Narrative Writing Workshop

Dearest Reader: 

          Good Morrow, let us take a trip back in time to our last session where we learned so much on Narrative writing. Our session started off with a small but impactful Icebreaker where as observed everyone had to contribute a line to the prompt provided in order to create a story. Let us keep this in mind until the end. 

When we started the workshop with a definition of Narrative writing, which is essentially story telling, however to note it is not just story telling as we know stories as " once upon a time..." or anything from what we heard while growing up. Narrative writing is way more than that, it is also providing information to group in a "dramatic account"- ( Kramer L. 2021). We can see this in bibliographies, particular text books such as "The Caribbean before Columbus" by W. L. Keegan and C. L. Hofman and for us here in the Caribbean we know all too well our traditional folk lore tales. So we can see the while Narrative writing is story telling, it spans far more than just fairytales. 

From the definition we can highlight some purposes of Narrative writing, such as for entertainment, to allow the author to share an emotional account, communication, education, and reflection. As the workshop progressed learned about the elements of Narrative writing. And yes, while it is not that we were learning it for the first time time indeed we did learn some new things. 

So exactly then what are the elements of Narrative writing? First, to note there are seven elements, they are, Theme, Characters, Conflict, Style, Setting, Plot and Point of View.  

While presenting to you the information on the elements, I learned that theme is not just the the contribute of all the other elements of the Narrative writing and the central idea. I learned that it can be easily confused and mistaken to be the moral of the story. The moral of the story is what would the character learn after all the events that happen and what you sre the reader can now hold and say, a "new lesson learned". 

Learning about characters was interesting as well. Because we generally go for creating the outward image of who we would like to be portrayed in our stories, but it is more than that. It is, their personality, traits and the development of both throughout the story, it is the part they play within the story, are they the main characters or the minor. In fact I definitely learned something new which was that characters can be classified as round characters. And this is honestly up to the authors choice of how he or she wants the character development. But a round characters more or less is a main character who the reader observes changing their qualities from either good to bad or bad to good. 

The plot is the direction or the flow of the story. Like in the presentation, one must note that the story is like taking a hike up a mountain.

At each stage of the hike like what is observed in the picture. There is a particular event that happens within your story. The Exposition is the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced here, the rising action would be the build up of the conflict within the story. The climax is when the conflict is fully displayed. The falling action is where the conflict is being resolved and the resolution is where the conflict is resolved and everything. 

While presenting, I learned two things, the plot diagram is called the "Freytag Pyramid". And the contrast between the rising and falling action is that the rising action may take a long time to build up to the climax. But the Falling action should not take too long to get to the resolution. 

So this means that when we as teachers start to teach Narrative writing, we must highlight to our young writers that the resolving the conflict should not take too long. Which is also a great lesson for life (side note). 

Conflict: there are 5 types, but for Primary school we only focus on 4types. The 5 are,

Man vs man: tension between two characters 

Man vs self: fight between the main character and himself.

Man vs Nature: the struggle to accomplish a goal through the obstacles that nature such as a storm may put between characters. 

Man vs fate: a type of conflict in literature where the main character fights against a prediction or fortune from a god, oracle or supernatural entity, for example: in Macbeth when Macbeth got his fortune told to him by the witches about his fate in his reign. *this conflict, because it is abstract is nit used in the Primary levels. And more displayed in high school*.

Man vs Society/Group: the pressures placed on the main character(s) by an opposing group. Very relatable for the students, especially when we as teachers may bring a story to class and they read about the different activities acceptable for female characters rather than equal share for both genders. We can see that in our society. 

Setting: 

Relearning about the setting was really interesting. Here's why. Is reference to the pictures, easily the setting is understood that this is the place in which the story take place. Where the reader meets the characters. Where the author wants all the activities to be displayed. But that's not just that the setting is way more than that. What I learned was that the setting is also seen through weather, the time/ season of the year. Setting can also be as abstract as the place with the character's mind that might either give grief or bliss. 

Point if view: We know it in abbreviation as P.O.V. 

This is the perspective of who is telling the story. And that would be observed and identified by the pronouns used. 

While gathering the information for this element I must say that I didn't know or rather take note on the previous statement about the pronouns used. 

First person Narrative, uses 'I', 'we', 'ours'. They all relate to the the main character who is providing the accounts of what is happening in there life. 

Third person Narrative, uses ' he', 'she' , 'they' just some for an example. When the reader reads they realise that the main character is not telling the story but an onlooker is. 

Third person omniscient Narrative: uses 'he' she, they. However, this Narrative would be from someone who is not " in the story" but rather one who's outside the story completely and does not connect with or interact with the characters but only informs the reader with the important information. 

Lastly, style: this is where the author can execute using some if the 6+1 traits of writing. The voice, convention, ideas and organisation. The style is essentially the manner of which the writer wants the reader to receive the information. And by using the choice of punctuation, diction, vocabulary the author paints an image to reader to Express anger, joy, grief, or just mere knowledge. The reader is provided with a telescope to see the author and hear their voice. The reader can say that through it all the the writing is synonymous to the writer only. 

We then learnt about activities and techniques for assessing Narrative writing. One activity would be round Robin. This was used in the beginning at the ice breaker. The teacher places the pupils in a semi circle or circle asks the pupils to go around the circle rapidly offering their ideas or contribute to the complete of the story or just receiving ideas, contributions of characters and their development. One technique that was simple but impactful for students. Would be the observation checklist. It would engage the students in asking themselves questions in order to assure themselves that they would have learned applied the all the elements to the story, if the story flows cohesive or choppy. This can most definitely be used in peers and the students assess each other's work. 

Last, gentle reader, the use of the 6+1 traits along side the writing process. As we would have learned in previous postes the writing process comprises pre writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. In each component the traits can be found. Some more than others. Pre writing there is the presence of ideas, organization, voice. I gathered here that we as teachers would have to encourage or young writers to brainstorm their ideas. Write there point of view of telling the story and organise the way in which they would want to go about writing their stories. Drafting, they would simply put everything together. Then, revising, focusing on the word choice and sentence fluency. Within peers or the teacher checking the written work students can would be notified about what needs substituted, or enhanced. Editing, would focus on convention, the mechanics of the written piece, fixing the spellings, proper placement of punctuation marks. And lastly, publishing, students present the final piece. Teachers can put in place an activity where students share in what is ed authors chair. As they read their stories to their classmates. Which is a very encouraging way for students to feel great about their written work. 

Farewell gentle reader, I hope that this reflection of the Narrative writing workshop assists you in your sessions with your writing lesson with your young writers. Note, every writing activity should be engaging. Do not isolate your writer from engaging with there peers. Once they are able to share their ideas, it would definitely boost their vocabulary, creativity, understanding and self esteem. The goal is to make strong confident Writers. 

Signed: Whitnie Collins