The Story of My Life

your storyteller, Suzanne

Contrary to title, this is not an ode to One Direction (although I could be pretty okay with that).  As you may know, I am in the uncharted waters of 4th grade.  We've started our year as writers with the easiest story to write- our own story.

I have unique experiences.  I am the person I am today because of my what I've seen and done.  We spend lots of time valuing our stories.  

Now we are working to narrow down and kernel our stories.  The best stories take place in a tiny window of time.  All of the action can occur in seconds, minutes or, at the most hours.  We narrow our thinking down with a help from our seasonal snack- candy corn.  Check out my example below that goes with this narrative prompt:

White- key words from the prompt
Orange- my BIG idea
Yellow- my narrow idea-
"This one time..."

Now that we have our narrow idea, we are ready to kernel.  A kernel makes me think of popcorn.  It's tiny and hard, definitely not tasty- but it holds all the potential.  The kernel is our plan.  It is five strategic sentences that make our story go somewhere, do something.  








This is the Personal Narrative structure we use to kernel in Room 27.


Check out our prompt pack of 20 STAAR-formatted personal narrative prompts that will keep your writers rocking and rolling.