"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the elements that make for engaging stories, they craft their own narrative about a life lesson.

Concepts

Narrative Writing, personal narrative writing, mark twain, point of view, sensory details, characterization, first-person point of view

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Begin by having pupils illustrate five cartoon panels that represent significant events in their life they are willing to share with a partner
• Save examples to use as models with subsequent classes

Classroom Considerations

• Presumes class members have previously studied comparative narratives

Pros

• The 26-page packet includes a carefully scaffolded lesson, sample personal narratives, worksheets, graphic organizers, and a self-assessment rubric

Cons

• Beware the typo (manly instead of mainly) in the concept map graphic

Common Core

RL.7.1 RL.7.2 W.7.3.a W.7.4 SL.7.1.a SL.7.2 SL.7.3 SL.7.4 L.7.1.a L.7.2.a L.7.3.a L.7.4.a L.7.5.a L.7.6