Teaching 4th Graders Narrative

Several weeks ago I posted a blog sharing my experience with helping teach fiction narrative to the 4th grade Little Chute Elementary school students via skype.  We have now had four classes together.  We started by having the students record a “little moment” in their life that would be the core of their fictional story. 

Next we discussed how to imagine the main character for their story and our goal was to have them identify character traits.  We had the kids identify their favorite cartoon character and explain why they like that character.  Our hope was that in describing why they liked the character they would identify a trait.  It worked.  They said their favorite characters were silly, funny, brave etc.  Next they worked in pairs to write down as many character traits as they could.  As a group they developed an impressive list.

In the third session we talked about plot.  We used the story of the three little pigs to draw a plot diagram.  I learned that using the term “climax” was not useful and so we’ve changed the language to “the most exciting part of the story” and or “the solution” to the problem identified in the beginning of their story.  Unfortunately there was very little transfer from the “little moments” to the story the kids imagined.   We had the students plot their wn story using post it notes.  Plot is a difficult concept and the kids struggled.  Most were able to identify the beginning the climax and the end without any action between each.

The teachers and I agreed we needed another class on plot.  This time we used the book The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Park, which they had read recently as a class, to find both character traits and plot.  I learned this is a very popular book for this grade level and the kids liked the story a lot.  Next the  teachers created a simple story and then drew the plot diagram to model for the students each step.  The students then worked individually on their plot diagram.  When finished the students took turns coming to the microphone and reading their story to me while the teachers worked with individual students.

I was pleased that the students were not shy about coming to the front of the class to talk with me, they even had a queue.   The original plan was to complete the section on teaching narrative by Thanksgiving break.  We’ve all learned that was too ambitious.  The class is getting close but need additional practice.  There are three students have been successful and don’t need more help, they can help the other students.

Next week we’ll help the kids continue to refine their stories – one step at a time.