Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards:
W.7.3a
North Carolina - Standard Course of Study:
W.7.3.b
Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards:
7W3a
Engage the reader by establishing a point of view and introducing a narrator and/or
characters.
Tennessee Academic Standards:
7.W.TTP.3.a
Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or participants/characters.
7.W.TTP.3.b - Organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
Wisconsin Academic Standards:
W.7.1
Compose reflective, formal, and creative writing, which may happen simultaneously or independently, for a variety of high-stakes and low-stakes purposes.
Arizona's K-12 Academic Standards:
7.W.3.b
Common Core State Standards:
Literacy.W.7.3b
Georgia Standards:
ELAGSE7W3b
Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS):
W.7.3.b
Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards:
W.7.3b
North Carolina - Standard Course of Study:
W.7.3.c
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards:
7W3b
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue and description, to develop experiences,
events, and/or characters.
Tennessee Academic Standards:
7.W.TTP.3.d
Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description when appropriate, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Wisconsin Academic Standards:
W.7.2.b
Write informative text that examines a topic and conveys ideas, concepts, and information through the selection and organization of relevant content by introducing and developing a topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples, organizing ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
7th Grade Writing - Narrative Writing Lesson
Narrative Openings and Point of View
Narrative opening
The opening of a narrative is the first part of the story. A strong opening does two jobs at the same time. It draws the reader in with a problem, a question, or a vivid moment, and it orients the reader by showing the setting, the situation, and the people involved.
Point of view
Point of view is the position from which a story is told. In first person, the narrator is a character who says I and can share only what that character sees, hears, thinks, and feels. In third person, the narrator stands outside the story and uses names and words such as he, she, and they. Writers choose first person when they want the reader to hear one character's own thoughts, and third person when they want the reader to watch the characters from the outside.
When writers plan a narrative opening, they make four important decisions.
Draw the reader in. Begin with a vivid moment, a problem, or a question instead of announcing the topic of the story.
Establish the context. Show the setting and the situation early so that the reader knows where, when, and what is happening.
Introduce the narrator and characters. Tell the reader who they are and why they are important to this particular story.
Choose a point of view and hold it. Decide on first or third person, and never let the narrator report something the narrator could not know.
Example:
Step 1: Find what the opening is missing. Sentence 1 announces the topic, so it tells the reader what is coming instead of pulling the reader into the moment. It also leaves out where the narrator is and what problem the narrator faces.
Step 2: Revise with a moment that orients the reader. A stronger sentence 1 could read: On my first day at Ridgeview Middle School, I walked into the wrong classroom, and 30 strangers turned to stare at me. Now the reader feels the problem right away and knows the place, the time, and the situation.
Example:
Step 1: Check what the narrator can know. A first-person narrator can report only what the narrator sees, hears, thinks, and feels. Sentence 2 reports Ms. Chen's private thoughts, which the narrator has no way of knowing.
Step 2: Show the thought through something the narrator can observe. The writer could revise sentence 2 this way: Ms. Chen nodded and almost smiled, then pressed her lips together as if she did not want me to become too proud. Now the narrator reports only what the narrator can see.
Event Sequences
Event sequence
An event sequence is the order in which the events of a narrative happen. A sequence unfolds naturally and logically when the events follow a single timeline and each event leads directly to the next one.
Cause-effect chain
A cause-effect chain is a series of connected events in which the first event causes the second, the second causes the third, and so on. When a link in the chain is missing, the reader is left wondering why something happened.
To check an event sequence, writers ask themselves three important questions.
Do the events follow a single timeline, appearing in the order in which they actually happened?
Does every cause appear before the event that it causes?
Is any link missing? If an event has no cause that the reader can identify, add the event that causes it.
In a longer story, the chain contains many more links, so writers examine each connection carefully.
Example:
Step 1: Match each effect to its cause. Zeke learns his position in the relay in sentence 3 because the coach posts the list in sentence 1, and he feels nervous in sentence 4 because he has just discovered that he will run the final part.
Step 2: Move the event that appears too early. Sentence 2 reveals the result of the race before Zeke even knows that he is running the final part, so it belongs at the end, after the warm-ups, where the events form a logical chain.
Example:
Step 1: Look for an event without a visible cause. In sentence 3, Mr. Bryant suddenly knows to look inside the box of art supplies, but the draft never explains how anyone discovered where Peanut was hiding.
Step 2: Add the event that causes the next one. The writer could add this sentence between sentences 2 and 3: Then Lila heard a tiny rustling sound coming from inside the box of art supplies. With that link in place, each event leads clearly and logically to the next.
Narrative Techniques
Dialogue
Dialogue is the conversation between characters. Dialogue can reveal what a character is like or how a character is feeling, and it can also move the events of a story forward.
Pacing
Pacing is the speed at which a story moves. Writers slow down with detail at important moments, and they speed up with summary through periods of time that matter less.
Description
Description is detail about people, places, and events. Effective description develops a character or an event instead of listing details that are unimportant to the story.
In a longer story, each technique can accomplish even more.
Dialogue that advances a conflict. When characters disagree, their words can raise the stakes and push the problem forward.
Pacing that builds tension. Moving quickly through less important parts and slowing down at the moment of greatest tension keeps the reader waiting to find out what happens.
Description across a longer scene. Writers decide where each detail belongs, placing it at the moment it develops the character or the event.
Example:
Step 1: Decide what the line does now. When Mia agrees to give up the seat, the conflict ends before it even begins, so the line moves the story along but eliminates the problem.
Step 2: Let the character push back. The writer could revise the line this way: "I saved it first," Mia says, setting her backpack on the seat. "Find another one." Now Mia's words raise the stakes, and the reader immediately wants to know what Jonas will do next.
Example:
Step 1: Find the moment of greatest tension. The jump from the high dive is the moment the entire draft builds toward, but sentence 3 rushes through it in only two words, while the bus ride and the sandwich are less important and need only a quick summary.
Step 2: Slow down with detail. The writer could expand sentence 3: Ty curled his toes over the rough edge of the board, stared at the blue water far below, and counted to three in a whisper before he finally jumped. Now the reader waits nervously on the board with Ty.
Example:
Step 1: Decide what the description develops. The sentence shows Grandpa Teo's skill and his careful attention to the instruments he builds, so it develops him as a character and should appear at a moment when he is handling a guitar.
Step 2: Place it where it does the most work. The description belongs after sentence 3, when Grandpa Teo lifts the guitar from the shelf, because in that position it demonstrates his care immediately before Lena plays her first chord.
7th Grade Writing - Narrative Writing Lesson