and filling out a
graphic organizer for our own narratives tomorrow.
ASSESSMENT
Formative:
I will be walking around starring graphic organizers that are filled out.

(Academic, Social and/or

Linguistic) SUPPORT

I will be walking around making sure that students are focusing on two topics
and thinking about details they could write about.

Students will be expected

to fill out every portion of
the graphic organizer but
their details will consist of
one sentence per section.