What is a narrative text ?

A narrative text is a literacy text

which tells a story.Some examples are…

Myths & Legends

Novels Poems

Short Stories

Purpose of narrative

texts

To entertain

To teach

To inform

To inspire

Let’s take a look at the purpose of a narrative text...

There was once a young farmer who lived in a village. He had only one dream

- he wanted to get as rich as he could, as quickly as he could. One morning,

he went out as usual to fetch an egg from his goose for his breakfast. He reached

in under her warm, soft feathers and found, as he had hoped, one huge egg. But, when looked at it he

was amazed.

This was no ordinary white goose egg. It was gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy he almost

dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold! Gold!

The young farmer could not believe his luck. His dream had come true. Every day his wonderful goose

laid another golden egg and every day he became richer. But the young farmer was a man in a hurry.

For him, one golden goose egg was not enough. “I’m getting rich,” he thought, “but I’m not getting rich

quickly enough. All she can lay me is one golden egg a day.”

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to be dozens of

golden eggs inside her. That way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

So he took his goose by the neck and killed her. And what did he discover? There wasn’t a single

golden egg inside her, not one. ”What have I done?” he cried. ”Now she is dead she won’t lay me any

more golden eggs. I am ruined! Ruined! Ruined!”

Be happy with what you’ve got, and live with it.

Structure of a narrative

Orientation

Events

Complication

Resolution

Coda

Setting the scene

A series of actions

Something unexpected

happens (problem)

How the problem is resolved in the

end (solution)

Fable:Moral of the story

There was once a young farmer who lived in a village. He had only one dream - he

wanted to get as rich as he could, as quickly as he could. One morning, he went

out as usual to fetch an egg from his goose for his breakfast.

He reached in under her warm, soft feathers and found, as he had hoped, one

huge egg. But, when looked at it he was amazed. This was no ordinary white

goose egg. It was gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy he almost

dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold! Gold!

The young farmer could not believe his luck. His dream had come true. Every day

his wonderful goose laid another golden egg and every day he became richer. But

the young farmer was a man in a hurry. For him, one golden goose egg was not

enough. “I’m getting rich,” he thought, “but I’m not getting rich quickly enough.

All she can lay me is one golden egg a day.”

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound

to be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

So he took his goose by the neck and killed her. And what did he discover?

There wasn’t a single golden egg inside her, not one. ”What have I done?” he

cried. ”Now she is dead she won’t lay me any more golden eggs. I am ruined!

Ruined! Ruined!”

Be happy with what you’ve got, and live with it.

Alright children, why don’t you try

identifying the structure of

the text.

Can you tell me where is

the orientation, events, complication, resolution and coda?

• There was once a young farmer who lived in a village. He had only one dream - he wanted to get as rich as he could, as quickly as he could. One morning, he went out as usual to fetch an egg from his goose for his breakfast.

Orientation

• He reached in under her warm, soft feathers and found, as he had hoped, one huge egg. But, when looked at it he was amazed. This was no ordinary white goose egg. It was gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy he almost dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold! Gold!

Events

• The young farmer could not believe his luck. His dream had come true. Every day his wonderful goose laid another golden egg and every day he became richer. But the young farmer was a man in a hurry. For him, one golden goose egg was not enough. “I’m getting rich,” he thought, “but I’m not getting rich quickly enough. All she can lay me is one golden egg a day.”

Complication

• “I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

• So he took his goose by the neck and killed her. And what did he discover? There wasn’t a single golden egg inside her, not one. ”What have I done?” he cried. ”Now she is dead she won’t lay me any more golden eggs. I am ruined! Ruined! Ruined!”

Resolution

• Be happy with what you got, and take care of it.Coda

Did you managed to identify the

structure correctly?

Well done!

There was once a young farmer who lived in a

village. He had only one dream - he wanted to

get as rich as he could, as quickly as he could.

One morning, he went out as usual to fetch an

egg from his goose for his breakfast.

What are tenses?Tenses are words that help to describe the time of an action. It

tells us about the past, present and

future.

Words in the past tense tells

us about the actions in the

past.

The words was, had, lived,wanted, could and went are all in the past

tense.

There was once a young farmer who lived in a

village. He had only one dream - he wanted to

get as rich as he could, as quickly as he could.

One morning, he went out as usual to fetch an

egg from his goose for his breakfast.

Orientation

He reached in under her warm, soft feathers

and found, as he had hoped, one huge egg.

But, when looked at it he was amazed.

He reached in under her warm, soft feathers

and found, as he had hoped, one huge egg.

But, when looked at it he was amazed.

Now it’s your turn! See if you can spot all the

words in the past tense.

The words reached, found, hoped,

looked, was and amazed are in the simple past tense.

Excellent job, children! You’ve managed to

identify all the words correctly.

Events

Let’s now try to change the following words into its simple present tense form. I’m sure you can do it!

Present tense

is

find

reach

hope

look

amaze

was

found

reached

hoped

looked

amazed

Excellent!

Past tense

This was no ordinary white goose egg. It was

gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy

he almost dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold!

Gold!

This was no ordinary white goose egg. It was

gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy

he almost dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold!

Gold!

Example 1: ‘white goose egg’* The word ‘white’ here is an

adjective describing the colour of an ordinary goose egg. ‘Goose egg’ is the noun.

Events

What are adjectives?

Adjectives are words that

describes nouns.

This was no ordinary white goose egg. It was

gold and shining in the sun, and it was so heavy

he almost dropped it. It was solid gold. Gold!

Gold!

Example 2: It was so heavyhe almost dropped it.

*The word ‘heavy’ here is also an adjective. ‘Heavy’does not describe how the goose egg looks like but describes the weight of the goose egg.

Events

young egg

wonderful farmer

golden goose

Adjectives

Try matching the adjectives to the nouns that they described.

What are the adjectives in this

paragraph?See if you can

spot them!

Good try children! You have spotted

most of the adjectives but you

missed out one.

The young farmer could not believe his luck.

His dream had come true. Every day his

wonderful goose laid another golden egg and

every day he became richer.

The young farmer could not believe his luck.

His dream had come true. Every day his

wonderful goose laid another golden egg and

every day he became richer.

Events

The young farmer could not believe his luck.

His dream had come true. Every day his

wonderful goose laid another golden egg and

every day he became richer.

The young farmer could not believe his luck.

His dream had come true. Every day his

wonderful goose laid another golden egg and

every day he became richer.

You are clever to think that an adjective comes

before a noun but an adjective can also come

after a noun

NounAdjective

The word ‘richer’ here is an adjective

as it is describing the young farmer (he).

Events

Noun

Adjective

Since you are now experts at spotting adjectives and words

in the past tense, can you find them in this paragraph?

Excellent job, children!

This paragraph shows the complication of the story.

Complication is very important in the structure of a narrative text. Complication

means problem.

What do you think the problem in the story is?The farmer cannot get rich fast enough because the goose lay golden eggsonly once a day.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you have managed to get it correctly. Greatwork, everyone!

But the young farmer was a man in a hurry. For him, one golden goose

egg was not enough. “I’m getting rich,” he thought, “but I’m not

getting rich quickly enough. All she can lay me is one golden egg a

day.”

But the young farmer was a man in a hurry. For him, one golden goose

egg was not enough. “I’m getting rich,” he thought, “but I’m not

getting rich quickly enough. All she can lay me is one golden egg a

day.”

Complication

What are verbs?Verbs are wordsthat describe an

action or a state of being.

Today ,we are going to pay attention to 3

verb types.

They are actionverbs, saying verbs and mental verbs.

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

Resolution

Saying verbs shows the action of saying

something. (said) other e.g. - scream,

exclaims, shout

Action verbs shows what a

person or a thing is doing. (kill, get)

other e.g. -run, eat, write, pl

ay

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

Mental verbs shows an action that is happening in the mind and cannot be seen with the eye.

(know) other e.g. -think, remember, guess

Resolution

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

“I know what I’ll do. I’ll kill her,” said the

young farmer suddenly. “There’s bound to

be dozens of golden eggs inside her. That

way I’ll get rich, and quickly too.”

So he took his goose by the neck and killed her. And what did he

discover? There wasn’t a single golden egg inside her, not one. ”What

have I done?” he cried. ”Now she is dead she won’t lay me any more

golden eggs. I am ruined! Ruined! Ruined!”

Alright, now it’s your turn to try! Spot the actionverbs, saying verb and

mental verb.

Congratulations to those who

got all of it correct!

The resolution in this story happens when the farmer killed the goose thinking that there are more golden eggs stored in

the goose.

Do you think this is a good solution to his problem? What other better solutions could the farmer have done?

So he took his goose by the neck and killed her. And what did he

discover? There wasn’t a single golden egg inside her, not one. ”What

have I done?” he cried. ”Now she is dead she won’t lay me any more

golden eggs. I am ruined! Ruined! Ruined!”

Resolution

That’s right, the correct answer is C.

A narrative usually ends with a coda. A coda can be the moral of a story or a comment that tells us about the ending of the story.

What do you think the coda of the story is?

a) If you want to get rich fast, buy a goose that can lay golden eggs

b) It is good to be impatient

c) Be happy with what you’ve got and look after it

d) It is very hard to get rich

Coda