Personal Narrative Terminology

Personal Narrative Terminology

Writer's Vocabulary: Please review these slides by pressing the arrow key. Some slides require you to submit an answer (that I will be able to review)

A personal memory moment with snapshots, thoughtshots, a life lesson, and emotions.

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NOT a summary of a cool vacation....

What is a personal narrative?

Multiple Choice

Which one is NOT an example of a personal narrative?

• When Mr. Verdun writes about the time he got hit by a car on his bike

• When Ms. May writes about everything that happened in her time of Covid lockdown

• When Mr. Francis writes about the moment his first child was born

• When Mrs. Pancini writes about the moment she lost her mom :(

Narrative Notebook

• digital spiral notebook to store ideas

• running google doc full of drafts

• do not turn in until the END of the unit

• teacher may "peak" at your progress and leave comments

Flashdraft

• quick write (10-15 min)

• get ideas out

• no worries about mechanics

• determines if there's really a story to tell

• *** You will be writing 3 flashdrafts. From those 3 options, you will choose one to blow up into a full narrative

Rough Draft

• develop your flashdrafts with more ideas and structure

• add content and ideas

• rearrange order

• don't be afraid to delete, add, exaggerate

• this piece of work will be revised and edited as many times as it takes

Multiple Choice

How many rough drafts should I do?

• 1-2

• 3-4

• more than 5

• as many as it takes

Open Ended

In your own words, what do you think the difference is between revising and editing?

Difference between revisions and edits

Revise: add or delete CONTENT (ideas and meaning)

Edit: fix mechanics like spelling, capitalization, etc.

*Use the Zoom button to examine the venn diagram on the right

Final Draft

• end product

• ready for perfection

• checks all the boxes on the rubric

Multiple Select

Your personal narrative should have a story arc.

What is a story arc?

Check all that apply!

• the theme

• the plot

• exposition, rising action, climax, resolution

• story line

Hook

Grabber

Lead

*engage your reader from the start

Brigid happily snapped her wintergreen gum as she ran to gather with her classmates in the enclosed brick prayer garden at St. Monica Academy. Parents encircled the relieved kids to snap pictures for their Facebook pages. Excitement was in the air- literally with blue and white mortar boards soaring to dark starry night. The air was heavy with the smell of freshly cut spring grass and a loud backdrop of droning crickets. It was graduation night. This scene of forty exhausted, yet excited, eighth grade graduates promised us a feeling of accomplishment and hopes for high school.

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​A snapshot is when the author provides a vivid and descriptive scene for the reader to picture the scene (like a movie in your mind). The writer uses all the senses to create that picture (hear, see, smell, feel, taste).

Open Ended

Write a quick snapshot of your immediate surroundings RIGHT NOW.

Three (3) sentences about what you hear, see, taste, or feel...

Thoughtshots

• when the author thinks to themself

• stream of consciousness (the on-going inner voice inside your head)

• running thoughts, feelings, sensations

Open Ended

What might our thoughtshots be?

We were preparing our team for the dodgeball tournament.

Write what might be going on in MY head????

Poetic License

the freedom to exaggerate, stray from the truth a bit, or break some rules in writing... for the purpose of a good story

Like when your mom blows up a story about you, when she's gossiping on the phone with her friends!

Multiple Choice

The concept of "poetic license" means

• Your narrative has to rhyme

• You can only write the narrative if you are 16

• It's acceptance or permission that you might "exaggerate" or tweak the details to make the story better

• It means that you must have permission to write about someone else.