Personal Narrative Anyone?

Prior to spring break, our little firsties were writing personal narratives.  I'm not going to lie to you..... they are NOT my favorite writing piece to teach.  I'd much rather teach something like nonfiction, how-to, opinion, something that has more structure. A writing piece that is more straightforward.

After a one year hiatus from personal narratives, I decided to add them back in.  This time was different though.  They were moved to a different time of year AND we only used Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (all three of them).  This year was also different because we used the nesting dolls to talk about how we have our big events, BUT..... those big events are full of smaller ones.

I tried and tried to get this across.  I'm not going to lie, I still have kiddos who can't get down to that one little event.  They are stuck in the big.  No matter what I say, no matter how we whittle it down, their little brains can't handle only talking about the small event.  This year, this time around.... I'm ok with it.


We worked on adding details to our sentences.  Again, I had a few risk takers, some just aren't there yet, again... it's ok.

Then, we talked about catchy leads and interesting closures. I had a few takers on each of these.  This little firsties had a terribly boring lead, but this is what she wrote after we had conferences.

Our personal narratives are finished, except we're publishing them.  I wanted to be finished before we left, but things happen, so we will finish that part up during writers workshop when we return.  I have the task of grading these precious little stories over spring break.  I have to laugh because near the beginning of our blogging career, I pinned a "Small Moments" rubric.  Each time I see it repinned, I just crack up because it is HORRIBLE!  I mean at the time I was like... "I'm awesome", but right now am so embarrassed by it I just want email the person who pins it to let them know I'm much better now!  And so you don't have to pin that horrible rubric, you can pin this one!  :)  It's MUCH better.  It's totally aligned with the common core standards and I love it!  It makes my grading life so.much.easier! And it's yours, just click on the rubric below!!!!

Happy Spring Break Friends!!!!