To help students choose a topic to write about, ask them to bring in a couple of photographs from home. These photographs should be from a significant event such as a wedding, graduation, vacation, or sporting event that the student attended. Have the students first answer several questions about their photograph before they begin writing. Who is in the photograph? When and where was it taken? Why is this picture important to them? Answering these questions will allow them to begin brainstorming and provide them with a draft. Students can then write a one page narrative about one of their pictures.
Narrative writing should include descriptive writing and include emotions to keep the writing interesting. To help students understand the importance of this, begin by compiling a list of emotions, e.g., happy, sad, angry, on the board. Allow students to act out each emotion, displaying the facial expressions and body movements that would be used to do so. Explain to students that effective descriptive writing describes the behaviors, instead of simply stating the emotion. Have students practice writing descriptions of a person that is happy, sad, or angry.
An important part of the writing process is prewriting. Encourage your students to spend some time gathering and organizing ideas before they actually begin writing. Discuss with students the importance of a beginning, middle and end. Read examples of personal narratives to identify each part. Many 5th grade students want to rush into their story and may need ideas about ways to start their story. Providing your students with a graphic organizer will give them an outline to work with. Practice prewriting by completing a graphic organizer together as a whole class about a common event shared by everyone. This might include the first day of school, a field trip, or school event.
Creating a time line will also help students understand the importance of organizing their writing. Have students bring in several photographs from the time they were born until the present. Students should place the photographs in order and you can discuss with them the use of time words, e.g., first, next, last, in writing. Students can write a short narrative to go with each picture. This project may be completed over several days and when each narrative is complete, they can be placed together to form a personal narrative book.