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First Person Narrative
Name: __________________________ Period: ____________
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Scene One: Opening Credits
Miracle Scene Selections
Scene Two: A Lofty Goal
Scene Three: Making the Cut
Scene Four: Old Rivalries
Scene Five: Motivations
Scene Six: Training
Scene Seven: “Again”
Scene Eight: “Legs Feed the Wolf”
Scene Twelve: Soviet Machine
Scene Eleven: Final Roster
Scene Ten: “We’re a Family”
Scene Nine: Whatever it Takes
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Scene Thirteen: Olympics Begin
Miracle Scene Selections
Scene Fourteen: “I am a hockey player.”
Scene Fifteen: Team Effort
Scene Sixteen: “This is your time.”
Scene Seventeen: Score Tied
Scene Eighteen: “USA!”
Scene Nineteen: Victory!
Scene Twenty: End Credits
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Writing a Personal Narrative
Be cinematic. As you write, imagine that you are a director making a
movie. I nstead of just explaining what went on, make scenes. A scene takes place in one location during a relatively brief time span. Scenes have action. The characters' personalities are revealed through these. I f you concentrate on one scene at a time, a slice of your story rather than the whole thing, the task of writing memoir is much less overwhelming and the actual writing you produce is more vivid.
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Use concrete sensory images. Draw your reader into your story by appealing to his or her senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Most writers f ocus on the visual images. They tell how a thing looks. Your writing comes alive when you include smells, tastes, sounds and the way things f eel, as well. How did the f ried chicken taste at those Sunday dinners on the f arm? How did it f eel to bite down on the cherry pit accidentally lef t in the pie? What sounds did you hear around the table? How did the kitchen smell af ter the cooking?
Great descriptive writing uses all five senses!Hearing, Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch,
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Be specific. Writing becomes wimpy when it is too general or when it uses too f ew words to describe something. When you are writing about the fi rst car you owned, say it was a 1959 Chevy, not just that it was an old car. I nstead of telling your readers there were trees in your yard, name them. Were they maple trees? Magnolia trees? Birch trees?
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Let readers in on what you were thinking or feeling. Sometimes memoir writers focus almost completely on what was happening around them, rather than on what they thought or how they f elt. The objective witness role is f or reporters. Memoir writers share their insights, their dreams, their triumphs and their disappointments. When you write memoir, you are the main character.
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Brainstorming
Memorable Experience/ Significant Event/Accomplishment/Tragedy/Milestone
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Brainstorming
Who?
____________________________________________________________________________What?
____________________________________________________________________________When?
____________________________________________________________________________Where?
____________________________________________________________________________
What is the most intenseor interestingpart of yourstory?
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Brainstorming Putting Things in Order
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Scene One
First Person Narrative Planner
Scene Two
Scene Three
Scene Four
Scene Five
Scene Six
Scene Seven
Scene Eight
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Scene OneScene Title:
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Scene TwoScene Title:
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Scene ThreeScene Title:
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Scene FourScene Title:
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Scene FiveScene Title:
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Scene SixScene Title:
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Scene SevenScene Title:
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Scene EightScene Title:
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Writing a Thoughtshot
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Writing a Snapshot
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Exploding a Moment
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Strong Verbs
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Adverbs
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Revision Worksheet
Revision Questions
Ideas Does my lead get the reader’s attention? Have I used detail and elaboration when describing characters and objects? Have I elaborated on each story event in detail?
Organization Have I organized my body sentences in time order? Have I used effective transition words? Is my story strong in the beginning, middle, and end?
Voice Does my writer’s voice creates a memorable experience? Does my writer’s voice shows excitement?
Word Choice Do I create a clear picture with specific nouns? Do I use strong and interesting verbs? Do I use colorful and descriptive adjectives? Do I use effective adverbs?
Sentence Fluency Are my sentences complete? Do they flow smoothly? Did I try to vary my sentence structure?
Conventions follows the basic rules of grammar (Are my verbs all in past tense?) follows the basic rules of spelling follows the basic rules of capitalization follows the basic rules of punctuation
Things That Are Bugging Me
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Editing Worksheet
I want to focus on the following areas:
Did I vary my sentence structure? (Compound Sentence)
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Narrative Writing Assessment Tool
Name:
Period:
Title:
Type: First Person Narrative
Length: Multiple Paragraphs
Audience:
Purpose:
Writing Process Rubric
Prewriting brainstorms and plans writing
Rough Draft Writing uses plan to generate rough draft
Revising makes revisions
Editing proofreads and edits writing
Publishing writing is neat and presentable
Six Traits Rubric
Ideas narrative tells about one experience has a clear and interesting lead contains specific details and elaboration elaborates on story events
Organization events are in time order effectively uses transitions has a strong beginning has a strong middle has a strong end
Voice writer’s voice creates a memorable experience writer’s voice shows excitement and emotion writer is thinking about the reader writing matches its intended audience and purpose
Word Choice creates a clear picture with specific nouns has strong and interesting verbs has effective adverbs has colorful and descriptive adjectives
Sentence Fluency flows smoothly from sentence to sentence has a variety of sentences that are easy to read
Conventions follows the basic rules of grammar follows the basic rules of spelling follows the basic rules of capitalization follows the basic rules of punctuation
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FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE SIX TRAITS RUBRIC
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