Personal Narrative Prewriting – Watermelon vs. Seed Ideas Small Moments

I’m in the process of revamping my writing materials for next year and decided to reteach some of it to my kiddos at the end of this year to “try it out” as well as revisit narrative writing, which we did at the very beginning of the year!

****See my Narrative Writing Tools for the resources you see in this post ****

We talked again about small moments and created an anchor chart (which I forgot to photograph!) of seed and watermelon ideas.  During whole group, most of the students could turn a watermelon idea into seed ideas.

I then had the kiddos do a partner sorting activity.  I gave them a sheet of paper with a bunch of ideas that were either seeds or watermelon ideas.  With their partner, they sorted the ideas.  This time, I had the kiddos choose their own partners.  For the most part, they did a pretty good job.  Next year, I may assign the partners to be sure my lower students have some support from my medium students.  I love doing partner activities!

From there, I had each individual student fill in a “My Small Moments” chart (I have a girl and a boy version), where they could list their own small moments.  Next year, I intend to have students glue this in their writing journals.

It was interesting to see which students “got it” and which didn’t.  In reality, I think many of my low-income, English Learners don’t have a way of keeping mental track of experiences.  Research shows that in some cultures, especially Hispanic, parents don’t talk as much and children learn from their parents by doing, not through conversation.  My students just don’t seem to be able to talk about their ideas or even generate ideas.

Maybe this emphasizes the importance of brainstorming.  I remember in junior high or high school having to write all the ideas we had about a topic within a certain amount of time.  A kind of timed brainstorming session.  Those would be good to weave into our writing time!

Although I want my students to be able to choose their topics for personal narratives, and be able to write from their heart, that’s not always so easy.  Sometimes they just need a topic to help them get started, like a time you got hurt, a time you were sick, a time you went someplace special, a special birthday celebration, etc.  Those can spark an idea and help them remember a situation.  But, at the same time, I don’t want them to be confined by the topic.  Maybe a balance of them both.  It tends to be my higher students, who finish their work early, who have more ideas for writing.  They could write about their own ideas after they finish the “assigned” writing.

I have two questions for you today . . . (1) do you do brainstorming with your students and what do you brainstorm?  (2) Do you have a graphic organizer that you love to use for narrative?  I have yet to find one that I really like, so I’m searching for ideas.  Yes, in the midst of trying to reteach narrative writing!