Begin by asking your students to take out a pen and paper. Prompt each student to write about one of her most memorable moments, an event in her life that she'll never forget. Let students write for fifteen minutes. They should think of this writing as a diary entry rather than a structured narrative. Next, using the diary entry as an outline, prompt students to rewrite the event as a story and add one more fictional character midway through the story. This activity inspires students to write in detail, since they're writing about a vivid memory. Adding a character into this memory asks them to think through this memorable moment in even greater detail as they practice developing fictional characters.
Ask students to bring three family photos to class, each from a different day or event. When students get to class, they'll keep one of their own pictures and swap two of them with other people. Now, each student has one of his own pictures and two from someone else in the class. Ask students to set the photos on their desks and write a story based on what they see. Students combine the memories from their own photo with their guesses about what's going on in their friend's photos. Students transfer the detail from the pictures onto the page, turning images to words.
When learning to use narrative writing, some students confuse a series of events with a well-written plot. Rather than just have several things happen one after the other, a plot works through its characters and the things they need, think, feel and say. To get your students to do this, have them create a story, but first draw and write it out as a comic strip. Comic strips have a clear beginning, middle and end. You can see the elements of the plot laid out before you on the page. Once students draw and write their comic, ask them to elaborate and write the story down on paper.
Give students a prompt or have them write a story about anything they wish. Tell them to keep in mind that the goal of narrative writing is to involve the reader, rather than just talk at her. The language and detail should draw the reader in. Next, students take turns reading their stories aloud or having someone else do so if they feel embarrassed. Alternatively, students can swap stories and read someone else's aloud. The point is to do so with feeling, changing voices between characters and expressing the sentiment of the story. Students can better assess whether their story makes sense, is exciting, draws the reader in, uses good language, has detail and is punctuated correctly when hearing it aloud. Students give positive and constructive feedback once the story is over.