narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

How to Teach Narrative Writing in 2nd Grade with Spectacular Results

Teaching Narrative Writing in 2nd Grade

Teaching narrative writing can be SO fun! But reading student’s personal narratives can get dry after a while. You can only read about so many trips to the pool or vacations where students detail getting to the airport, then their writing ends once they finally arrive in Disney World. Get your students engaged while teaching narrative writing by doing fun, imaginative and personal narratives this year!

narrative writing activity round up - road trip craft and project

Important Concepts:

Students need to recount either one event in detail or a series of events when writing a narrative. One misconception is that the narrative has to have happened to them. It is OKAY to have your students write an imaginative narrative.

Typically, I start by having students write personal narratives, as it is easy for them to recount something that has happened to them. Then, once we have done a few personal narratives, we move to more exciting imaginative topics.

narrative writing process anchor charts and posters

By second grade, students should be able to write a topic sentence, 3-4 event sentences WITH details, and a closing sentence. This means student writing should be anywhere from 5-10 sentences at least. However, many students are ready to write in paragraphs by second grade and should be encouraged to do so by adding more detail sentences to each event.

Challenges:

Students might struggle understanding the difference between an event and a detail. Talk to students about how an event is SOMETHING that happened, and details are the supporting ideas that help tell that story. Details can add dialogue, words from 5 senses, or more explicitly explain certain subjects from their writing.

going through the writing process anchor charts and posters for 2nd graders or elementary students

The Writing Process:

I cannot stress enough the importance of taking your students through the writing process every single week, for every single genre. This involves brainstorming/planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, grading and sharing.

Hook/Brainstorm:

Getting students EXCITED can be half the battle during writing. I love to tie all of my writing projects to engaging read alouds and fun topics. You can find my favorite narrative writing companions here.

It is equally important to MODEL each step of the writing process for students. After reading aloud our companion text, I typically will read aloud my model. I also will then model my own plan so students can see what I am looking for when it is their turn to write.

Then, it is time for students to make a plan. Be sure not to skip this phase, it is NOT writing a full draft, but rather jotting down their ideas they are going to write about. They can use bullet points or pictures to gather their ideas, but this should NOT be done in full sentences and should not take longer than 5-10 minutes.

narrative writing activity round up - imaginary friend beekle craft and project

I like to give students two full days to draft for narrative writing. Each week, we focus on a different important skill that needs to be taught during narrative writing. Some skills we focus on are:

• Transition Words • Topic Sentences • Closing Sentences • Adding Details such as adjectives, prepositions, similes, metaphors, etc. • Adding Dialogue • Writing with a problem and a solution

Typically, students write their topic sentence, and first two events and details one day. Then, I have them write their second two events and details, along with the closing on the second day. We focus on the skill of the week, while also reinforcing the other skills that were previously taught.

One spooky night digital imaginative narrative writing activity halloween

Revising/Editing:

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year setting up a peer editing time that is productive for students. We spend an entire day revising and editing, and I also roam the room and select certain students each week to conference with during this time.

Depending on the length of your writing block, you can either meet with all of your students or rotate through small groups of them each week.

narrative writing activity round up - craft and project for the year

Publish, Grade, Share:

I always have students publish a piece of writing every single week. We add it to our writing portfolios that we take home at the end of the year. When students finish publishing, I have them grade themselves on the rubric. Self-assessment is such a powerful tool for students.

After they self grade, we find time to share each week. This can be partner sharing, author’s chair, sharing with buddies, recording themselves reading or more.

What is your favorite tip for teaching narrative writing? Drop it in the comments below!

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How to Teach Narrative Writing

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

In this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Narrative Writing and provide details about the Narrative Writing Units I have created for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. Be sure to download 3 FREE narrative writing graphic organizers !

As teachers we spend a tremendous amount of time teaching our students to write. And for good reason! The ability to clearly express one’s thoughts in writing is an essential academic and life-skill. Study after study has shown that students who are able to master writing skills early on struggle less in overall literacy and communication .

The Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, opinion and narrative writing.  Each genre serves a unique purpose and follows a specific structure which we must explicitly teach our students.   

In earlier posts I shared tips and resources for teaching Informative Writing and Opinion Writing .  Today I’m excited to move on to the final genre, Narrative Writing.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

I love to teach narrative writing.  Personal narratives are a great genre to start the year with because they allow you to get to know your students a little bit better.  Most kids love to tell us stories about their lives, so writing personal narratives often comes naturally to them.  

Imaginative narratives, on the other hand, allow students’ creativity to shine!  Many students find it very motivating and engaging to be allowed to write the stories they create in their own mind. 

Today I’m sharing 5 tips for teaching narrative writing, as well as details about my narrative writing resource. It is a writing unit that has everything you need to bring narrative writing into your kindergarten , first grade, or secon d grade literacy centers! 

Tips for Teaching Narrative Writing

1.  read narrative writing mentor texts .

Before you can ask your students to write in a genre that is new to them, you must first immerse them in it.  So to begin your unit, you’ll want to share examples of narrative writing with your students.  These mentor texts provide students with examples of excellent narrative writing. 

As you read them aloud, highlight the way the author structures their writing.  Identify the author’s purpose, the topic, the order of the events, and how the author felt.  All of these things will help students better understand what type of writing we are asking them to do.    

When you’re picking narrative mentor texts to share with your students there are a few things to consider .  First, do you (the educator) think it is excellent?  Second, is it easy for your students to understand?  And finally, is it relevant to the type of writing you are teaching?  If you answer “Yes!” to all three, then you’re good to go!

To help you out I’ve created a list of excellent mentor texts you can use when teaching narrative writing to kindergarten, first, or second grade students.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

A List of Narrative Writing Mentor Texts:

  • New Shoes – Chris Raschka
  • Jabari Jumps – Gaia Cornwall
  • Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale – Mo Willems
  • Library Mouse – Daniel Kirk
  • Rocket Writes a Story – Tad Hills
  • Diary of a Worm – Doreen Cronin
  • The Night I Followed My Dog – Nina Laden
  • Rubia and the Three Osos – Susan Middleton Elya
  • The Three Snow Bears – Jan Brett

I’ve saved all these titles on one board so you can easily take a closer look at these mentor texts.  Click here to see this list on Amazon .

2.  Model Your Own Narrative Writing

When modeling your own narrative writing I suggest you use an experience you’ve shared as a class.  It could be as simple as a short nature walk outside the school building, a field trip you went on, or a class celebration you had.  Show your students that narratives don’t have to be about big events.  Small moments, like a walk outside, can be stretched out and turned into a great narrative writing piece! 

Next, model how you plan your writing using a graphic organizer.  Highlight how you have a topic, use temporal words to order your events, details and a closing sentence.   Don’t be afraid to put the events out of order!  Let the students catch the mistake and help you fix it!   

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Model how you use the graphic organizer to guide you as you write out your full piece. 

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Finally, reread your work aloud to ensure it makes sense and that the events are in the correct order.  Check for any silly mistakes and come up with a fitting title! 

3. Use Anchor Charts

You want your students to know that when they write a narrative piece they are writing a story to entertain the reader.  It can be a true, personal story from their life, or an imagined fictional one.  Creating an anchor chart with this information helps to remind students their purpose for writing.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Create a second anchor chart that reviews temporal words.  Words such as yesterday, today, first, next, or last describe time or order of events and help make a narrative story more clear for the reader.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

When writing fictional narratives, an anchor chart of fictional sentence starters can help students to get ideas for a story.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Finally, you’ll want to create an anchor chart using the writing you model. This will serve as another example of excellent narrative writing.  As a class, add labels to identify the title, the topic, temporal words, details, and the closing sentence in your shared writing.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

All of these anchor charts can be posted in your writing center. Encourage your students to refer back to them and use them as support as they write their own pieces.

4. Allow students to edit and share their writing

Provide a good writers checklist at your writing center.  For narrative writing you’ll want the checklist to include items such,  “Does my writing have a title?”  “Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?”  “Did I use temporal words?” as well as reminders to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

You can also create a rubric specific to the genre. Model how you use it to assess your own work and how it can be used to provide feedback to others.   

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Give students the opportunity to share their writing with others!  Pair students with partners and let them read their pieces to each other.  Encourage them to provide feedback using the editing checklist and the rubric as a guide.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

5. Provide Daily Opportunities for Students to Write

As with all things, writing takes PRACTICE!  Students need dedicated instructional time to learn the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers, as well as time to practice what they learn.  

When you think about your daily instructional schedule, make sure you are giving your students ample opportunities to practice their narrative writing through whole group instruction, small groups, and/or through independent practice in writing centers. 

Narrative Writing Units For Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Students 

Today I’m excited to share with you the details about my Kindergarten Narrative , 1st Grade Narrative , and my 2nd grade Narrative writing units!  I love them because they have ALL the resources you need to give your students the practice needed to master narrative writing.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

These narrative writing units were developed with standards-based research specific to each grade. You can use them within whole class or small group lessons, or as a literacy center activity where students can practice narrative writing independently!  

Let’s take a closer look at each one…. 

Kindergarten Narrative Writing Unit

The kindergarten resource has everything you need to incorporate narrative writing into your literacy centers all year long!  

To help your students better understand the genre you’ll get two mini-lessons , one on personal narratives and the other for imaginative narratives.  I recommend focusing on personal narratives at the start of the year and moving onto imaginative narratives in the second semester.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

You’ll also get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, academic vocabulary posters, printable anchor charts, graphic organizers and differentiated writing prompts.  

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

These seasonal and all-year-long writing prompts come in 3 differentiated versions to meet your Kindergarteners where they are developmentally throughout the year.  Each writing prompt comes with a vocabulary word web to assist young writers in brainstorming ideas and spelling words while writing.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Finally, you’ll get a narrative writing editing checklist appropriate for the kindergarten level. 

First Grade and Second Grade Narrative Writing Units

The first and second grade resources were designed with standards-based research specific to grade.  You’ll get a personal narrative mini-lesson and imaginative narrative mini-lesson to use as a review of the genre.  You’ll also get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, academic vocabulary posters, anchor charts, graphic organizers and seasonal writing prompts! 

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

You won’t hear students say, “I don’t know what to write about!” when they are using this resource!  The seasonal writing prompts include choice boards for personal narratives and imaginative narratives, as well as sentence starters and vocabulary banks to assist in brainstorming ideas and spelling words while writing.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

The personal narrative and imaginative narrative seasonal prompts are both PRINTABLE & DIGITAL. The digital version has been PRELOADED for you, with 1 click add them to your Google Drive or upload them to SeeSaw.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Finally, you’ll get self-editing checklists and rubrics for both personal and imaginative narrative writing.  The rubric makes a great self-assessment tool and can be used as a guide for peer feedback.     

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

I love these resources because they can be used in so many different ways.  They offer opportunities for students to practice both personal and imaginative narrative writing as a whole class, in small groups, as a literacy center activity, for homework, or as a meaningful activity for when they have a substitute teacher!  

FREE Narrative Writing Graphic Organizers

Are you ready to begin teaching Narrative Writing in your classroom? To help get you started, I am happy to offer you 3 FREE narrative writing graphic organizers! You can download them here.

Writing is an essential skill that benefits students well beyond the walls of our classrooms. As teachers, we work hard to plan engaging activities that we hope will build our students’ confidence and help them to develop a lifelong love of writing.

I hope the information and resources I’ve shared on narrative, opinion and informative writing will help to bring stronger instruction and more meaningful writing practice to your kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms!

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Narrative Writing Prompts Graphic Organizers and Centers - Kindergarten

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

July 29, 2018

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narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

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“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”  This proverb, attributed to the Hopi Indians, is one I wish I’d known a long time ago, because I would have used it when teaching my students the craft of storytelling. With a well-told story we can help a person see things in an entirely new way. We can forge new relationships and strengthen the ones we already have. We can change a law, inspire a movement, make people care fiercely about things they’d never given a passing thought.

But when we study storytelling with our students, we forget all that. Or at least I did. When my students asked why we read novels and stories, and why we wrote personal narratives and fiction, my defense was pretty lame: I probably said something about the importance of having a shared body of knowledge, or about the enjoyment of losing yourself in a book, or about the benefits of having writing skills in general.

I forgot to talk about the  power of story. I didn’t bother to tell them that the ability to tell a captivating story is one of the things that makes human beings extraordinary. It’s how we connect to each other. It’s something to celebrate, to study, to perfect. If we’re going to talk about how to teach students to write stories, we should start by thinking about why we tell stories at all . If we can pass that on to our students, then we will be going beyond a school assignment; we will be doing something transcendent.

Now. How do we get them to write those stories? I’m going to share the process I used for teaching narrative writing. I used this process with middle school students, but it would work with most age groups.

A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?

When teaching narrative writing, many teachers separate personal narratives from short stories. In my own classroom, I tended to avoid having my students write short stories because personal narratives were more accessible. I could usually get students to write about something that really happened, while it was more challenging to get them to make something up from scratch.

In the “real” world of writers, though, the main thing that separates memoir from fiction is labeling: A writer might base a novel heavily on personal experiences, but write it all in third person and change the names of characters to protect the identities of people in real life. Another writer might create a short story in first person that reads like a personal narrative, but is entirely fictional. Just last weekend my husband and I watched the movie Lion and were glued to the screen the whole time, knowing it was based on a true story. James Frey’s book  A Million Little Pieces  sold millions of copies as a memoir but was later found to contain more than a little bit of fiction. Then there are unique books like Curtis Sittenfeld’s brilliant novel American Wife , based heavily on the early life of Laura Bush but written in first person, with fictional names and settings, and labeled as a work of fiction. The line between fact and fiction has always been really, really blurry, but the common thread running through all of it is good storytelling.

With that in mind, the process for teaching narrative writing can be exactly the same for writing personal narratives or short stories; it’s the same skill set. So if you think your students can handle the freedom, you might decide to let them choose personal narrative or fiction for a narrative writing assignment, or simply tell them that whether the story is true doesn’t matter, as long as they are telling a good story and they are not trying to pass off a fictional story as fact.

Here are some examples of what that kind of flexibility could allow:

  • A student might tell a true story from their own experience, but write it as if it were a fiction piece, with fictional characters, in third person.
  • A student might create a completely fictional story, but tell it in first person, which would give it the same feel as a personal narrative.
  • A student might tell a true story that happened to someone else, but write it in first person, as if they were that person. For example, I could write about my grandmother’s experience of getting lost as a child, but I might write it in her voice.

If we aren’t too restrictive about what we call these pieces, and we talk about different possibilities with our students, we can end up with lots of interesting outcomes. Meanwhile, we’re still teaching students the craft of narrative writing.

A Note About Process: Write With Your Students

One of the most powerful techniques I used as a writing teacher was to do my students’ writing assignments with them. I would start my own draft at the same time as they did, composing “live” on the classroom projector, and doing a lot of thinking out loud so they could see all the decisions a writer has to make.

The most helpful parts for them to observe were the early drafting stage, where I just scratched out whatever came to me in messy, run-on sentences, and the revision stage, where I crossed things out, rearranged, and made tons of notes on my writing. I have seen over and over again how witnessing that process can really help to unlock a student’s understanding of how writing actually gets made.

A Narrative Writing Unit Plan

Before I get into these steps, I should note that there is no one right way to teach narrative writing, and plenty of accomplished teachers are doing it differently and getting great results. This just happens to be a process that has worked for me.

Step 1: Show Students That Stories Are Everywhere

Getting our students to tell stories should be easy. They hear and tell stories all the time. But when they actually have to put words on paper, they forget their storytelling abilities: They can’t think of a topic. They omit relevant details, but go on and on about irrelevant ones. Their dialogue is bland. They can’t figure out how to start. They can’t figure out how to end.

So the first step in getting good narrative writing from students is to help them see that they are already telling stories every day . They gather at lockers to talk about that thing that happened over the weekend. They sit at lunch and describe an argument they had with a sibling. Without even thinking about it, they begin sentences with “This one time…” and launch into stories about their earlier childhood experiences. Students are natural storytellers; learning how to do it well on paper is simply a matter of studying good models, then imitating what those writers do.

So start off the unit by getting students to tell their stories. In journal quick-writes, think-pair-shares, or by playing a game like Concentric Circles , prompt them to tell some of their own brief stories: A time they were embarrassed. A time they lost something. A time they didn’t get to do something they really wanted to do. By telling their own short anecdotes, they will grow more comfortable and confident in their storytelling abilities. They will also be generating a list of topic ideas. And by listening to the stories of their classmates, they will be adding onto that list and remembering more of their own stories.

And remember to tell some of your own. Besides being a good way to bond with students, sharing  your stories will help them see more possibilities for the ones they can tell.

Step 2: Study the Structure of a Story

Now that students have a good library of their own personal stories pulled into short-term memory, shift your focus to a more formal study of what a story looks like.

Use a diagram to show students a typical story arc like the one below. Then, using a simple story—like this Coca Cola commercial —fill out the story arc with the components from that story. Once students have seen this story mapped out, have them try it with another one, like a story you’ve read in class, a whole novel, or another short video.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Step 3: Introduce the Assignment

Up to this point, students have been immersed in storytelling. Now give them specific instructions for what they are going to do. Share your assignment rubric so they understand the criteria that will be used to evaluate them; it should be ready and transparent right from the beginning of the unit. As always, I recommend using a single point rubric for this.

Step 4: Read Models

Once the parameters of the assignment have been explained, have students read at least one model story, a mentor text that exemplifies the qualities you’re looking for. This should be a story on a topic your students can kind of relate to, something they could see themselves writing. For my narrative writing unit (see the end of this post), I wrote a story called “Frog” about a 13-year-old girl who finally gets to stay home alone, then finds a frog in her house and gets completely freaked out, which basically ruins the fun she was planning for the night.

They will be reading this model as writers, looking at how the author shaped the text for a purpose, so that they can use those same strategies in their own writing. Have them look at your rubric and find places in the model that illustrate the qualities listed in the rubric. Then have them complete a story arc for the model so they can see the underlying structure.

Ideally, your students will have already read lots of different stories to look to as models. If that isn’t the case, this list of narrative texts recommended by Cult of Pedagogy followers on Twitter would be a good place to browse for titles that might be right for your students. Keep in mind that we have not read most of these stories, so be sure to read them first before adopting them for classroom use.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Click the image above to view the full list of narrative texts recommended by Cult of Pedagogy followers on Twitter. If you have a suggestion for the list, please email us through our contact page.

Step 5: Story Mapping

At this point, students will need to decide what they are going to write about. If they are stuck for a topic, have them just pick something they can write about, even if it’s not the most captivating story in the world. A skilled writer could tell a great story about deciding what to have for lunch. If they are using the skills of narrative writing, the topic isn’t as important as the execution.

Have students complete a basic story arc for their chosen topic using a diagram like the one below. This will help them make sure that they actually have a story to tell, with an identifiable problem, a sequence of events that build to a climax, and some kind of resolution, where something is different by the end. Again, if you are writing with your students, this would be an important step to model for them with your own story-in-progress.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Step 6: Quick Drafts

Now, have students get their chosen story down on paper as quickly as possible: This could be basically a long paragraph that would read almost like a summary, but it would contain all the major parts of the story. Model this step with your own story, so they can see that you are not shooting for perfection in any way. What you want is a working draft, a starting point, something to build on for later, rather than a blank page (or screen) to stare at.

Step 7: Plan the Pacing

Now that the story has been born in raw form, students can begin to shape it. This would be a good time for a lesson on pacing, where students look at how writers expand some moments to create drama and shrink other moments so that the story doesn’t drag. Creating a diagram like the one below forces a writer to decide how much space to devote to all of the events in the story.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Before students write a full draft, have them plan out the events in their story with a pacing diagram, a visual representation of how much “space” each part of the story is going to take up.

Step 8: Long Drafts

With a good plan in hand, students can now slow down and write a proper draft, expanding the sections of their story that they plan to really draw out and adding in more of the details that they left out in the quick draft.

Step 9: Workshop

Once students have a decent rough draft—something that has a basic beginning, middle, and end, with some discernible rising action, a climax of some kind, and a resolution, you’re ready to shift into full-on workshop mode. I would do this for at least a week: Start class with a short mini-lesson on some aspect of narrative writing craft, then give students the rest of the period to write, conference with you, and collaborate with their peers. During that time, they should focus some of their attention on applying the skill they learned in the mini-lesson to their drafts, so they will improve a little bit every day.

Topics for mini-lessons can include:

  • How to weave exposition into your story so you don’t give readers an “information dump”
  • How to carefully select dialogue to create good scenes, rather than quoting everything in a conversation
  • How to punctuate and format dialogue so that it imitates the natural flow of a conversation
  • How to describe things using sensory details and figurative language; also,  what  to describe…students too often give lots of irrelevant detail
  • How to choose precise nouns and vivid verbs, use a variety of sentence lengths and structures, and add transitional words, phrases, and features to help the reader follow along
  • How to start, end, and title a story

Step 10: Final Revisions and Edits

As the unit nears its end, students should be shifting away from revision , in which they alter the content of a piece, toward editing , where they make smaller changes to the mechanics of the writing. Make sure students understand the difference between the two: They should not be correcting each other’s spelling and punctuation in the early stages of this process, when the focus should be on shaping a better story.

One of the most effective strategies for revision and editing is to have students read their stories out loud. In the early stages, this will reveal places where information is missing or things get confusing. Later, more read-alouds will help them immediately find missing words, unintentional repetitions, and sentences that just “sound weird.” So get your students to read their work out loud frequently. It also helps to print stories on paper: For some reason, seeing the words in print helps us notice things we didn’t see on the screen.

To get the most from peer review, where students read and comment on each other’s work, more modeling from you is essential: Pull up a sample piece of writing and show students how to give specific feedback that helps, rather than simply writing “good detail” or “needs more detail,” the two comments I saw exchanged most often on students’ peer-reviewed papers.

Step 11: Final Copies and Publication

Once revision and peer review are done, students will hand in their final copies. If you don’t want to get stuck with 100-plus papers to grade, consider using Catlin Tucker’s station rotation model , which keeps all the grading in class. And when you do return stories with your own feedback, try using Kristy Louden’s delayed grade strategy , where students don’t see their final grade until they have read your written feedback.

Beyond the standard hand-in-for-a-grade, consider other ways to have students publish their stories. Here are some options:

  • Stories could be published as individual pages on a collaborative website or blog.
  • Students could create illustrated e-books out of their stories.
  • Students could create a slideshow to accompany their stories and record them as digital storytelling videos. This could be done with a tool like Screencastify or Screencast-O-Matic .

So this is what worked for me. If you’ve struggled to get good stories from your students, try some or all of these techniques next time. I think you’ll find that all of your students have some pretty interesting stories to tell. Helping them tell their stories well is a gift that will serve them for many years after they leave your classroom. ♦

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including slideshow mini-lessons on 14 areas of narrative craft, a sample narrative piece, editable rubrics, and other supplemental materials to guide students through every stage of the process, take a look at my Narrative Writing unit . Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

What to Read Next

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

50 Comments

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Wow, this is a wonderful guide! If my English teachers had taught this way, I’m sure I would have enjoyed narrative writing instead of dreading it. I’ll be able to use many of these suggestions when writing my blog! BrP

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Lst year I was so discouraged because the short stories looked like the quick drafts described in this article. I thought I had totally failed until I read this and realized I did not fai,l I just needed to complete the process. Thank you!

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I feel like you jumped in my head and connected my thoughts. I appreciate the time you took to stop and look closely at form. I really believe that student-writers should see all dimensions of narrative writing and be able to live in whichever style and voice they want for their work.

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Can’t thank you enough for this. So well curated that one can just follow it blindly and ace at teaching it. Thanks again!

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Great post! I especially liked your comments about reminding kids about the power of storytelling. My favourite podcasts and posts from you are always about how to do things in the classroom and I appreciate the research you do.

On a side note, the ice breakers are really handy. My kids know each other really well (rural community), and can tune out pretty quickly if there is nothing new to learn about their peers, but they like the games (and can remember where we stopped last time weeks later). I’ve started changing them up with ‘life questions’, so the editable version is great!

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I love writing with my students and loved this podcast! A fun extension to this narrative is to challenge students to write another story about the same event, but use the perspective of another “character” from the story. Books like Wonder (R.J. Palacio) and Wanderer (Sharon Creech) can model the concept for students.

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Thank you for your great efforts to reveal the practical writing strategies in layered details. As English is not my first language, I need listen to your podcast and read the text repeatedly so to fully understand. It’s worthy of the time for some great post like yours. I love sharing so I send the link to my English practice group that it can benefit more. I hope I could be able to give you some feedback later on.

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Thank you for helping me get to know better especially the techniques in writing narrative text. Im an English teacher for 5years but have little knowledge on writing. I hope you could feature techniques in writing news and fearute story. God bless and more power!

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Thank you for this! I am very interested in teaching a unit on personal narrative and this was an extremely helpful breakdown. As a current student teacher I am still unsure how to approach breaking down the structures of different genres of writing in a way that is helpful for me students but not too restrictive. The story mapping tools you provided really allowed me to think about this in a new way. Writing is such a powerful way to experience the world and more than anything I want my students to realize its power. Stories are how we make sense of the world and as an English teacher I feel obligated to give my students access to this particular skill.

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The power of story is unfathomable. There’s this NGO in India doing some great work in harnessing the power of storytelling and plots to brighten children’s lives and enlighten them with true knowledge. Check out Katha India here: http://bit.ly/KathaIndia

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Thank you so much for this. I did not go to college to become a writing professor, but due to restructuring in my department, I indeed am! This is a wonderful guide that I will use when teaching the narrative essay. I wonder if you have a similar guide for other modes such as descriptive, process, argument, etc.?

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Hey Melanie, Jenn does have another guide on writing! Check out A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing .

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Hi, I am also wondering if there is a similar guide for descriptive writing in particular?

Hey Melanie, unfortunately Jenn doesn’t currently have a guide for descriptive writing. She’s always working on projects though, so she may get around to writing a unit like this in the future. You can always check her Teachers Pay Teachers page for an up-to-date list of materials she has available. Thanks!

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I want to write about the new character in my area

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That’s great! Let us know if you need any supports during your writing process!

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I absolutely adore this unit plan. I teach freshmen English at a low-income high school and wanted to find something to help my students find their voice. It is not often that I borrow material, but I borrowed and adapted all of it in the order that it is presented! It is cohesive, understandable, and fun. Thank you!!

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So glad to hear this, Nicole!

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Thanks sharing this post. My students often get confused between personal narratives and short stories. Whenever I ask them to write a short story, she share their own experiences and add a bit of fiction in it to make it interesting.

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Thank you! My students have loved this so far. I do have a question as to where the “Frog” story mentioned in Step 4 is. I could really use it! Thanks again.

This is great to hear, Emily! In Step 4, Jenn mentions that she wrote the “Frog” story for her narrative writing unit . Just scroll down the bottom of the post and you’ll see a link to the unit.

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I also cannot find the link to the short story “Frog”– any chance someone can send it or we can repost it?

This story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. You can find a link to this unit in Step 4 or at the bottom of the article. Hope this helps.

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I cannot find the frog story mentioned. Could you please send the link.? Thank you

Hi Michelle,

The Frog story was written for Jenn’s narrative writing unit. There’s a link to this unit in Step 4 and at the bottom of the article.

Debbie- thanks for you reply… but there is no link to the story in step 4 or at the bottom of the page….

Hey Shawn, the frog story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link Debbie is referring to at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit and you would have to purchase that to gain access to the frog story. I hope this clears things up.

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Thank you so much for this resource! I’m a high school English teacher, and am currently teaching creative writing for the first time. I really do value your blog, podcast, and other resources, so I’m excited to use this unit. I’m a cyber school teacher, so clear, organized layout is important; and I spend a lot of time making sure my content is visually accessible for my students to process. Thanks for creating resources that are easy for us teachers to process and use.

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Do you have a lesson for Informative writing?

Hey Cari, Jenn has another unit on argumentative writing , but doesn’t have one yet on informative writing. She may develop one in the future so check back in sometime.

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I had the same question. Informational writing is so difficult to have a good strong unit in when you have so many different text structures to meet and need text-dependent writing tasks.

Creating an informational writing unit is still on Jenn’s long list of projects to get to, but in the meantime, if you haven’t already, check out When We All Teach Text Structures, Everyone Wins . It might help you out!

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This is a great lesson! It would be helpful to see a finished draft of the frog narrative arc. Students’ greatest challenge is transferring their ideas from the planner to a full draft. To see a full sample of how this arc was transformed into a complete narrative draft would be a powerful learning tool.

Hi Stacey! Jenn goes into more depth with the “Frog” lesson in her narrative writing unit – this is where you can find a sample of what a completed story arc might look. Also included is a draft of the narrative. If interested in checking out the unit and seeing a preview, just scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the image. Hope this helps!

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Helped me learn for an entrance exam thanks very much

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Is the narrative writing lesson you talk about in https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/narrative-writing/

Also doable for elementary students you think, and if to what levels?

Love your work, Sincerely, Zanyar

Hey Zanyar,

It’s possible the unit would work with 4th and 5th graders, but Jenn definitely wouldn’t recommend going any younger. The main reason for this is that some of the mini-lessons in the unit could be challenging for students who are still concrete thinkers. You’d likely need to do some adjusting and scaffolding which could extend the unit beyond the 3 weeks. Having said that, I taught 1st grade and found the steps of the writing process, as described in the post, to be very similar. Of course learning targets/standards were different, but the process itself can be applied to any grade level (modeling writing, using mentor texts to study how stories work, planning the structure of the story, drafting, elaborating, etc.) Hope this helps!

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This has made my life so much easier. After teaching in different schools systems, from the American, to British to IB, one needs to identify the anchor standards and concepts, that are common between all these systems, to build well balanced thematic units. Just reading these steps gave me the guidance I needed to satisfy both the conceptual framework the schools ask for and the standards-based practice. Thank you Thank you.

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Would this work for teaching a first grader about narrative writing? I am also looking for a great book to use as a model for narrative writing. Veggie Monster is being used by his teacher and he isn’t connecting with this book in the least bit, so it isn’t having a positive impact. My fear is he will associate this with writing and I don’t want a negative association connected to such a beautiful process and experience. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you for any information you can provide!

Although I think the materials in the actual narrative writing unit are really too advanced for a first grader, the general process that’s described in the blog post can still work really well.

I’m sorry your child isn’t connecting with The Night of the Veggie Monster. Try to keep in mind that the main reason this is used as a mentor text is because it models how a small moment story can be told in a big way. It’s filled with all kinds of wonderful text features that impact the meaning of the story – dialogue, description, bold text, speech bubbles, changes in text size, ellipses, zoomed in images, text placement, text shape, etc. All of these things will become mini-lessons throughout the unit. But there are lots of other wonderful mentor texts that your child might enjoy. My suggestion for an early writer, is to look for a small moment text, similar in structure, that zooms in on a problem that a first grader can relate to. In addition to the mentor texts that I found in this article , you might also want to check out Knuffle Bunny, Kitten’s First Full Moon, When Sophie Gets Angry Really Really Angry, and Whistle for Willie. Hope this helps!

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I saw this on Pinterest the other day while searching for examples of narritives units/lessons. I clicked on it because I always click on C.o.P stuff 🙂 And I wasn’t disapointed. I was intrigued by the connection of narratives to humanity–even if a student doesn’t identify as a writer, he/she certainly is human, right? I really liked this. THIS clicked with me.

A few days after I read the P.o.C post, I ventured on to YouTube for more ideas to help guide me with my 8th graders’ narrative writing this coming spring. And there was a TEDx video titled, “The Power of Personal Narrative” by J. Christan Jensen. I immediately remembered the line from the article above that associated storytelling with “power” and how it sets humans apart and if introduced and taught as such, it can be “extraordinary.”

I watched the video and to the suprise of my expectations, it was FANTASTIC. Between Jennifer’s post and the TEDx video ignited within me some major motivation and excitement to begin this unit.

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Thanks for sharing this with us! So glad that Jenn’s post paired with another text gave you some motivation and excitement. I’ll be sure to pass this on to Jenn!

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Thank you very much for this really helpful post! I really love the idea of helping our students understand that storytelling is powerful and then go on to teach them how to harness that power. That is the essence of teaching literature or writing at any level. However, I’m a little worried about telling students that whether a piece of writing is fact or fiction does not matter. It in fact matters a lot precisely because storytelling is powerful. Narratives can shape people’s views and get their emotions involved which would, in turn, motivate them to act on a certain matter, whether for good or for bad. A fictional narrative that is passed as factual could cause a lot of damage in the real world. I believe we should. I can see how helping students focus on writing the story rather than the truth of it all could help refine the needed skills without distractions. Nevertheless, would it not be prudent to teach our students to not just harness the power of storytelling but refrain from misusing it by pushing false narratives as factual? It is true that in reality, memoirs pass as factual while novels do as fictional while the opposite may be true for both cases. I am not too worried about novels passing as fictional. On the other hand, fictional narratives masquerading as factual are disconcerting and part of a phenomenon that needs to be fought against, not enhanced or condoned in education. This is especially true because memoirs are often used by powerful people to write/re-write history. I would really like to hear your opinion on this. Thanks a lot for a great post and a lot of helpful resources!

Thank you so much for this. Jenn and I had a chance to chat and we can see where you’re coming from. Jenn never meant to suggest that a person should pass off a piece of fictional writing as a true story. Good stories can be true, completely fictional, or based on a true story that’s mixed with some fiction – that part doesn’t really matter. However, what does matter is how a student labels their story. We think that could have been stated more clearly in the post , so Jenn decided to add a bit about this at the end of the 3rd paragraph in the section “A Note About Form: Personal Narrative or Short Story?” Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

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You have no idea how much your page has helped me in so many ways. I am currently in my teaching credential program and there are times that I feel lost due to a lack of experience in the classroom. I’m so glad I came across your page! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks so much for letting us know-this means a whole lot!

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No, we’re sorry. Jenn actually gets this question fairly often. It’s something she considered doing at one point, but because she has so many other projects she’s working on, she’s just not gotten to it.

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I couldn’t find the story

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Hi, Duraiya. The “Frog” story is part of Jenn’s narrative writing unit, which is available on her Teachers Pay Teachers site. The link at the bottom of this post will take you to her narrative writing unit, which you can purchase to gain access to the story. I hope this helps!

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Terrific Teaching Tactics

Make Learning Fun

2nd Grade Personal Narratives Writing Unit

Have you been wondering how to teach 2nd graders to write a personal narrative? It can feel overwhelming if your school doesn’t provide a writing curriculum (or worse, it’s an awful one). You might find yourself frantically googling ‘how do you teach a personal narrative to 2nd grade?!’ Well, don’t worry! I’ve got you covered. I’m going to share all about my 2nd grade personal narratives writing unit!

2nd grade writing curriculum - second grade writing unit - personal narratives unit

What’s included in this 2nd grade personal narratives writing unit?

Unit documents.

First up, you’re provided with everything you need to organize your lesson planning –

  • List of common core standards that align with the unit
  • Suggestions for differentiation
  • Suggested lesson times (no matter how long your writing block is)
  • Unit scope and at-a-glance calendar
  • Lesson materials list (so you know exactly what is needed for each lesson at a glance)
  • Video overview to help organize and implement the unit
  • Hyperlinked table of contents (so you can jump straight to the pages you need)!

terrific writing curriculum second grade writing unit personal narratives

Personal narrative 2nd grade Lesson plans

Next, there are 25 step-by-step lesson plans. These one page scripted plans are easy to grab and teach!

This is NOT one of those big box curriculums where you have to sift through 10 pages of background teacher information for each lesson or read from the most BORING script. I hear so many teachers say that those curriculums are “Not teacher friendly, wordy and annoying to follow. SO many pages to read for just one lesson! “

Conversely, the lessons in this unit follow a simple format of mini lesson, think and share, and independent writing time. There’s a short script and differentiation is included for the writing tasks. You can stop spending hours of your precious time on evenings and weekends writing lesson plans from scratch or reading those awful ones I mentioned earlier!

2nd grade personal narratives lesson plan

Personal narrative writing posters

As you’re teaching, there’s nothing worse than just talking AT students and having them zone out and look elsewhere. That’s why this 2nd grade personal narratives writing unit includes 21 engaging posters to display as you teach!

personal narrative anchor charts grade 2 posters writing unit elements of a personal narrative

You can refer to the posters as you teach or revise certain concepts. There are definitions, explanations, and examples for everything covered in the unit!

What if you don’t fancy printing and laminating? It’s okay, you can just show the PDF on your interactive whiteboard!

There are so many topics covered. For example, you’ll find a parts of a paragraph poster, structure of a personal narrative poster, and editing checklist poster.

personal narrative writing posters 2nd grade anchor charts parts of a narrative poster

Mentor texts

You’re busy, right? I bet the last thing you want to do is source mentor texts. Whether you hit up Amazon or your school library, either way it takes time and/or money.

Well, this writing unit includes six original mentor texts! They are engaging and help show students a personal narrative example. They’ll see what their writing needs to be like!

The mentor texts align well with the lessons (for example, a mentor text about a beach day is read during a lesson where students write about a fun day).

Every mentor text has examples of the concepts and features of a narrative that are taught in this unit (for example, all the mentor texts have hooks, linking words etc).

Wanna save on printing? Just the like posters, you can show the mentor texts as a PDF. Even better, there are PowerPoint versions too!

second grade personal narrative example 2nd grade mentor texts sample

Click here to grab the unit from this website you’re on right now. Use the code TERRIFIC10 at checkout to save 10%!

Personal narrative writing prompts, graphic organizers, and worksheets

Once you’re finished the mini lesson, it’s time for students to write! This unit includes –

  • 17 personal narrative graphic organizers / worksheets
  • 1 writing prompt pre-assessment
  • 8 lined pages (for first drafts and crafts)
  • 2 checklists

I hear many teachers say that the big box curriculum that they are provided with is so boring for students. That’s why I made sure that this unit has ENGAGING student activities!

personal narrative writing prompt second grade

These worksheets have been designed to cater to a range of students. Five of the activities have lines for writing and they are offered in both dotted and plain lines.

However, the rest of the printables are graphic organizers and have boxes for students to share their answers. You may have some students working well below their grade level. In this case, they can draw pictures and write words/short sentences for their responses (without the stigma of needing a different printable). Students working at or above grade level can write lengthy answers to fill the boxes.

The boxes allow students to share their answers easily, no matter the size of their handwriting!

teaching characterization setting personal narratives worksheet

I hear many teachers complain that the curriculum they’re given is “too open ended and vague” and “too difficult for the kids”

Or worse, that “it never covered the basics, not enough solid instruction. It expects students to just sit and write for long stretches”

In this unit, students are NOT told to just ‘go off and write’ as if that will magically make them good writers! In this unit, each concept is explicitly taught and students learn all about the structure and features of a personal narrative. They use the printables to work on what they have learned.

hook worksheet show, don't tell activity 2nd grade

how to make teaching writing more fun

These activities have been designed to be engaging for students! There’s fun clip art and boxes. Students get the opportunity to draw illustrations and color in.

In this writing unit, your students will develop a love of writing. The graphic organizers, interactive notebooks, and final craft will engage students much more than a blank piece of paper!

narrative conclusion ending worksheet

Wanna save on printing? You can display the activities instead. You could print one copy (perhaps in a large size) and display in your classroom. If you don’t have the ability to print at all, you could share these activities digitally (on an interactive whiteboard, TV, projector, computer, or laptop).

In both of these scenarios, students can recreate the activity on plain paper, lined paper, or in their notebooks/workbooks and write their responses. They could even type their answers digitally.

Fun fact, the pictures in this post are included in the writing unit so that you and/or your students can see examples of the activities!

narrative planning graphic organizer

Interactive notebooks

Hands-on is always best! That’s why this unit includes three interactive notebooks. Students can share their ideas in a fun and interactive way. Two of them are brainstorming activities. One is a beginning, middle, and end activity for teaching the structure of a personal narrative.

personal narrative interactive notebook 2nd grade

EDITING CHECKLISTS

How do you revise or edit a personal narrative?

Once students write a draft of their final writing piece, there are two checklists to help them edit and revise their work! Students complete self, peer, and adult edits.

editing checklist revising personal narratives 2nds grade

Writing folder

Where will your students store all of their work? There’s a workbook cover provided in this unit that comes in boy and girl versions! You can also choose between the wording ‘folder, journal, or notebook’.

personal narratives writing folder 2nd grade draft lined page

Interested in the unit? Click here to grab it from TPT!

Personal narrative writing craft

The unit ends with an exciting writing craft!

Students are writing a personal narrative on lined paper, but that’s where it ends in most boring writing units. But not this unit! Instead, students get an opportunity to be creative and make something hands-on after the writing part!

personal narrative writing craft - how to teach personal narratives second grade

I’ve never understood why some people are against crafts. If they are messy or not educational, I get it. But in this case, your students are just getting to ENJOY writing a narrative with something a little artsy as a reward after their hard work. It’s perfect for parent teacher night or sending home with students! It’s something for students to be proud of!

The craft comes in four versions (boys, girls etc) and there’s even a tutorial video for you and/or your students to watch, so that you know how to make it.

The craft asks students to write about a happy memory that they have chosen! After all, students love to write about things that they are interested in.

2nd grade writing curriculum grade 2 unit homeschool activities

  • Publishing party

Time to celebrate! After creating the craft and final writing piece, students get to share their work with their peers.

2nd grade writing unit

This is where you get to whip out the certificates and compliment notes so that students can cheer each other on!

It’s so important to celebrate your students’ hard work. The compliment notes and certificates come in black and white versions too.

writing certificate publishing party grade 2 writing unit

early finishers

There’s always a few high flyers who finish early. Instead of having them read a book or whatever, why not make sure that they are still learning and practicing their writing skills?

In this unit, there are 24 task cards (in color and black and white) where students can write in response to a personal narrative writing prompt.

early finishers fast finishers 2nd grade writing lesson personal narrative task cards writing prompts

Narrative Writing assessment rubric

It’s important to assess your students’ writing and that’s why an assessment rubric is included in this unit.

But there’s nothing worse than grading on a rubric that you can’t make sense of. So, I made sure to include examples and elaborations to help you understand the rubric. There’s even a video!

personal narratives writing rubric 2nd grade assessment grading

What lessons are taught in the unit?

Here’s a look at the lessons:

  • What is a personal narrative?
  • What is a good sentence?
  • Brainstorming ideas
  • Narrowing down ideas
  • The structure of a narrative
  • What will my narrative be about?
  • Creating characters
  • Describing a setting
  • Writing a problem or event
  • Creating a solution
  • Writing a narrative
  • Linking words
  • Sentence stretching
  • Show, don’t tell
  • Start with a hook
  • Actions, thoughts, and feelings
  • Writing a paragraph
  • Writing an ending
  • The brainstorm
  • Planning a narrative
  • The first draft
  • Time to revise
  • Time to edit
  • The final draft

Are you short on time?

This  5 week  unit has EVERYTHING you need, because let’s be honest, teachers are time poor.

Let’s get your evenings and weekends back, my friend! Take a break from lesson planning and searching for engaging materials. It’s all right here.

This unit comes from Terrific Writing. It’s a curriculum that is standards based (to the common core) and genre based.

Are you struggling to teach writing? Do your students hate writing lessons?

Does your school not provide you with a writing curriculum? Or worse, is it awful? 

What if there was a way for your writing lessons to be  engaging  for students and  enjoyable  for you to teach?

Check out unit 1 of Terrific Writing today! Click here to grab it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

terrific writing curriculum second grade personal narratives writing unit

Wanna save 10%?

Click here to grab the unit from this website you’re on right now. Use the code TERRIFIC10 at checkout!

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

P.S. – Interested in free crafts and worksheets? Access my free resource library  here!

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Free Printable Narrative Writing Worksheets for 2nd Grade

Narrative Writing: Discover a collection of free printable worksheets for Grade 2 Reading & Writing teachers, focusing on enhancing students' narrative writing skills and creativity.

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Explore Narrative Writing Worksheets by Grades

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Explore Other Subject Worksheets for grade 2

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Explore printable Narrative Writing worksheets for 2nd Grade

Narrative Writing worksheets for Grade 2 are essential tools for teachers who want to help their students develop their reading and writing skills. These worksheets are designed to engage young learners in the process of creating stories, using a variety of prompts and activities that encourage creativity and self-expression. With a focus on both fiction and nonfiction writing, these resources provide a comprehensive approach to teaching writing in the second grade. Teachers can use these worksheets to guide students through the process of brainstorming ideas, organizing their thoughts, and crafting well-structured narratives. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, educators can ensure that their students are building a strong foundation in reading and writing that will serve them well throughout their academic careers.

Quizizz is an excellent platform that complements the use of Narrative Writing worksheets for Grade 2, offering a variety of interactive quizzes and games that can help reinforce the concepts taught in the classroom. Teachers can use Quizizz to create custom quizzes that align with their lesson plans, allowing them to assess their students' understanding of key concepts in reading and writing. In addition to quizzes, Quizizz also offers a range of other resources, such as flashcards and study guides, that can support students in their learning journey. By incorporating Quizizz into their teaching strategies, educators can provide a fun and engaging way for students to practice their skills and gain confidence in their abilities as readers and writers. This combination of worksheets and interactive tools ensures that teachers have access to a comprehensive suite of resources that can help their Grade 2 students excel in reading and writing.

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Not So Wimpy Teacher

The Not So WImpy Teacher creates resources for busy teachers in grades 2-5 who are looking to deliver engaging and meaningful lessons without overwhelm and chaos.

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Personal Narrative Writing Unit SECOND GRADE

Grade Level: 2nd Grade

My second grade personal narrative writing unit includes 8 weeks of done-for-you writing lessons about how to write a small moment story. This unit contains detailed lesson plans, mentor texts, anchor charts, student writing tasks, and rubrics –everything you need to be a capable, confident writing teacher with students who love to write.

Also available in the following bundles

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

More about this resource

If teaching writing has ever made you cry, weep, tear out your hair, question your existence, or binge-watch reality television—because it’s just that frustrating and overwhelming—this writing unit is perfect for you. 

If your students dread writing time more than meatloaf in the school cafeteria…this writing bundle is perfect for them, too. 

Teaching writing can be tough. Teachers tell me that their district-provided writing curriculum is:

  • too complicated

Or worse, they don’t have any curriculum at all. Yikes! 

But my second grade personal narrative writing unit makes teaching writing easy . It takes all the guesswork out of teaching writing and gives you the tools you need to teach engaging and effective writing lessons without breaking a sweat.

This resource is part of a money-saving writing bundle! Click HERE to see the bundle!

The ready-to-use lessons and activities in this personal narrative writing unit will teach your students how to write a small moment story with dialogue, a strong lead, interesting word choice, and paragraphs. And all you have to do is print and teach . The lesson plans are that simple. Seriously.

Student-friendly mentor texts make it easy to provide illustrative examples of new writing skills. You don’t have to waste your time and money hunting down just the right book.  Focused mini lessons and daily writing tasks simplify the writing process helping ALL students, even reluctant writers, experience success. Preprinted anchor charts make it easy to model new skills and engage in shared writing without wasting valuable time. 

And best of all, my personal narrative writing unit makes writing fun  for  ALL  your students – from  reluctant writers  to  excited writers . The  Student Success Path  helps you identify where your students are on their writing journey and plan just-right lessons and  interventions .  Short, focused lessons  keep students engaged. Simple, direct writing tasks help kids develop confidence.  Conference materials,  including outlines and topic cards, you can use to guide small group discussion make it easy for you to  differentiate lessons.

Choice empowers students to write about things they care about and makes them more invested in their writing. And that’s a big deal because students who enjoy writing and get lots of practice perform better on standardized testing. 

Plus, these materials are  easy-to-use . Everything is organized in folders to help you find just what you need. A  Quick Start Guide  makes it simple to get started and provides tips on how to prep materials for long-term use.

The 2-week  Starting Writing Workshop mini-unit will help you start your writing instruction on the right foot. Detailed teacher directions show you exactly how to use all the resources and activities.

What’s Included:

  • Detailed teacher directions and suggestions for simple implementation
  • Unit-at-a-glance calendar for each unit with multiple options
  • 7 exclusive videos walking you through how to get the most out of these writing units
  • 40 days of lesson plans that include guiding questions, materials, mini lessons, student work tasks, student share tasks, intervention, and several extension activities
  • 14 original mentor text passages
  • 24 personal narrative task cards
  • 24 punctuating dialogue task cards
  • 24 personal narrative writing prompts task cards
  • 12 teacher anchor charts (blank and filled in versions)
  • Student anchor charts and printable for writing notebooks
  • Conference and goal tracking forms
  • Writing grades tracking forms
  • List of 12 additional mentor text books (Remember, using them is optional, because I’ve included all the mentor texts you need) 
  • 20 different writing publishing papers
  • Student writing notebook cover and dividers
  • Teacher notebook covers and binder spines
  • Multiple ideas for author share celebration
  • DIGITAL writing notebooks on Google Slides
  • Conferencing Materials – Conference outlines, a sample conference, and topic cards you can use to guide your small-group conferences
  • Student Success Path – Identify where your students are on their writing journey
  • Starting Writing Workshop Bonus – Two weeks of writing lesson plans to help build stamina and set your students up for writing success

Skills Covered:

Students learn h ow to write a small moment story with dialogue, a strong lead, interesting word choice, and paragraphs. Lessons include:

  • Setting goals
  • What is a personal narrative?
  • Generating story ideas
  • Narrowing your story idea to a small moment
  • Rehearsing and drafting
  • Writing a lead
  • Adding and punctuating dialogue
  • Adding details
  • Word choice
  • Show, don’t tell
  • Breaking writing into paragraphs
  • Transition words
  • Writing an ending

How to Use it in the Classroom: 

A typical day of writing:.

I recommend you set aside thirty minutes for writing each day (or more if you have it). Check out the sample schedules below. Each day follows the same plan:

  • Mini-Lesson (8-10 minutes): The day kicks off with a mini-lesson to teach a particular skill. The mini-lesson uses mentor text (remember, it’s included in the unit) and anchor charts. For the teacher version of the anchor charts, you can project and fill them out with the class, or print and display them in your classroom. The student versions are smaller so they can fill them out and keep them in their writing notebooks for reference.
  • Work Time (18-20 minutes) : Students will apply the skill they just learned into their writing each day. The included writing tasks make it crystal-clear what to do during independent writing time–for you and your students. By the end of the unit, they will have completed two full masterpieces and many other independent writings. 
  • Share Time (2 minutes) : Students are encouraged to share a piece of their writing with a partner or with the entire class. This makes writing more meaningful to kids and holds them accountable.

Organization made easy:

  • The personal narrative writing unit is organized into multiple folders and files so it’s easy for you to find what you need.
  • A 40-day daily schedule so you know exactly what to teach each day.
  • Detailed daily lesson plans make teaching writing easy.

Differentiation:

There are many ways to differentiate writing assignments:

  • Use the Student Success Path to identify where students are on their writing journey and use the suggested interventions to modify lessons.
  • These daily writing prompts are intentionally short and sweet so that all students, even those below grade level, can feel successful. Most tasks can be completed in 1-2 sentences.
  • More advanced writers can write longer responses, or work on a second masterpiece if they finish early.
  • Students can complete fewer task cards or work with a partner; you can also provide support to students as they work on task cards.
  • The process for teaching writing includes group conferencing time. These groups should be based on ability so that you can individualize your instruction to meet the specific needs of the group. Use the topic cards to guide your small group lessons.

Why you’ll love this writing unit:

  • You’ll save hours of prepping and planning time. The daily lesson plans are easy to implement. All you have to do is print and teach. 
  • Mentor texts are included. You do not need to hunt down or purchase any additional books! (Unless you want to. Far be it from me to stand between a teacher and new books.) 
  • Digital anchor charts project onto your white board-so you don’t have to be Picasso or Renoir to anchor your kids in the lesson.
  • Pre-printed student anchor charts make it easy for students to follow along without having to write every word and draw complicated diagrams.
  • Digital student notebooks are perfect for 1:1 classrooms and a great way to save paper.
  • These lessons work for all students, even students below grade level.
  • Task cards incorporate movement, reinforce concepts, and make learning fun. Daily share time encourages students to take pride in their writing.
  • Direct writing instruction provides a solid foundation of writing skills that leads to increased test scores

*****************************

More Second Grade Writing Units:

Informational for Second Grade

Opinion for Second Grade

Fiction Narrative for Second Grade

Writing Bundles for Other Grade Levels:

Third Grade Writing Bundle

Fourth Grade Writing Bundle

Fifth Grade Writing Bundle

Additional Resources You Might Like:

2nd Grade Spelling Curriculum Bundle

Frequently Asked

Yes. I also have informational report , opinion essay , and fiction narrative writing units available.

This personal narrative writing unit is available for grade 2. I also have personal narrative writing units available for grades three , four , and five .

I prefer composition notebooks because they are sturdy and easy to use and store. But other teachers have used spiral bound notebooks or three-ring binders.

Yes. These writing lessons are based on Common Core standards.

The lessons for consecutive grade levels are very similar because the standards are similar. The biggest difference is that the reading level on the mentor text passages is modified to meet the specific grade level. Other differences include new examples in the lesson plans and anchor charts and new task cards. It is generally fine to use units that are one level above or below grade level. You might want to select the lower grade level to ensure that the mentor texts are easier for students to read.

Each unit includes eight weeks of materials. I recommend spending 30-45 on writing each day. The lesson takes 8-10 minutes and the rest of the time would be used for independent writing.

Students complete two masterpieces in each unit. But they may work on additional pieces if they finish daily assignments early.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. However, they are based on the writing standards. My curriculum is organized into units of study and formatted in the workshop model and hundreds of teachers have successfully used my writing units with their district provided curriculum.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. With that being said, I have hundreds of teachers who have chosen to use my units as a supplement to their Lucy curriculum because it is more manageable and engaging for students.

You May Also Enjoy These Resources

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

2nd Grade Narrative Writing Unit - Realistic Fiction Writing Workshop Lessons

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narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

Description

Make your writing instruction meaningful with this engaging realistic fiction writing unit for second grade! This unit includes everything you need to teach, practice, and assess realistic fiction writing for 7 full weeks. This unit uses the writing workshop model for instruction and ensures that students get plenty of time to write each day!

  • Research-based curriculum
  • CCSS-aligned lessons
  • Print and go materials
  • “Writing Workshop” model that allows plenty of time for student writing
  • 6 traits of writing incorporated into each lesson
  • Takes students through the entire writing process for 2 realistic fiction narratives

*Check out this FREE Scope & Sequence for a full list of writing lessons for the year.

MATERIALS INCLUDED

This unit has everything you need to teach a 7-week realistic fiction narrative writing unit. You can watch this video preview to take a look at everything included in this bundle.

Here’s what’s included:

  • Lessons Plans: Includes 35 daily lessons (7 weeks worth of lessons) that guide students through the writing process for 2 realistic fiction narratives. Each lesson plan uses the “writing workshop” model and includes a mini-lesson, student writing time, and sharing time.  
  • Mentor Texts: Includes a list of 2 realistic fiction mentor texts that are used to showcase writing strategies. YouTube read-alouds of the mentor texts are available.
  • Posters: Includes 17 attractive writing posters (both color and black/white options) that are used to display key information and writing strategies taught in the mini-lessons.
  • Graphic Organizers: Includes 3 graphic organizers that students use to plan their realistic fiction narratives in the prewriting stage.
  • Writing Paper: Includes printable writing paper that students use for drafting and publishing their realistic fiction narrative. 
  • Writing Samples: Includes sample graphic organizers and drafts that teachers can use for modeling.
  • Rubric: Includes a rubric to assess students’ final draft using the 6+1 traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.
  • Conferencing Forms: Includes a conferencing schedule and conferencing forms to use for daily writing conferences with students.
  • Book of Words: Includes a “Book of Words” that students can use to record the spelling of new words. 
  • Bonus Materials: Includes 11 extra posters and graphic organizers that can be used to supplement and differentiate this unit. Also includes a 5-day grammar lesson on action verbs.

Prep is quick and easy… Just print your lesson plans and posters, copy the student materials, and you’re ready to go!

LESSONS & SKILLS INCLUDED

*Check out the preview for a full list of lessons included in this unit.*

Here are some of the skills covered in this unit:

  • Plan and write 2 realistic fiction narratives on a focused topic.
  • Add details and dialogue to strengthen writing.
  • Use transition words to show the sequence of events.
  • Choose vivid words to strengthen writing.
  • Create a strong beginning and ending.
  • Use conventions correctly.
  • Revise, edit, and publish 2 realistic fiction narratives.

A TYPICAL DAILY WRITING WORKSHOP

  • Mini-lesson and Modeling (10-20 minutes) Each lesson begins with a mini-lesson where students are taught a writing strategy with the use of mentor texts and posters. Then the teacher models the writing strategy in their own writing. 
  • Writing Time (20-40 minutes) Students apply the strategy from the mini-lesson into their own writing. 
  • Sharing Time (5-10 minutes)  Students share a piece of their writing from the day with a partner or the class.

*Please take a look at the preview to see examples of components included in the unit.*

2ND GRADE - WRITING UNITS

  • Unit 1: Intro to Writing
  • Unit 2: Personal Narrative
  • Unit 4: Informational Writing
  • Unit 5: Opinion Writing

2ND GRADE - FULL-YEAR BUNDLES

  • Full-Year Writing Workshop Curriculum
  • Full-Year Grammar Curriculum 
  • * BEST VALUE: Full-Year Grammar & Writing Curriculum *
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Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.

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Narrative paragraph writing

Sequencing events.

Students are given a prompt and write a narrative paragraph; a chart helps students organize their thoughts sequentially ( first, next, last ).

narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

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narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

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IMAGES

  1. Narrative Writing For 2Nd Graders

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

  2. CCSS.2nd GRADE-Narrative, Informational and Opinion WRITING/Print & TPT

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

  3. NarrativeWritingAnchorChart

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

  4. Bringing Characters to Life in Writers Workshop

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

  5. W.2.3 2nd Grade Narrative Writing

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

  6. ways to begin a story with examples

    narrative writing lessons for 2nd grade

VIDEO

  1. Writer's Vocabulary Narrative Writing 2nd Grade

  2. Narrative Writing/Grade 12 English/NEB/Teach Nepal/Bidur Neupane

  3. Narrative Writing

  4. Narrative writing expectations

  5. Narrative Writing

  6. Teaching Personal Narratives: Adding Details to Student Writing!

COMMENTS

  1. How to Teach Narrative Writing in 2nd Grade with Spectacular Results

    By second grade, students should be able to write a topic sentence, 3-4 event sentences WITH details, and a closing sentence. This means student writing should be anywhere from 5-10 sentences at least.

  2. How to Teach Narrative Writing

    3834 shares In this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Narrative Writing and provide details about the Narrative Writing Units I have created for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. Be sure to download 3 FREE narrative writing graphic organizers! As teachers we spend a tremendous amount of time teaching our students to write.

  3. Fun Narrative Fiction Writing Second Grade Examples and Ideas

    Fun Narrative Fiction Writing Second Grade Examples and Ideas Published: April 1, 2022 Last Update: April 20, 2022 One Comment 502 shares Fiction Writing Second Grade Daily writing lesson plans, anchor charts, and resources to print and teach fictional writing in 2nd grade. Fiction Writing in Writers' Workshop

  4. Second Grade Writing Lesson #2/ Narrative Prompt

    Second Grade Writing Lesson #2/ Narrative Prompt 1 class periods of 45 minutes each Utah LessonPlans Students will write a personal narrative about their best day of school. Thank You, Mr. Falker, Patricia Polacco Mr. Lincoln's Way, Patricia Polacco Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Kevin Henkes , Kevin Henkes Graphic organizer (web or 8 squares)

  5. A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

    Step 2: Study the Structure of a Story. Now that students have a good library of their own personal stories pulled into short-term memory, shift your focus to a more formal study of what a story looks like. Use a diagram to show students a typical story arc like the one below.

  6. Teaching Narrative Writing: 14 Activities to Help Your Students Learn

    Naturally, teaching narrative writing differs by grade level with the kindergarten through second-grade learning largely through read-alouds and exposure to narrative writing examples, while older elementary schoolers will spend more time putting pencil to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) writing their stories.

  7. Browse 2nd Grade Narrative Writing Lesson Plans

    Narrative Writing Sort by Finding the Details and Asking for Answers Lesson Plan Conclude a Story Lesson Plan 1 Browse 2nd Grade Narrative Writing Lesson Plans. Award winning educational materials designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

  8. 2nd Grade Writing Stories Worksheets & Free Printables

    87 filtered results 2nd grade Narrative Writing Show interactive only Sort by New Year's Resolutions Worksheet What Does Easter Mean to You? Worksheet Write a Personal Narrative Story Worksheet Narrative Writing Prompt Worksheet Topic Sentence Worksheet Winter Writing Activity Worksheet Creative Writing: Christmas Dragons Worksheet

  9. Fiction Narrative Writing Unit SECOND GRADE

    Add to Wish List. $25.00 - Add to Cart. Grade Level: 2nd Grade. My second grade fiction writing unit includes 8 weeks of done-for-you writing lessons about how to write an engaging fiction essay, with strong characters, an interesting problem and solution, and rich dialogue. This unit contains detailed lesson plans, mentor texts, anchor ...

  10. 2nd Grade Personal Narratives Writing Unit

    That's why this 2nd grade personal narratives writing unit includes 21 engaging posters to display as you teach! You can refer to the posters as you teach or revise certain concepts. There are definitions, explanations, and examples for everything covered in the unit! What if you don't fancy printing and laminating?

  11. FREE Narrative Writing Lessons for Grades K-2

    Download this FREE resource, "Narrative Writing Lessons for K-2," and get 10 writing lessons for each grade level - Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. This freebie is packed with lesson plans, graphic organizers, posters, and independent writing activities! DOWNLOAD NOW!

  12. Grade 2 Narrative Writing Lesson

    852 86K views 5 years ago In this demo lesson, Nancy models to second graders the explicit direct instructions steps to write narratives. She utilizes chants for text structure, language...

  13. Personal Narrative Writing Unit

    This free guide is packed with specific lesson ides for narrative, opinion and informational writing. Download Now ... Personal Narrative Writing Unit - 2nd Grade. More than 400 helpful resources available in my shop! Writing Bundle: Personal Narrative, Informational, Opinion & Fiction 3RD GRADE

  14. Narrative writing worksheets

    Narrative writing Narrative writing Keywords can help organize texts Students respond to writing prompts by writing a narrative text; a word bank is provided to help students create the narrative in a sequential and logical manner. With prompt: Worksheet #1 Worksheet #2 Worksheet #3 Worksheet #4 Worksheet #5 Generic: Worksheet #6 Similar:

  15. Browse 2nd Grade Narrative Writing English Learning Lesson Plans

    Lesson Plan. Finding the Details and Asking for Answers. . Lesson Plan. 1. Browse 2nd Grade Narrative Writing English Learning Lesson Plans. Award winning educational materials designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

  16. 2nd Grade Narrative Writing Resources

    Second Grade Narrative. Whether you're teaching second grade composition at home or in the classroom your second grader is sure to love these second grade narrative writing resources. From activities that have your student stretch their mind by coming up with new creatures to prompts that have them write about every day life, there is something ...

  17. 51 Narrative Writing Prompts for 2nd Grade: Great Ideas

    1. Write a story about an amazing day that you shared with your family. 2. Describe the most exciting vacation you ever took. 3. Share a funny memory about your favorite pet. 4. Tell about an experience riding a rollercoaster. 5. Retell a time when you were the victim of bullying. Who did you seek for help? What was the final outcome? 6.

  18. Free Printable Narrative Writing Worksheets for 2nd Grade

    Narrative Writing: Discover a collection of free printable worksheets for Grade 2 Reading & Writing teachers, focusing on enhancing students' narrative writing skills and creativity. grade 2 Narrative Writing RACE Strategy and OREO Strategy 20 Q 2nd - 5th What is Narrative Writing? 9 Q 1st - 2nd Narrative Writing 7 Q 2nd Fictional Narrative Writing

  19. 30 Fun Narrative Writing Prompts for 2nd Grade

    30 Fun & Fabulous Narrative Writing Prompts for 2nd Grade Students Write a story about the most exciting summer you ever had. What did you do? Write about your best birthday ever. Why was it so special? Write about a time when you helped someone out. How did you help him or her? Write about your most prized possession. Why do you value the object?

  20. Personal Narrative Writing Unit SECOND GRADE

    Personal Narrative Writing Unit SECOND GRADE Add to Wish List $25.00 - Add to Cart Grade Level: 2nd Grade My second grade personal narrative writing unit includes 8 weeks of done-for-you writing lessons about how to write a small moment story.

  21. Narrative Writing Mini Lessons

    Point of View. In this video, we'll be talking about the four main points of view (first person, first person omniscient, third person, and third person omniscient). While there are other points of view in literature, you will be choosing one of these four for the point of view for your narrative. For this lesson, you will need:

  22. 2nd Grade Narrative Writing Unit

    CCSS-aligned lessons; Print and go materials "Writing Workshop" model that allows plenty of time for student writing; 6 traits of writing incorporated into each lesson; Takes students through the entire writing process for 2 realistic fiction narratives *Check out this FREE Scope & Sequence for a full list of writing lessons for the year.

  23. Narrative paragraph writing worksheets

    Students are given a prompt and write a narrative paragraph; a chart helps students organize their thoughts sequentially (first, next, last). Free | Worksheets | Writing | Grade 2 | Printable