Narrative Writing Instructional Sequence

3rd Grade

Prompt:

Write a story about a time that you went on an adventure. Be sure to include a beginning, a middle, and an end. Include key details to make your story more interesting.

The Scoring Guide for narrative writing is on the following page.

Writes to the prompt (big event in the middle answers the prompt)

Has a beginning, middle, and end

Includes a big event (main idea) in each category (paragraph)

Includes at least 3 details in each category (paragraph)

Response is 3 paragraphs

3rd Grade Narrative Writing Scoring Guide

Proficient

Structure

Writes to the prompt (big event in the middle answers the prompt)

Needs a big event (main idea) in each category (paragraph)

Has a beginning, middle, and end

At least 3 related details in each category (paragraph)

Response is 3 paragraphs

Descriptive Language

None of these words are used: said, good, nice, fun, happy, sad, saw, heard, like (unless for a simile), love

At least 5 adjectives in the response

At least 1 adverb

At least 1 prepositional phrase

At least 2 sensory details

At least 1 simile

At 3 temporal words or phrases

Use at least 3 details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings (one use of dialogue)

Sentences

No more than 2 sentences per paragraph start with “I”

At least 2 different types of sentences are used

At least 1 use of dialogue

At least 3 transitional words/phrases

Closing sentence connects to the prompt or beginning or next experience

Key word from prompt is in the writing

Mechanics, Spelling, Production

All sentences are punctuated

Each compound sentence and/or complex sentence has an appropriate comma

All necessary capital letters and commas are in place

All paragraphs are indented

All grade-level appropriate words are spelled correctly

Beginning day off

made a plan

invited cousin

ordered pizza

a few years ago

Middle camped in backyard

set up tent

toasted marshmallows

snuggled in tent like a bear in its cave

shadow of a wild beast

crackling fire

End sun woke me up

snuck inside

cooked favorite breakfast

planned to camp in the real wilderness

A couple of weeks ago I had an unexpected day off from work. I didn’t want to do the usual which is rent a movie, so I made a plan. Boy were my kids going to be surprised! After heading out to Ralph’s for some supplies, I invited our cousin, Vin, over to get in on the action. Once Vin arrived, I ordered pizza from the local Pizza Hut.

When our bellies were full of tasty pizza, my kids and I camped out in my backyard! Not being one to “rough it,” I was a little nervous about my adventure. It took me a while, but I set up my tent all by myself and the kids even set up their tent too! As the daylight faded into darkness, I toasted marshmallows on the crackling fire to turn them into S’mores. They’re called S’mores because once you have one, you always want SOME MORE! At the end of the evening, I snuggled in my tent like a bear in its cave, hoping for a long hibernation. That’s when I saw the shadow of a wild beast passing by my tent. It had pointy ears and a long tail- oh no! Luckily it was just my cat. Unfortunately, my hibernation was not what I had hoped for because I was too worried about what might be lurking outside my tent.

Early the next morning the sun woke me up like an alarm clock, so I snuck inside for a much needed cup of coffee. Not wanting to wake my sleeping children, I silently closed the door to my house and began to cook breakfast. Homemade waffles are a favorite around here! I am going to go camping in the real wilderness next time, and hopefully I won’t see any mysterious shadows! Copyright 2012 Get Ahead Writing, LLC