7 Strong Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing in Elementary Grades

Blog header image with child writing in a notebook and text overlay that reads “How to Teach Narrative Writing

There are so many components to teaching Narrative Writing. I’m going to share best practices for scaffolding this standard, mentor text suggestions, and anchor chart ideas for each component. I hope you can walk away with ideas, activities, and inspiration for your narrative writing lesson plans.

Outline of narrative writing teaching unit…

Strong mentor texts
What is narrative writing?
Teaching the difference between big events and small moments
Write an introduction
Sequencing events
Teaching how to write conclusions
Tying it all together & practice opportunities

Stock up on your narrative writing mentor texts!

Collection of children’s mentor texts for teaching narrative writing, including books like Owl Moon, Enemy Pie, and Last Stop on Market Street

All of the pieces within this blog post should have a mentor text example along with it. Each time you teach your students about a component of narrative writing, use a strong example! Each of the book links below are affiliate links to Amazon.

What You Know First by Patricia Maclachlan
Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino
Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Bigmama’s by Donald Crews
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Roller Coaster by Maria Frazee
Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

Let’s begin… Start by teaching WHAT narrative writing is.

Narrative writing anchor chart shaped like a burger, showing structure: introduction, body, details, and closure

First, we are going to kick off our writing unit by teaching WHAT narrative writing is and how it’s different from the other big writing pieces. Since it is one of the three types of writing pieces, it’s important for students to understand what goes into personal narratives and fictional narratives. The big components I’m going to talk about in this blog post (focused on K-4) is an introduction, events (we will get more in detail later), and a conclusion. Students must understand all the pieces of that before they try writing their own.

Anchor chart for narrative writing types, comparing personal narratives and fictional narratives

It is also important for students to recognize the difference between personal narratives and fictional narratives. Since they’re going to be asked to write both types of narrative writing pieces throughout their units (links below), they must know what goes into each one.

After you introduce narrative writing and teach the types of narrative writing, give them some activities to help them practice determining what parts of the story they’re listening to or reading. One activity is a story read aloud. The teacher will read aloud a sample personal narrative, and then he or she will reread it one sentence at a time. Then, students will turn and talk with a partner to identify if that sentence is part of the introduction, events, details, or conclusion. Another activity they can do is a fold-and-snip book where they lift a flap and write a sample sentence under each (or they can write the purpose of each personal narrative component).

Teach big events & small moments

Narrative writing worksheet for teaching students to break down big moments into smaller details, featuring colorful cards like “a fun vacation” and “a snowy day.

Now it’s time to teach about big events and small moments. When you’re teaching narrative writing, it gets tricky for younger students to differentiate between big events that happened and smaller moments within those moments. For example, a big event would be taking a trip to Disney World. But focusing on a smaller moment within that event could be meeting Cinderella or riding the new Avatar roller coaster. This helps students focus in on writing more specific details, feelings, and actions when they’re writing their narratives.

Give the students lots of practice with big events and small moments. With partners and groups, give students an example big event and ask them to come up with sample smaller moments. First, give them specific big events on a smaller circle map. Then, ask them to come up with their own big event examples.

Move on to introductions

Anchor chart for narrative writing introductions, showing strong hooks such as dialogue, descriptive detail, and asking questions

Students will now be ready to move on to introductions because you taught them components and small moments. They’re ready to start practicing! First, you need to introduce introductions (mouthful, right?) You’ll teach them the different ways that you can introduce their narrative and hook their reader. Then, you’ll let them practice identifying sample introductions. This will benefit them in two ways. One way is that they’re getting tons of exposure to different examples of strong introductions. Another way is that they’ll be comfortable with the different types of introductions, which are using dialogue, asking questions, giving details, giving facts, using onomatopoeia, and using emotion.

Narrative writing introduction activity with cards that help students sort strong opening sentences, including quotes, facts, and vivid details

Once they’ve listened to mentor texts and practiced with strong examples, it’s time for them to start practicing coming up with their own. First, ask students to work with a partner to come up with a clever introduction when they see a picture card. Then, they can practice writing a sentence or two on a worksheet when given a topic.

Teach how to sequence events

Anchor chart for narrative writing body, showing tips for sequencing events, sharing feelings, and using temporal words

After your students practice introduction, you can get into the bulk of your writing… the events. This is one of the hardest parts of teaching narrative writing because the majority of the story detail is in this piece of their writing. Within the body, students are going to cover the sequenced events, details, feelings, actions, and emotions.

One way to ask them to practice this is by showing them sequenced events on a picture strip. This shows details of a storyline that students can verbally discuss with a partner. After they study the pictures, they can try to create 3 sentences for each picture to describe the events. A big focus of this part of narrative writing is temporal words, or words such as first, next, then, and last. This will help students be able to organize their events in chronological order.

Adding Details, Feelings, and Emotions

Narrative writing worksheet with student illustrations to help kids describe feelings in their stories

Don’t forget to include details when you’re teaching narrative writing. If you look at the Common Core standards listed above, you will see that second grade is the age which students are expected to start adding details.

Printable worksheet for teaching narrative writing by adding details, with examples and clipart images to help students expand their sentences

They’re expected to start using feelings and actions to help explain their story. Give them lots of practice opportunities to perfect adding these into a story.

Teaching narrative writing conclusions

Anchor chart for narrative writing conclusions, showing ways to wrap up stories with dialogue, strong feelings, or a lesson learned

And finally, we will move on to conclusions in narrative writing. When you’re teaching narrative writing, students must know the different types of conclusions, like giving a suggestion, asking a question, or describing a vivid image. First, you can read a few mentor texts’ conclusions to show examples. Then, you can ask them to come up with their own examples after learning about each specific type.

Classroom worksheet for practicing writing conclusions in narrative stories, with colorful labels like “strong feelings” and “vivid image.”

After a few activities that show students different examples of all types of conclusions, let them practice coming up with their own when they’re given a topic.

And now for the fun part!

Finally, you’ve taught all the pieces of your narrative writing unit. Therefore, it’s time to practice, practice, practice. Choose high-interest and engaging topics for students to write about. Give them lots of different prompts to pick from. Provide them with scaffolded graphic organizers that will help them brainstorm and pre-write. They’re going to rock those narratives!

Grab Ready-Made Lesson Plans for Narrative Writing!

If you’re interested in getting your students to master writing without having to spend hours on planning and prep, I have all-inclusive units for you! These no-prep units have everything you need to teach opinion writing in your classroom!