personal narrative essays middle school

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15 Inspiring Personal Narrative Examples for Writers

Reveal a part of yourself in your essay.

Students start writing personal narratives at a young age, learning to use descriptive language to tell a story about their own experiences. Try sharing these personal narrative examples for elementary, middle, and high school to help them understand this essay form.

What is a personal narrative?

Think of a narrative essay like telling a story. Use descriptive language, and be sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. The essay should recount your personal experiences, including your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Learn more about personal narrative essays here:

• What Is Narrative Writing, and How Do I Teach It in the Classroom?
• Engaging Personal Narrative Ideas for Kids and Teens
• Best Mentor Texts for Narrative Writing in Elementary School

Elementary School Personal Narrative Examples

In elementary school, personal narratives might be quite short, just a paragraph or two. The key is to encourage kids to embrace a personal style of writing, one that speaks in their own voice. Take a look at these elementary school personal narrative essay examples for inspiration.

The Horrible Day

“next i fell asleep in my cereal and my brother stole my toast”—anonymous student.

In this short personal narrative written by a 2nd grader, the author describes a bad day with lots of details and an informal tone. It’s a great model for your youngest writers.

Read the full essay: The Horrible Day at Thoughtful Learning

Keep an Eye on the Sky!

“as we made our way out to the field, my stomach slowly turned into a giant knot of fear.” —anonymous student.

Any student who dreads gym class will connect with this essay, which turns a challenge into a triumph. This narrative from Time for Kids is annotated, with highlighted details and tips to help kids write their own essay.

Read the full essay: Keep an Eye on the Sky! at Time for Kids

Grandpa, Chaz, and Me

“i really miss grandpa, and so does my brother, even though he never met him.” —cody, 4th grade student.

Written by a 4th grader, this essay relates the author’s loss of a grandfather at a very young age. Using simple, personal language, they tell a compelling story in a few short paragraphs.

Read the full essay: Grandpa, Chaz, and Me at Thoughtful Learning

Surviving an Embarrassing Situation

“i had made the shot in the wrong basket, giving the green shirts the win” —anonymous student.

Personal narratives tell a story, with a beginning, middle, and end. This annotated essay outlines those parts, making it easier for young writers to do the same in their own writing.

Read the full essay: Surviving an Embarrassing Situation at Sopris West Educational Services

“Do you have a friend who loves you?” —Kendra, 4th grade student

Writing about friends gives writers the chance to describe someone’s physical characteristics and personality. This 4th grade essay uses personal details to bring a beloved friend to life.

Read the full essay: Ann at Thoughtful Learning

Middle School Personal Narrative Examples

By middle school, personal narratives are longer and more involved, telling more detailed stories and experiences. These middle school personal narrative essay examples model strong writing skills for this age group.

“As thoughts of certain death run through my mind, the world appears a precious, treasured place.” —Amy, student

Describing an opportunity to overcome your worst fears makes an excellent personal narrative topic. The vivid descriptions of the landscape and the author’s feelings help the reader make a strong connection to the author.

Read the full essay: The Climb at Thoughtful Learning

The Best Friend Question

“i’ve often wondered, does not having a best friend make me defective” —blanche li, age 13, diablo vista middle school, danville, california.

When her Spanish teacher asked students for an essay describing their best friend, 13-year-old Blanche Li fell back on her standard story: that of a made-up person. Here, she explains why she made up “Haley” and wonders what having an imaginary best friend says about her.

Read the full essay: The Best Friend Question at The New York Times

The Racist Warehouse

“i didn’t know racism was still around; i thought that situation had died along with dr. king.” —alicia, 8th grade student.

Strong personal narratives often relate the way the author learned an important life lesson. Here, an 8th grader describes her first experience with racism, in an essay that will sadly ring true with many readers.

Read the full essay: The Racist Warehouse at Thoughtful Teaching

“For the first time, we realized that we didn’t know how to express our voice, and we always suppressed it.” —Jocelyn C., 7th grade student, Texas

Seventh-grader Jocelyn C. describes the unique experience of spending two years living in an RV with her family, traveling the country. She relates the ups and downs of their trip, illustrating the way her family learned to live together in close quarters and embrace the adventure.

Read the full essay: RV Journey at Write From the Heart

An Eight Pound Rival

“i’m trying to accept that he didn’t mean to dominate the center stage all the time, that’s just one of the many lovable assets of his personality.”.

A new sibling can change everything in a family, especially when you’ve always been the baby. This middle schooler explains her challenging relationship with a little brother that she loves, even when he drives her a bit crazy. (Find this essay on page 42 at the link.)

Read the full essay: An Eight Pound Rival at Teaching That Makes Sense

High School Personal Narrative Examples

High school students have more complex stories to tell, though they’re sometimes reluctant to do so. Reading personal narrative essay examples like these can encourage them to open up and get their thoughts, feelings, and ideas down on the page.

Sorry, Wrong Number

“when i received the first text, i was a playful sixth grader, always finding sly ways to be subversive in school and with friends.” —michelle ahn, high school student.

When Michelle Ahn was 11, she started getting texts for a wrong number, a man named Jared. Rather than correcting the error, she spends the next few years occasionally engaging with his texters as “Jared,” learning more about him. Though she finally comes clean, her time as “Jared” exposes her to a way of life very different from her own, and opens her eyes to the inner lives of others.

Read the full essay: Sorry, Wrong Number at The New York Times

Caught in the Net

“little does everyone else know how often i’m not doing school research or paper writing; instead i’m aimlessly writing emails or chatting with internet friends and family hundreds of miles away.” —kim, college student.

Even before social media and smartphones swept the world, internet addiction had become a problem. Here, a student shares her experiences in AOL chat rooms, meeting people from around the globe. Eventually, she realizes she’s sacrificing life in the real world for her digital friends and experiences, and works to find the right balance.

Read the full essay: Caught in the Net at Thoughtful Learning

Nothing Extraordinary

“an uneasy feeling started to settle in my chest. i tried to push it out, but once it took root it refused to be yanked up and tossed away.” —jeniffer kim, high school student.

During an ordinary shopping trip, high schooler Jenniffer Kim suddenly realizes she’s ashamed of her mother. At the same time, she recognizes all the sacrifices her mom has made for her, and gladly takes the chance to make a tiny sacrifice of her own.

Read the full essay: Nothing Extraordinary at The New York Times

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

“at this point in life, i had not yet learned to be gentle with myself, or others.” —anonymous student.

A teen who lives with bipolar disorder recounts a difficult conversation with her parents, in which her mother dismisses her as “crazy.” A few years later, this same teen finds herself in the emergency room, where her mother has just tried to die by suicide. “Crazy!” the daughter thinks. After her mother also receives a bipolar disorder diagnosis, the author concludes, “‘Crazy’ is a term devised to dismiss people.”

Read the full essay: The Pot Calling the Kettle Black at Pressbooks

What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew

“i know that i am different, but do not have the words to understand how.” —mariama lockington.

Though not written by a high schooler, this essay by Mariama Lockington makes an excellent mentor text for this age group. Lockington dives deep into her feelings about being adopted by parents of a different race, and shares her challenges in poignant language that speaks directly to the reader.

Read the full essay: What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew at Buzzfeed News

Do you use personal narrative examples as mentor texts in your classroom? Come share your experiences and ask for advice in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook !

Plus, strong persuasive writing examples (essays, speeches, ads, and more) ..

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65 Engaging Personal Narrative Ideas for Kids and Teens

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by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.  

A Plethora Of Writing Examples For Middle School (& High School)

October 14, 2014 in  Pedagogy

When I started my first job as a professional newspaper reporter (This job also served as an internship during my junior year in college — I just didn’t leave for about 6 years.), I quickly realized that all my experience, and all my years of journalism education had not been enough to help me write stories about drug busts, fatal car accidents and tornadoes. All the theoretical work I’d done, and all of the nifty little scholastic and collegiate stories I had done, did not prepare me for real world writing.

At that point, I had to find a solution quickly. After all, I had a deadline to meet, and it was only a few hours away.

One of my colleagues, who also served as a mentor, had the solution. She introduced me to the newspaper’s “morgue.” This was a room filled with filing cabinets in which we kept old — dead — stories arranged by reporter. Whenever I wasn’t’ sure how to write a story, all I had to do was check the morgue for similar stories. If I needed to write a story about a local drug bust, for example, I’d find another story on a similar incident, study its structure, and mentally create a formula in which to plugin the information I’d gathered.

Once I’d gained more experience, and had internalized the formula for that particular type of story, I felt free to branch out as the situation — and my training — warranted.

I do the same thing when I want to write a type of letter, brochure, or report that I’ve never written before.

This is what writing looks like in the real world.

Of course, if you’re a new teacher like me, there is one problem with providing mentor texts to my students: I have a dearth of middle school level writing sitting around in my file cabinets.

Fortunately, the Internet is full of sources, so I scoured the bowels of Google to find examples. I know how busy you are, so I’m sharing.

Expository writing examples for middle school

Below are several sources of expository writing samples for middle school students.

• The Write Source Expository Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Expository Essay Models

Finally, here is an article in the New York Times that will help you teach your students  real-world expository writing skills .

Descriptive writing examples for middle school

• Descriptive Writing Samples from Novels
• Milwaukee Public Schools Descriptive Essay Samples (p. 137)
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Descriptive Essay Models

Narrative writing examples for middle school

• Writing Samples by Steve Peha (PDF)
• The Write Source Narrative Writing Samples
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Ideas and Organization)
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Sentence Fluency and Conventions)
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Voice and Word Choice)
• Oregon Department of Education High School Scored Narrative and Argumentative Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Narrative Essay Models

Argumentative/persuasive writing examples for middle school

• The Write Source Persuasive Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Persuasive Essay Models

Reflective writing examples for middle school

• Reflective essay examples from Lake Washington Girls Middle School

If you know of any other online writing example sources, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Related topics: Argumentative Writing , Informative Writing , Mentor Texts , Narrative Writing

About the author 

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma student working on my doctorate in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum with an concentration in English Education and co-Editor of the Oklahoma English Journal. I am constantly seeking ways to amplify students' voices and choices.

This is very, very helpful. Thank you for sharing!

As a new middle school teacher (coming from elementary) this was very helpful and encouraging.

Thank you very much for letting me know. I’m glad that I was able to help you!

Thank you! I’m glad I can help.

Your welcome

This is super helpful. Thank you!

These links are a fantastic help. Thank you!

This helped me BUNCHES! Thanks so much!

thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD

These links are now dead 🙁

Thank you for notifying me! I have updated the post to include new (live!) links. Some of them are geared towards high school, but I think we can still use them as exemplars of what we want our students to aim for.

Comments are closed.

• Oct 25, 2022

Personal Narrative Writing in Middle School: Digging Deeper

Updated: Oct 25, 2022

For years, I didn't do personal narrative writing in middle school. In fact, I wrote an entire blog post about why I didn't do it . Main reason...it's been done before in many years prior to when those students came to you, especially if teachers prior use writing workshop.

However, I've grown to embrace it again. The biggest reason why is because I think it helps build a classroom community. I decided to go with personal narrative instead of my usual fiction writing in response to reading during the pandemic. I felt, since the kids were remote, this was a good way to get to know each other a little better.

I did peruse Lucy Calkins' Personal Narrative unit for the digital notebook, however, as I went through the unit, I changed a lot.

I like to have the students do a quick narrative based on a person in their lives . The idea of writing about a special moment with a person has been done a lot up until this point so I feel it's an easy way to get a sense of where they are. I have them start with listing moments with an important person. They pick one of those moments to write about.

I don't necessarily need an entire story; I just want them to show me what they can do.

Getting Started

If you don't know already, a personal narrative focuses on a small moment , not an entire day, trip, game, etc. In the earlier grades, teachers spend a lot of time on this (think less watermelon, more seed). At this point, I feel that students just need a refresher.

I like to do this through mentor texts . I provide students with actual written student narratives from my past students. (Here are two you can use. These are by actual students, so definitely not perfect examples. Student Narrative #1 and Student Narrative #2 ).

Students go in to highlight specifically the small moment components of the stories. We discuss how these stories are small moments (or not) and they also start analyzing what the stories did well (or not).

I think it is super valuable to see other students' stories to give students perspective of what's expected or what can be improved.

Brainstorming

Students begin to brainstorm by thinking of a place that is important to them. I tell them to be as specific as possible.

Their idea may be big, but then they make a map of the place. The map is more focused on the moments that happened in the place. They then pick one of those moments in the place and write long about it.

Next, I have students write about moments that mattered. For this, I like to do Show and Tell . I tell students a few days before to bring in an item that is important to them. This should symbolize something or someone that is important in their lives. This goes so well! It goes beyond just what the objects are, but also what they can represent.

They use that object to brainstorm ideas within the topics of "first times", "last times", and "moments I learned something" . For example, I showed a picture of my husband and me at my brother's wedding. This was important to me because it was the first time I had left my son with another babysitter. I was dealing with post-partum anxiety. This stemmed lots of ideas: first time I left my son with a babysitter, first time I had an anxiety attack, the LAST time I had an anxiety attack, the first time I changed a diaper, the moment I learned it's important to enjoy small things, etc.

I start with students focusing on story structure . I have them look at short stories to do this. I really like "Eleven" and "Fish Cheeks". They are short and sweet and are great models for personal narrative.

They fill out the chart for those stories. We discuss, then they plan their own stories on a story structure chart.

The next day we focus on internal and external . This is something we cover in our unit prior. I do a Deep Study of Character before this and we often get into internal and external characteristics of characters. For writing, they focus on what they could be thinking (internal) in each part of their chart and what they could be doing (external) in each part.

Like everything else, we look at short stories first to see how these mentor authors do the same.

Before getting into the actual writing, I spend a day on Show Don't Tell . There are so many things you can do with this, but here's how I do it .

I usually break down each part of the story structure chart by day. So, I will do exposition one day, rising action another, etc. I will start each day with them looking at mentor expositions, etc. Each year, I've done different things. I also share MY PERSONAL NARRATIVE. This is so important; you HAVE to write what the students are expected to write .

A few things I've done:

I would share a Doc with a page or two out of a shared read aloud. I'd give them specific questions that focus on that part of the story map; for example, "how did Jason Reynolds introduce the characters in this chapter?".

I'd have them go back into whatever books they are reading and answer similar questions ("how did the author introduce setting/problem/solution?" "how did the author show feelings/thoughts/actions?").

I always share with them MY exposition, rising action, etc. Sometimes I just read it to them, other times I have them work with partners to look for similar things mentioned in the bullets before this.

It's important to look at mentors. I don't just have them go and write the whole story in a day. It's so important to break it up.

There are so many different lessons you can do. I always have to remind myself that you don't have to teach them EVERY thing. I try to keep revision pretty straightforward.

Of course, there is editing; focusing on grammar, punctuation, spelling. I like to tie in anything I do with mentor sentences or vocabulary . It's a good idea to connect it to anything you do for grammar or word study.

Four major areas of revision as per the Lucy Calkins' unit:

Looking at mentor sentences and trying it out with their own writing.

Finding the heart of the story.

Stretching out scenes (finding a moment that can use more detail and stretching it).

Slowing down the problem scene.

I don't always commit to these exactly. I do like to spend time on dialogue and elaboration . I really get into how important it is to punctuate it properly and how to tag it so it shows more description.

I also revisit their showing and not telling slides and have them apply it to their writing.

One of the very last things I do in the revision stage is have them do critique groups . This is a bit different than just them swapping Docs with each other and commenting. It's more of a dialogue.

Lastly, they finalize their draft and put it on a Padlet . This is used for lots of things. Guardians are able to see their writing. They can see each other's writing. And I have a spot with ALL of their stories.

Bottom Line

While personal narrative has been done, there is always room to grow. I really feel it depends on the group you have. It's a nice way to start the year to get to know each other. I usually spend about a month on the entire unit.

Click below to get my digital notebook for the unit!

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10 Tips for Teaching Personal Narrative Writing in Middle School ELA

One of my favorite middle school ELA writing activities for the beginning of the school year is a personal narrative essay . I find this assignment is a great way for us to learn a lot about who our students are – as writers, and as people! It’s a great way to build foundational relationships with new students and set everyone up for a positive year!

Here’s how I like to set up personal narrative essay writing in the classroom:

1. Teach about the Genre

To begin, I like to explore the idea of personal narrative writing . While many of our middle school ELA students have written other types of essays before, this is often the first time they encounter this the personal narrative writing genre. First, I like to ask students if they have ever heard of personal essays and guide a brief class discussion.

Personal narratives create a valuable opportunity for students to share relevant stories from their own lives. Usually, this type of writing is designed to provoke an emotional reaction. Often, they find that personal narratives can be one of the most enjoyable writing assignments in ELA class!

2. Help them Choose a Topic

I find that one of our students’ biggest roadblocks to writing a personal narrative essay is the fact they think they don’t have anything worthwhile to say!

When this inevitably happens, I like to remind them that personal narratives can encompass a broad range of topics. As they plan their writing, they can choose to write about a single event, or an overall experience. For example, they might like to highlight on a moment in time. Alternatively, they could focus on a single thing that spanned a number of years (developing a skill at swimming lessons or dance class, for example). Even the simplest story can make an excellent topic for a personal narrative essay, as long as it is presented in a powerful way.

I also like to emphasize that the most important part of a personal narrative is that the writing has a purpose. For example:

• A funny story might enlighten readers on a lesson learned the hard way.
• A scary story might serve as a warning or wake up call.
• A touching story might inspire others to be a better person or view the world from a different perspective.

Sometimes I even like to share one of my favorite quotes. The saying (which is often attributed to the Dalai Lama) goes, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!” This usually reassures our middle school ELA students that we all have the ability to make a powerful impact!

If they are stuck…

If the class still seems stuck on choosing a topic, I like to set stations up around the room and break students into small groups. Next, I provide them with task card prompts at each station to get them thinking about their various life experiences that might make a good topic for a personal narrative essay.

When they arrive at each station, they read the card. Each member of the group briefly shares a story that relates to the prompt, and students take a few minutes to jot down a few possible ideas on their brainstorming sheet. As they move through the stations and repeat the process, they should generate a number of different ideas to consider.

When their sheet is full, I invite them to narrow down their choices by considering their answers to the following questions:

• What are you most inspired by or excited to write about? 
• What might be the most interesting for others to read? 
• Which topic can be told with a clear series of events and interesting details or enticing descriptions? 
• Which story has a thought-provoking message or point? 

3. Share Two Important Questions

As the class works through the brainstorming process, they need to also consider the fact that personal narrative essays are meant to be shared with others. I will read their work when I grade it, of course, and I also like to share and display students’ writing around my classroom.

With this in mind, I like to invite students to consider two questions before they get too deep into their initial draft:

• Am I comfortable sharing this story with others?
• Will people be able to relate to my experiences and what I learned?

When thinking about these questions, if the student cannot respond with an enthusiastic “yes” to both, it is time to go back to the brainstorming sheet and choose a different topic. But if their topic passes this important self-check, they can keep going!

4. Start With the End in Mind

Now, it’s time for students to step back and consider the purpose of their writing. In this section of the lesson , I encourage the middle school ELA class to think about the “heart” of the story. In other words, what do they want the audience to notice and consider as they read?

This is also an opportunity for students to consider their own purpose for writing. Some questions I like to ask are:

• Why do you want to share this story?
• What do you want people to feel as they read your personal narrative essay?
• What should the lasting impression of this story be on your reader?

5. Consider Your Audience

As part of the pre-planning process, I also like to remind middle schoolers of who their audience for this task will be. After all, personal stories should be shared with others!

I find that sometimes students approach an assignment from a different perspective depending on who will be reading their written work. This is why I like to make it very clear about the audience for their finished writing upfront.

There are many options for sharing students’ written work. Sometimes, after the essays are written, I have students sit and read them aloud to small groups of their peers. I also usually invite them to include their personal narratives in their portfolio of work from the year, which can be accessed by parents and guardians through an online portal. I may also keep a copy of their personal narratives to share with families during student-led conferences.

In some cases, a conversation with students about how they would like their words and ideas to be shared can be useful. They may surprise you with their own ideas. For example, they might like to post excerpts from their personal narratives to a blog, or even make them into a podcast! 

6. Plan Out Your Story Elements

Once you have addressed the issues of topic and audience, it’s time to consider the elements of a personal narrative.

Characters:

I like to emphasize that while the writer is the main character, a personal narrative essay usually involves other characters as well. When preparing to write, I invite students to consider:

• Who else is involved in the story or event?
• What are their character traits, and how will you show them through your writing?
• What is your relationship like with this person (or people?)

Once the characters are established, a next step for students is to consider the setting. For example, if location is important to the story, I might ask the class how they will convey a sense of place. 

Here, I find it helps to brainstorm sensory details to include. I like to ask the class about the weather, time of day, sounds (for example, birds chirping, crowds, rain on the roof) and other details. These can help add color to the overall scene.

During the lesson , I like to explain that most personal narratives include one of the four types of conflict. This is sometimes new information for my middle school ELA students! I find it helps to ask the following questions:

• Is there conflict between you and another person in the story? (person vs. person) 
• Are you struggling with some type of inner turmoil or struggling to make a decision? (person vs. self) 
• Are you in conflict with the natural elements? (person vs. environment)
• Are you challenging an element of government or society? (person vs. society)

7. Provide an Organizational Framework

As we discuss the organizational framework of a personal narrative essay, middle school ELA students usually notice similarities to traditional story writing. During this process, a graphic organizer can support them with their planning.

Planning the Beginning of the Essay:

I remind them that the beginning of their essay should provide a captivating hook, establishing the basic details of the story. This can include background information, as well as information about the characters and setting. Most importantly, I like to reinforce that this is where they need to establish themselves as the main character! Depending on the topic, the students might introduce the conflict in this section as well.

Planning the Middle of the Essay :

As they move on to the middle of the personal narrative, I like to tell middle school ELA students to dive even more deeply into the situation, problem, or event they are describing. This helps their reader connect with the story. To do this, I also like to invite them to consider the character’s experiences (how they were feeling and what they were thinking). Just like in traditional fiction, this is also the place to build to some kind of climax.

Planning the Conclusion of their Essay:

Finally, I have students consider how they plan to conclude their personal narrative writing ELA task. In this section, they will want to tie up any loose ends, and identify any key messages they want to leave with the reader. As they organize their ideas, I ask them to think about a few things: 

• What could the reader learn from your experience?
• Is there a moral or lesson the reader might consider in their own life?  
• Will your story leave the reader laughing, in tears, or ready to take action?  

One thing I emphasize is that students who are unfamiliar with personal narrative writing will probably want to stick quite closely to this planning format at first. As they become more comfortable with this type of writing task, they will gain more confidence in their own style, and take more creative risks.

8. Share Writing Strategies

Now it’s time for the fun part – the writing itself! Before my middle school ELA students write their essays in earnest, I offer a few tips to get them started.

First, I remind them to write their narrative essays in first person. After all, they’re telling their own stories! We discuss the idea of being “true to your voice” as a writer, and consider how the students wish to tell their personal stories. A humorous, witty, inspiring or sad story will all require a different tone – and whatever direction the student chooses to go in, the writing should be consistent.

Next, I like to offer a few tips about engaging the reader . Dialogue can add color and vibrancy to a personal narrative. Vivid imagery and sensory details can show, rather than tell, a sense of place or emotional connection. I love sharing the sample sentence, “Her face flushed to a shocking shade of red.” This is much more effective than, “She was embarrassed.”

9. Allow Time For Peer Editing

In my classroom, I like to leave a period or two for peer editing and revisions at the end of the writing process.

The first time, I encourage ELA students to read their personal narrative writing aloud. Or – even better – they can have a peer read their work back to them. This is a great starting point for finding mistakes or weak spots in the writing that need to be changed. The second time through, students can use a checklist to edit the work in sections and offer suggestions for improvement.

By breaking the editing process down into three key areas (grammar, content, and writing structure), I find students can keep their feedback constructive, focused and efficient. Finally, I leave time for the students to go over their writing again, making spelling and grammar corrections to ensure they turn in their best work.

10. Give Options for Sharing

It’s important to remember that each student has their own personal comfort level about sharing their work with a large group. A brief survey (either on paper or via Google Forms) is a great way to check in on students and find out how they would like to share their writing.

Here are some choices I like to offer:

• sharing their personal narrative essay through a pre-recorded podcast or video
• reading their essay in front of the class
• presenting their work to a small group of their peers
• booking a private meeting with me (usually at lunch) to go through their essay together

There you have it! I hope your middle school ELA students love writing personal narrative essays as much as mine do!

If you’re looking for more unique writing ideas for middle and high school, check out 5 Outside the Box Creative Writing Assignments in ELA !

Students stuck in a writing rut? Here are 8 Ways to Engage Reluctant Writers .

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Middle school narrative writing made simple.

For the first few years that I taught, I hated teaching narrative writing to my middle schoolers. Writing days meant endless stress. Students were constantly calling my name. There were nonstop problems. Students hardly made progress with their narrative essays because they didn’t know what to do or were waiting on me to help them. It was terrible!

Fast forward to the present day, I look forward to narrative writing in my classroom. Writing days often mean a lot of productivity and a rather calm classroom. So, what has changed to transform my opinion on writing days?

I began using reference sheets! Throughout this blog, I’ll share how reference sheets for narrative writing are the way to a simple, productive middle school writing unit.

What is narrative writing?

Before I dive too deep into reference sheets, I want to make sure we are on the same page with narrative essays. A narrative essay can be fiction or nonfiction . Sometimes narratives are called short stories or personal narratives. Essentially, narratives are stories.

What makes narrative writing so exciting for students is the opportunity to create a detailed story. Whether the story is fiction or nonfiction, the space to add imagery, details, and imagination are huge perks for more creative students.

The downside is that many students can get lost in narratives. For some, the ability for your creativity to run wild can leave them with option paralysis. For others, they are so excited to tell their story that they leave every grammar and language rule behind. 

What are reference sheets?

As I spoke about, writing used to be a chaotic experience for me (and my students). I decided I either had to clone myself to help more kids or find a way for the kids to help themselves (and since cloning wasn’t an option…). Enter the reference sheets.

A reference sheet is probably what it sounds like. They are pages of notes that students can reference for information . You can actually snag ALL my narrative writing reference pages in a cute booklet FOR FREE by clicking HERE .

The goal is that students use these reference pages when they are stuck or have questions during writing. Instead of you being the first person they get information from, the reference sheet becomes their guide. Kinda like that three before me rule.

These reference guides can have anything you want in them, but you want to stick to key, need-to-know information. For narrative essays, this might look like dialogue, writing an introduction / body / conclusion, editing, and so forth. The reference page should be easy to find and read through. It can even contain examples for students to reference and model their essay after.

How Reference Sheets Saved my Writing Unit

Before reference sheets, I could easily earn 10,000 steps walking circles around my classroom. I never actually sat down with a student for long to dig deep into their writing. Instead, I was just trying to keep students motivated to write or answer questions like, “Do I put a comma here?”

With reference sheets, my writing routine changed. Here’s what my class now looks like during narrative writing.

• Mini-lesson : I introduce the skill I want students to work on today with their writing. For example, if I want students to add dialogue or edit dialogue in their narrative today, I will provide a mini-lesson on punctuation and placement of dialogue. During the mini-lesson, students will have a reference sheet I made, and we will use it to move through the mini-lesson.
• Example : Next, I will provide some sort of example to my students to model the skill. This example may also be on the reference page I gave them, or it might not. I’ll engage students in the example, and ask them to apply the skill.
• Independent Work : Students are now familiar with their specific skill and task of the day, and they have a go-to guide if they need it. Students are then challenged with working diligently to apply the new skill to their own writing. If they get stuck, they will consult the reference sheet before me.
• Conferences : While independent workers use their reference sheets to edit their writing, certain students will meet with me. Having the majority of the class work independently and not depend on me to answer so many questions frees up time to reteach, clarify, or simply talk to students about their writing. Often I do these in small groups to make use of time.
• Exit Ticket: Lastly, I try to engage students in some type of sharing. They can share something they are proud of, something they wrote, or a question they have.

This type of structure on a writing day would not be possible without my students being able to help themselves and have quick access to information. It’s all thanks to a reference page. Wanna learn more about how I plan my narrative writing units? Check out my other blog post!

If you want to try out reference pages in your own classroom, I have a narrative writing reference booklet ready with all the essential information your students will need. . It will save you time and sanity on your writing days. You can check out that resource here. It includes skills such as plot, details, transitions, dialogue, and much more.

I hope you try out reference pages of your own to see the magic happen in your classroom! If you aren’t sure where to start, try the writing day schedule I wrote about above. You can tweak it for your own students.

• Read more about: Middle School Writing

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Personal Narrative Writing Guide

WHAT IS A PERSONAL NARRATIVE?

A Personal Narrative recounts an event or experience from the writer’s life in story form and often in intimate detail. This text type not only relates to the events happening around the author but also often reveals the writer’s inner thoughts and emotions also.

A personal narrative can be understood as nonfiction storytelling based on the writer’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Told in the first person, the writer draws on their life events to construct a story.

Combining elements of nonfiction recount writing with introspection and the frequent use of literary devices more commonly associated with fiction and poetry, a personal narrative can be best understood as a type of creative nonfiction .

PERSONAL NARRATIVE VERSUS A PERSONAL RECOUNT: SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Personal narratives are also frequently referred to as personal recounts. They share much in common but are unique text types, so let’s explore how they compare and contrast.

When we first instruct our students to write stories based on the events of their own lives, they will inevitably write simple recounts. These recounts are based on retelling personal incidents of their lives but lack the depth we can typically expect to find in a personal narrative.

While personal narratives also recount events from the writer’s life, with greater emphasis placed on exploring the writer’s thoughts and feelings on these events rather than just what happened.

A personal narrative is a means for the writer to explore the meaning of the events in their life. It is, at its core, an introspective and creative endeavor that focuses as much on the interior life of the writer as it does on external events.

While the conclusion of a traditional recount usually provides some of the writer’s insights, in a personal narrative, these are woven throughout the text.

STRUCTURE AND FEATURES OF A PERSONAL NARRATIVE

Personal narrative structure.

ORIENTATION Explain the who, what, when, and where of the experience in your introduction to your audience.

FOCUS Mainly focus on meaningful events.

CHRONOLOGY Events are described in the sequence in which they occurred.

ORGANIZATION Relevant information is organized into paragraphs

INSIGHT & MEANING Include personal comments, opinions or interpretations of the experience or event in your personal narrative.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES

TENSE The first and third person are used most frequently and recall is always written in the past tense. Present tense can be used for analysis and opinion.

NOUNS Use proper nouns to refer to specific people, places times and events

VOICE Both active and passive voice are used in recounts. Use these to express your emotions and thinking clearly.

CONNECTIVES Use conjunctions and connectives to link events and indicate time sequence in your personal narrative.

A COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING

Teach your students to write AMAZING PERSONAL NARRATIVES using a proven model of research skills, writing strategies and engaging content. ALL CONTENT, RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS INCLUDED covering.

Download this COMPLETE 85 PAGE UNIT today. NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.

HOW LONG SHOULD A PERSONAL NARRATIVE BE?

The personal narrative is a modern text type and therefore has no traditionally defined optimum length, and we can find texts ranging from a couple of hundred words to a multi-volume series in this genre. 

However, for our students, this text type can be thought of in terms of length as similar to an essay. Like an essay, the text needs to be long enough to comprehensively answer the question, prompt, or the event/experience the student is retelling.

David Sedaris, the American writer and one of the best-known writers of humorous personal narratives, has written many books that could accurately be classified in this genre.

While these full-length books are often built around a loose theme, each chapter could stand alone as a personal narrative essay in its own right, each built around a single identifiable experience or event. 

As with an essay, the length of a personal narrative can be based on a variety of factors, including:

• Age and ability of the students
• Specifics of the question or writing prompt
• Any limitation imposed by a word count
• The complexity of the event/experience being written about.

Regardless of length, given its structural similarity with the essay, personal narratives usually follow a basic three-part structure.

HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL NARRATIVE STEP-BY-STEP

We mentioned previously that this text type is relatively modern, so there aren’t many fixed rules concerning structure. That said, we can usually identify three distinct parts of a personal narrative corresponding to the three parts outlined in the hamburger essay or the 5-paragraph essay format. These are:

• The introduction
• The body paragraphs
• The conclusion

If you want an in-depth guide to this format, check out our comprehensive article here . But, for now, let’s take a brief look at the purpose of each section as it relates to a personal narrative.

WRITING THE INTRODUCTION OF A PERSONAL NARRATIVE

The introduction of a personal narrative performs several functions. 

1: It hooks the Reader

The first job of the introduction is to ‘hook’ the reader. If we can’t catch the reader’s interest initially, there will be no middle or end for the reader. A strong hook is needed at the very outset, and it can take several forms. 

Some effective hooks to open a personal narrative with include:

• A bold claim
• An interesting anecdote
• A fascinating fact or revealing statistic
• A compelling quotation

Whichever technique the student chooses to open their narrative with, they should ensure it is relevant to the subject matter explored, whether it focuses on external or internal events or experiences or a mixture of both. 

2: It orients the Reader

Like many other nonfiction and fiction text types, the opening paragraph (or paragraphs) will also orient the reader by answering some basic questions such as:

• What is the text about?
• Who is in this story?
• Where is it set?
• When do the events or experiences occur?

While it may also hint at why these events or experiences matter, a detailed answer to the why of a personal narrative may be saved for the text’s conclusion.

This section of the personal narrative can also be thought of as The Exposition .

3: It Sets the Tone

The introduction reveals not only what the text will be about but also how the writer (and, by extension, the reader) will treat the topic. This is the tone.

For example, a more sombre tone has been established where the language used is serious and formal. In this instance, the reader will adopt a more serious approach to the work.

On the other hand, if the treatment of the event or experience is humorous, this will be apparent in the language choices the writer makes and the mood they establish. Going forward, the reader can reasonably expect to be amused by what’s to come in the text.

THE BODY PARAGRAPHS OF A PERSONAL NARRATIVE

The body paragraphs of a personal narrative comprise the bulk of the text. 

As with any type of recount, this section will generally focus on the chronological retelling of an event or experience. 

However, there is another significant difference between this type of recount and the other types.’ The root of this difference can be found in the word ‘narrative’.

While the body paragraphs of a personal narrative can make use of some of the defining characteristics of more traditional types of recount, if the introduction acts as the exposition of the setting and character of the story, the body paragraphs move the text along its story arc.

Though we will cover the main elements briefly, structuring a story is an art in itself and if you want to find out more about it, check out our detailed article on the subject here.

Also, if you want to learn more about the structure of general recounts, find out more here .

While we’ve seen that the introduction of a personal narrative corresponds to a story’s exposition, the following elements of a story arc can be found in the text’s body.

1: The Problem

The problem or conflict is an essential ingredient in any story worth the name. It creates the story’s focal point, ignites the reader’s interest, and drives the story forward. In a personal narrative, this problem can be internal or external, however, there is often an emphasis placed on how the issues affect the writer psychologically.  2: The Rising Action  

As the narrative develops, the dramatic tension will tend to increase. The main problem will intensify, or the writer may introduce additional more minor problems to amp things up. 3: The Climax

This is where the story reaches its dramatic high point. In the case of a personal narrative where the conflict or problem is psychological, this drama and its climax may play out internally.

WRITING THE CONCLUSION OF YOUR PERSONAL NARRATIVE ESSAY

This third and final section of the personal narrative performs a slightly different function to a regular essay’s conclusion. 

While the conclusions of most nonfiction text types focus on restating a central thesis and/or providing a summary of arguments, the conclusion in a personal narrative follows a story’s final section more closely. 

That is, it usually contains the story’s falling action and resolution.

Let’s take a quick look at each.

1: The Falling Action

The story arc dips in dramatic tension after the dramatic high point of the climax. As personal narratives often focus on ‘internal’ events, this ‘action’ can also occur internally. 2: Resolution

The resolution marks the end of the story, and in this text type, it usually involves some personal change in circumstances or transformation. It can also take the form of a lesson learned or new knowledge attained.

TIPS FOR WRITING A GREAT PERSONAL NARRATIVE ESSAY

• Begin with a clear and compelling story: Your personal narrative essay should focus on a significant event or experience in your life that you want to share with the reader.
• Write in the first person perspective: Use “I” statements to describe your experiences and thoughts and take us inside your mind.
• Be descriptive: To bring your story to life, use descriptive language to paint a picture of the sights, sounds, and emotions of your experience.
• Focus on what matters the most: Tell a powerful story with just a few key details. When writing your personal narrative, focus on the most impactful events and thoughts that help convey your message.
• Emphasize the impact the experience had upon you: Leave the reader with a clear understanding of the impact that the experience had on your life.
• Be true to yourself: Ensure your personal narrative essay is honest and genuine in your descriptions and reflections.
• Deliver a powerful ending: The conclusion should summarize the major points of your essay and leave the reader with a lasting impression.
• Review and Revise: Don’t be afraid to proofread your essay several times to ensure it is the best it can be.

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

PERSONAL NARRATIVE PRACTICE EXERCISE: ACTIVITY 1

• Organise your students into small groups of four or five
• Provide each group with a selection of personal recounts
• Can the students identify how each sample text attempts to hook the reader in the opening paragraph?
• How effectively does the introduction of each text orient the reader?
• What is the tone of the text? How has this tone been created?

PERSONAL NARRATIVE PRACTICE EXERCISE: ACTIVITY 2

In their groups, with their sample personal narrative texts, ask students to identify how the writer deals with each element as listed below and discuss how effectively they have done so.

• The Problem
• The Rising Action

PERSONAL NARRATIVE PRACTICE EXERCISE: ACTIVITY 3

Now students understand how to structure and write each stage of their personal narrative, encourage them to spend some time brainstorming events and experiences from their lives that could serve as the topic for their writing.

When they have chosen a suitable topic, instruct them to begin planning the writing of their text using the categories listed above. They might even wish to create a simple graphic organizer to help. 

For example:

Introduction

• What is the opening hook?

Body Paragraphs

• What is the central problem?
• What happens in the rising action?
• How does the climax play out?
• What happens in the falling action?
• What is the resolution of the story?

Once students have their narrative adequately planned, it’s time to get them writing earnestly to put all that theory into practice.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING TEMPLATE / GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING EXAMPLES

VIDEO TUTORIAL ON PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING

NARRATIVE WRITING CHECKLIST BUNDLE

RELEVANT ARTICLES

How to Write a Recount Text (And Improve your Writing Skills)

How to Write a Historical Recount Text

5 Easy Recount Writing Lesson Plans students love.

15 Awesome Recount & Personal Narrative Topics

Explore our Teaching Unit on PERSONAL NARRATIVES

• Our Mission

A Systematic Approach to Teaching Narrative Writing

Clear strategies for each stage of the writing process help students improve their writing and serve as effective readers for their peers.

“I’ll never forget the colors,” I often read in student reflections.

As a middle school language arts teacher, I’ve developed a systematic approach to writing that helps students improve their storytelling skills. It includes strategies for writing in a variety of genres, such as personal narrative, memoir, and creative nonfiction. And in the revision stage I teach a color-coded approach to analyzing details that helps students see clearly what kinds of details they’ve used—and which they haven’t. Apparently this approach really sticks with my students.

When these strategies are used together, they help students improve their writing skills while also fostering relationships among themselves as they act as sounding boards for each other’s work.

Prewriting Q&A as a Source of New Ideas

Prewriting is an essential part of the writing process. If ideas aren’t flowing, however, some students may become stalled, with a lack of ideas acting as a roadblock for them. To get the ball rolling, I pair students together for prewriting conversations.

To begin, I share one of my own stories to demonstrate the art of storytelling. Next, I give students the opportunity to discuss their own story ideas with a partner. Then, as I walk around listening to their conversations, I’ll pause every now and then and ask a few students whose ideas piqued my interest to share their story ideas aloud with the entire group.

Next, I’ll demonstrate asking a series of questions to the student who is sharing aloud, explaining to the class that this strategy can help them dive deeper as writers. Students will continue their discussions in pairs, eliciting as many details as possible from the storyteller through questioning.

They might ask:

• “How was the narrator feeling at that moment?”
• “What would happen if…”
• “Can you help me picture the character?”

This type of thoughtful questioning helps students visualize the scene more vividly and replaces initial writing jitters with fun and flexibility.

They jot down their ideas with words, pictures, bullets, or anything else that helps them solidify the memories from their spoken stories now that they are ready to prewrite independently.

To See What You’re Writing, Act It Out

Instead of summarizing a whole story from beginning to end, I want students to create a writing piece based on a brief period that includes vivid detail. I’ve found that having students act out a scene helps them grasp this concept. 

First, I’ll have students read aloud a few pages from our class book. Then, in small groups, they’ll act out the scene. “Now that you’ve acted it out, how long do you think this moment would have taken in real life?” I’ll ask. There will be a friendly debate. In the end, students will realize that the scene was a moment of time told with meaningful details, whether they said it took 30 seconds or 10 minutes.

Students then deconstruct the scene they just acted out by creating a timeline of key character actions. For example, using pages 9–10 of The Glass Castle , by Jeannette Walls, the scene breakdown might look like this:

• At age 3, Jeannette is standing on a chair cooking hot dogs in the kitchenette and feeding them to her dog.
• Her dress catches on fire, sending flames up her body.
• Jeannette’s mom, painting in the next room, hears her scream and enters the kitchen.
• Mom uses an army surplus blanket to put the fire out.
• Mom, Jeannette, and brother Brian run to the neighbor’s house to get help.
• The neighbor drops her laundry she was hanging on the line and races to take them to the hospital, saying nothing.

Students will then work independently to apply the same strategy to their own ideas, focusing on showing rather than telling the entire story. Students will share their lists with their groups and then act out each other’s ideas.

The following conversation suggestions help students clarify and solidify their ideas.

Beginning, ending, and timing: Where does the heart of this moment start? Where does it end? When one student describes a moment that feels excessively long, the rest of the group suggests methods to shorten it. If a student has a moment that is too short, the group helps to extend it.

Characters: What is each character doing? What’s their motivation? What do they look like? How are they acting?

Setting: Where and when is this taking place? What’s going on around your characters?

Dialogue: What’s being said, how, and by whom?

Internal thinking: What are the characters thinking?

Students are now ready to move on to independent writing and complete a full draft.

Color-Coding Writing as a Detail-Oriented Strategy

Following the drafting phase, I teach students a variety of revising techniques. Every day I introduce a new one—and they’re color-coded to make it easier for students to distinguish between them. We might, for example, focus on character details one day. First, students will find vivid character descriptions they love from the read-aloud or their own independent reading. Then, they’ll add their own character descriptions to their writing, highlighting them in a particular color.

I encourage students to incorporate each color throughout their drafts. If character details are represented by blue, for example, blue highlighting should be used in the beginning, middle, and end of their pieces. Other color-coded strategies include setting details, figurative language, sensory details, dialogue, and internal thinking.

The use of assorted colors allows students to clearly see areas that have been enriched with vivid details and areas that have not. This visual strategy benefits learners of all levels by instilling confidence and a sense of accomplishment as rainbows of color emerge throughout their work.

This color-coding approach also aids in peer editing and teacher conferencing by encouraging meaningful conversations like this: “I see you’ve developed thoughtfully crafted blues in the beginning to describe the Mom character. How can you assist readers in picturing and getting to know your other characters? How can you incorporate more blues later to describe them?”

To showcase daily accomplishments, students add their favorite highlighted lines to the classroom bulletin boards. While students could easily copy and paste their examples into a shared class Google Doc, I’ve found that they’re more engaged when there’s movement and camaraderie, and they like having their words physically present in the classroom.

Recently I taped a piece of bulletin board paper for students to write on in the front of the classroom and another in the back. A student was waiting patiently for others to finish at the front. I encouraged him to go write his favorite line in the back since there was no wait and it offered more space to write.

“No thanks,” he chirped. “I want everyone to see mine when they walk into the room.”

A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Narrative Writing

July 29, 2018

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What to Read Next

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

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

50 Comments

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

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!

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.?

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

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!

I want to write about the new character in my area

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

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!!

So glad to hear this, Nicole!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Helped me learn for an entrance exam thanks very much

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

I couldn’t find the story

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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• Dissertation

Education Standards

Wyoming physical education content standards.

Learning Domain: Personal and Social Behavior: The physically literate individual exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others and recognizes the value of physical activity for challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.

Standard: Students initiate responsible personal social behavior and positively influence the behavior of others in physical activity settings.

Steps and Examples for Writing Personal Narratives

A Personal Narrative Essay is a creative form of writing that explains a memorable event in a student's life. Like other types of essays, it follows a specific structure and includes an introduction, several paragraphs of body content, and a conclusion. The main purpose of a personal narrative essay is to convince the reader of why the applicant would be a good fit for the college or university they apply to.

What is a personal narrative?

Defining personal narratives is an important step to writing a story that will inspire and touch the reader. A personal narrative is an essay in the first person, often a true story, that reflects a writer's personal experiences. You can take a look at this resource for various free online examples of personal narratives that may inspire your writing.  Though this type of essay usually differs from author to author, there are some basic guidelines that all personal narratives must follow. These include an introduction, key points, and conclusion. You can also structure your personal narrative to include the elements of plot, character, setting, and climax.

A personal narrative usually follows a three-part structure, with the introduction focusing on the 'hook' that will 'hook' the reader. The hook can be in the form of an event or an emotion. In any case, it must be relevant to the subject matter explored. For example, the hook may focus on an external event or an internal one, and give the reader a hint as to why these events matter. The detailed answer to the why of a narrative may be reserved for the conclusion.

Choose your topic

When writing a personal narrative essay, you need to find a topic that you enjoy writing about. It is essential to pick a topic that excites you, but still reflects on your own life. You can choose to write about a memorable moment or describe a philosophical thought. Personal narrative essays can range from a brief account of a single experience to a voluminous autobiography. For example, you can write about an event that happened to you as a child.

When writing a personal narrative essay , there are a few important aspects to remember. There are three basic parts: an introduction, middle, and end. When writing a personal narrative essay, it's best to begin with a strong introduction and then follow this up with detailed descriptions and the climax. After that, you can write your personal narrative essay according to the structure outlined below. Then, follow the same process to write a solid conclusion.

Your topic for your personal narrative essay should be something that excites you. Choose a memorable moment from your childhood, a trip, or an experience that has affected your life. You can write about your professional or personal journey as well. Make sure your topic is unique and engaging, so readers will be interested in reading your personal story! Here are some helpful tips for choosing a topic:

Outline your paper

The first step in writing a personal narrative is to make an outline. It should focus on a topic or aspect of the personal narrative that will interest the reader. The outline should be as detailed as possible, and it should also include keywords to designate minor pieces of information. You should also include a body, an introduction, and a conclusion. To save time, outline your paper first and write the paper last.

A personal narrative essay will often have a beginning, middle, and end, and should be structured in chronological order. Then, you will need to write your draft, revise it, and submit it to your teacher for review. This process is similar to writing other college assignments. To start off, you should choose a topic, write an outline, then write a draft. The final draft should include a call to action or a thesis statement that ties everything together.

Write and edit draft

Personal narratives follow the flow of a life experience and are usually written from the perspective of the author. They can range from childhood memories to a special vacation. It could also be about a professional journey. Regardless of the subject, it is important to ensure that your writing reflects your personal experiences. Here are some tips to help you write a personal narrative. Start with choosing a topic. Choose something that is meaningful to you, such as a favorite memory, trip, or memory.

After you have written your first draft, you should print it out and make notes. Circle sentences or draw lines to make them fit together better. This will help you identify weak passages and sections that need more examples or evidence. You may also need to rewrite a portion to improve its structure. Once you've edited your draft, you'll have a finished product that you're proud of. A final step is to make any changes you feel necessary and to make the writing more engaging.

Home — Essay Types — Personal Narrative Essay

Personal Narrative Essay Examples

In the realm of personal narrative essays, personal narrative essay examples serve as a compelling platform for individuals to share their unique stories, experiences, and perspectives. These essays are more than just pieces of personal history; they are windows into the human condition. However, a key factor in crafting a memorable personal narrative essay lies in selecting the right topic. In this article, we'll delve into the art of choosing personal narrative essay topics and explore their significance in creating a meaningful and engaging narrative.

Finding Ideas for a Personal Narrative Essay

The first step in the journey of crafting a captivating personal narrative essay is finding ideas and inspiration. Inspiration often resides within our own lives and experiences:

• Reflecting on Personal Experiences: Personal narrative essays draw their strength from real-life encounters and observations. Take time to reflect on moments that have left a lasting impact on you.
• Exploring Emotions and Memories: Emotions are the lifeblood of personal narratives. Recall events that stirred powerful emotions within you, whether it was joy, fear, anger, or love.
• Identifying Life-Changing Moments: Sometimes, our most profound stories revolve around events that changed the course of our lives. Identify these turning points and consider how they have shaped you.

By utilizing these ideas for a personal narrative essay, you will unlock a wealth of storytelling potential. Reflecting on personal experiences , exploring emotions and memories, and identifying life-changing moments will enable you to tap into the richness of your own life.

Popular Personal Narrative Essay Ideas and Topics

Now, let's explore some popular personal narrative essay ideas that encompass a wide range of experiences and emotions:

Childhood Memories

• First Day of School : Delve into the nerves, excitement, and anticipation of your very first day of school. What did it teach you about resilience and adaptability?
• A Memorable Family Vacation: Share the details of a family vacation that etched memories into your heart. What made it unforgettable, and how did it shape your bond with your family?
• A Childhood Friendship: Reflect on a cherished childhood friendship. Explore the lessons you learned about trust, loyalty, and the bittersweet passage of time.

Life-changing Experiences

• Overcoming a Fear or Phobia: Narrate an experience where you conquered a deep-seated fear or phobia. What steps did you take, and what did it reveal about your inner strength?
• A Pivotal Life Decision: Share the story of a critical decision that altered the course of your life. What factors weighed on your choice, and what did you gain or lose?
• An Unexpected Adventure: Recount an unexpected adventure that took you out of your comfort zone. What challenges did you face, and how did you grow as a person?

Personal Growth and Reflection

• A Lesson Learned from a Mistake: Explore a mistake you made and the valuable lesson it taught you. How did this experience shape your decision-making and personal growth?
• Achieving a Personal Goal: Celebrate the journey of achieving a personal goal. Reflect on the obstacles you overcame and the determination that fueled your success.
• A Moment of Self-Discovery: Share a moment when you discovered something profound about yourself. How did this newfound self-awareness impact your life and relationships?

Tips for Choosing the Right Topic

When it comes to selecting topics for personal narratives, making the right choice is essential to craft a compelling and meaningful story. Your chosen topic forms the foundation of your narrative, shaping its tone, relevance, and impact on your readers. Selecting the right personal narrative essay topics is crucial. Here are some tips to guide your choice:

• Connecting with Your Audience: Consider your target audience and choose a topic that will resonate with them. Your narrative should evoke emotions and experiences that your readers can relate to.
• The Importance of Authenticity: Authenticity is the key to a compelling personal narrative. Choose a topic that genuinely reflects your experiences and emotions. Readers can sense when a story is authentic.
• Balancing Significance and Relatability: While dramatic events make for engaging narratives, even seemingly small moments can hold immense significance. Balance the significance of the event with its relatability to your audience.

In the realm of personal narrative essays, the choice of topic serves as the foundation upon which the narrative is built. It determines whether your story will resonate with readers and leave a lasting impression. Personal narrative essay examples can illustrate how a well-chosen topic can make your narrative more engaging and relatable. As we conclude this exploration of personal narrative essay topics, remember that your life is a treasure trove of stories waiting to be shared. Whether it's a childhood memory, a life-changing experience, or a moment of self-discovery, the power of your narrative lies in your ability to choose the right topic and let your unique voice shine through. So, embrace your experiences, and embark on a journey of storytelling that captivates, inspires, and connects with others.

Embark on a journey through this writing guide, where personal narrative examples aren’t merely presented; they leap off the page, enveloping us in a world where stories don’t just speak—they roar, resonate, and sometimes, perform a whimsical dance. In this realm, personal narrative examples serve as our guideposts, illuminating the path to crafting narratives that are as authentic as they are compelling.

What is a Personal Narrative Essay Examples

A personal narrative essay is a type of essay that tells a story from the author’s own life experiences and perspectives. It is a form of creative nonfiction in which the author shares a personal story, event, or incident that holds meaning or significance. Personal narrative essays often aim to engage the reader by providing a vivid and emotional account of the author’s experiences.

When crafting a personal narrative essay, it’s essential to find valuable personal narrative essay examples to guide you. This type of writing demands a unique approach, where external research is unnecessary. Draw from your personal experiences and explore your ideas from a personal point of view. The purpose of such essays is to let you work on a certain topic by using analysis and by turning to reflective writing practices. 

The examples of personal narrative essays may relate to anything from bullying to the way social media affects our perception of body image in a negative way. Likewise, if you are majoring in Journalism or Political Sciences, you may take any topic that would relate to what you are currently exploring unless you have already been provided with an essay prompt. In either case, you must take your time to focus on your opinion and things that inspire you the most. If you can keep your writing interesting and unique, it will always show as you write.

Comparing personal narrative essays with research essays sheds light on distinct approaches to storytelling and analysis. While personal narrative essays delve into personal experiences and reflections, research essays delve into data-driven analysis and findings. To gain deeper insights into these essay types, explore research essay examples uncovered on our site. Research essays present a systematic examination of a topic, drawing from scholarly sources and empirical evidence, whereas Personal Narrative essays offer subjective accounts of individual experiences. By reviewing examples of both genres, you can discern their unique characteristics and appreciate the diversity of essay writing styles.

Personal narrative essays are a popular form of writing that allow individuals to share their personal experiences, stories, and insights. In the infographics we’ve prepared, you can find a most common types of personal narrative essays:

These are some of the most common types of personal narrative essays, each with its unique focus and storytelling approach. The choice of type depends on the author’s personal experiences and the message they want to convey.

How to Write a Personal Narrative Essay

Writing a personal narrative essay is a creative and introspective process that enables you to share a piece of your life with others. If you’re wondering how to write a personal narrative essay, here are 5 key steps to help you get started:

• Choose a Meaningful Experience : Select a personal experience that has had a significant impact on your life. Whether it’s a moment of growth, a life-changing event, or a cherished memory, pick a topic that resonates with you.
• Plan Your Narrative : Create an outline to organize your thoughts. Highlight the main events or moments you want to include and decide on the order in which you’ll present them. This will provide structure to your essay.
• Engage Your Audience : Craft a captivating introduction that immediately grabs the reader’s attention. You can use vivid descriptions, a compelling question, or a thought-provoking quote. Establish the setting and context to draw the reader into your story.
• Tell Your Story : In the body of your essay, narrate your story chronologically. Describe the events, emotions, and thoughts you experienced. Utilize descriptive language to create a vivid picture for the reader, immersing them in your narrative.
• Reflect and Conclude : Conclude your essay by reflecting on the significance of the experience. Share what you’ve learned, how it has affected you, and the message or insight you want to leave with your reader. Summarize the key points to make a lasting impression.

Writing a personal narrative essay allows you to share your unique experiences and connect with your audience on a personal level. By carefully selecting your topic, crafting a compelling narrative, and reflecting on its importance, you can create an impactful and memorable essay. If you’re looking for an example of a personal narrative essay , studying well-crafted essays can provide valuable insights into the structure and storytelling techniques that make them effective.

Incorporating these steps into your writing process will help you craft a compelling and meaningful personal narrative essay that resonates with your audience.

Writing a Personal Narrative Essay: Tips and Tricks

Writing a personal narrative is an art form that invites readers into your world, offering them a glimpse of your experiences, emotions, and reflections. Whether you’re crafting a personal narrative essay for a class, a publication, or your satisfaction, the following tips and tricks, illustrated with personal narrative essay examples, can help you create a compelling and resonant story.

• Start with a Strong Hook. Engage your readers from the very beginning with a captivating hook. This could be a thought-provoking question, a surprising fact, or a vivid scene. For example, a personal narrative example might begin with a dramatic moment that immediately places the reader in the heart of the story.
• Focus on a Significant Moment. A personal narrative should center around a significant moment or series of events that had a profound impact on you. This doesn’t have to be a life-altering event, but it should be meaningful enough to warrant exploration. Personal narrative essay examples often highlight a turning point that offers insight into the writer’s growth or change.
• Include Sensory Details. Bring your story to life with sensory details. Describe what you saw, heard, smelled, touched, and tasted to help the reader experience the event as you did. A personal narrative essay example might describe the aroma of a grandmother’s kitchen or the texture of a rough sea to immerse the reader fully.
• Explore Your Emotions and Reflections. The heart of a personal narrative lies in your introspection and emotional journey. Discuss how the events affected you, what you learned, and how you changed. Personal narrative essay examples excel when they delve deep into the writer’s emotional landscape, offering honest and relatable reflections.
• Use Dialogue Effectively . Incorporating dialogue can add dynamism to your narrative, bringing characters to life and moving the story forward. Ensure that the dialogue sounds natural and contributes to the development of the story or the understanding of the characters. A well-chosen dialogue in a personal narrative example can illustrate a relationship or a pivotal moment vividly.
• Structure Your Narrative with Care. While a personal narrative may not follow a traditional plot structure, having a clear beginning, middle, and end is crucial. Lead your readers through the events with a purposeful narrative arc, guiding them toward the resolution or the main point of your story. Personal narrative examples show how an effectively structured narrative can enhance the impact of the story.
• Revise and Edit. A great personal narrative doesn’t just happen on the first draft. Revise your work for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Pay attention to grammar and punctuation, and consider feedback from readers to refine your narrative. Personal narrative essay examples that resonate the most are often those that have been carefully polished.
• Reflect on the Universality of Your Experience . While a personal narrative is inherently personal, reflecting on the universal themes within your story can connect with a broader audience. Consider how your personal experiences touch on larger truths or common human experiences. A personal narrative essay that captures universal themes becomes relatable and impactful.

By following these tips and tricks and studying personal narrative essay examples, you can craft a personal narrative that not only tells your story but also touches the hearts and minds of your readers. Remember, a personal narrative is a gift of your perspective, a glimpse into your world that can enlighten, entertain, and inspire.

How to Structure a Personal Narrative Essay: Examples

Turning to personal narrative structure , you are mostly allowed to approach a free style where you may keep your narration according to your preferences, yet it’s recommended to keep your topics narrowed down to a certain period of time or a take on things if that speaks of your life’s experience. To create an engaging and well-structured personal narrative essay , follow these essential elements:

• Introduction : Set the Stage
• Start with a hook: Begin your essay with an attention-grabbing sentence or anecdote that draws readers in.
• Provide context: Introduce the setting, time, and place of your story.
• Present the thesis statement: Clearly state the main idea or message you want to convey through your narrative.
• Background Information : Build the Foundation
• Offer background details: Provide essential information about the characters, setting, and circumstances relevant to your story.
• Develop characters: Describe the key individuals involved, including yourself, if applicable.
• Plot Development : Unfold the Story
• Sequence events: Organize the events of your narrative in chronological order to maintain clarity.
• Build tension: Use rising action to create anticipation and interest in the narrative.
• Climax: Present the turning point or the most significant moment of your story.
• Descriptive Detail s: Paint a Vivid Picture
• Utilize sensory imagery: Engage readers’ senses by describing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings.
• Use vivid language: Employ descriptive adjectives and metaphors to enhance the reader’s understanding of your experiences.
• Reflection and Analysis : Share Insights
• Reflect on the significance: Explain why the experience was meaningful or how it impacted you.
• Offer personal insights: Share your thoughts, emotions, and personal growth resulting from the experience.
• Conclusion : Wrap It Up
• Summarize the story: Provide a concise summary of the main events and their outcomes.
• Reinforce the thesis: Reiterate the key message or lesson learned.
• End with a powerful closing: Leave readers with a thought-provoking statement, a lesson, or a reflection.
• Editing and Proofreading : Polish Your Essay
• Revise for clarity: Ensure the narrative flows smoothly and is easy to follow.
• Check for grammar and spelling errors: Use tools like Grammarly to eliminate mistakes.
• Seek feedback: Have someone else review your essay for constructive input.
• Title : Choose an Engaging Title
• Craft a title that captures the essence of your narrative and intrigues potential readers.

Remember, personal narrative essays allow you to share your unique experiences and perspectives, making them compelling and relatable to your audience. By following this structured approach, you can create a well-crafted and engaging personal narrative essay.

How to Start a Personal Narrative Essay

Starting a personal narrative essay can be both exciting and challenging. To help you embark on this writing journey effectively, here are 5 key points on how to start a personal narrative essay :

P1. Choose an Engaging Topic: Begin by selecting a compelling and personal experience as your essay’s focus. Reflect on moments from your life that had an impact, taught you a lesson, or evoked strong emotions. Your chosen topic should resonate with both you and your potential readers.

P2. Create a Captivating Hook: Grab your readers’ attention right from the start. You can use a catchy anecdote, a thought-provoking question, a relevant quote, or a vivid description to engage your audience. The hook sets the tone for your narrative.

P3. Develop a Clear Thesis Statement: In a personal narrative essay, your thesis statement should convey the central message or lesson you want to share through your story. It serves as a roadmap for your essay, guiding both you and your readers throughout the narrative.

P4. Organize Your Ideas: Outline the main events and details you want to include in your essay. Ensure a logical flow of events, from the introduction to the climax and resolution. Organizing your thoughts beforehand will make the writing process smoother.

P5. Show, Don’t Just Tell: Use descriptive language and vivid imagery to paint a picture for your readers. Let them experience the emotions and sensations you felt during the event. Showcasing your experiences through sensory details helps create a more immersive narrative.

By following these 5 key points on how to start a personal narrative essay , you can begin your essay-writing journey with confidence and captivate your readers from the very beginning.

Personal Narrative Examples to Inspire Your Writing

A personal narrative essay example , such as this personal narrative essay example about life , is a written piece that serves as an illustration or personal narrative essay sample. It is a real-life essay that an author has written to share a personal experience or story, often in the first-person perspective.

Free personal narrative essay examples are used to demonstrate how to structure and craft a personal narrative essay, showcase effective storytelling techniques, and provide inspiration and guidance to other writers who may be working on their own personal narratives. They are valuable resources for both students and writers looking to understand the art of personal storytelling and how to effectively convey their own experiences through essays.

Good Personal Narrative Essay Samples

Good examples of personal narratives serve as effective tools for enhancing your comprehension. Here are some excellently crafted narrative essay examples. Take the time to thoroughly analyze them and leverage their guidance to create a well-written essay of your own.

Short Free Personal Narrative Essay Examples

Dive into these brief yet impactful stories for inspiration and insights into crafting your own compelling personal narratives.

Examples of Personal Narrative Essays for College

These narratives delve into diverse experiences, offering valuable insights and storytelling inspiration for those navigating the world of higher education. Dive into these narratives to discover the power of personal storytelling in a college context.

Personal Narrative Essay Examples for High School

These narratives are tailored to resonate with high school students, providing a valuable glimpse into personal experiences, challenges, and moments of growth.

Checklist for Writing a Personal Narrative Essay

While it is considered that no thesis statement is necessary for a personal narrative essay, you should keep your main thought throughout as you deal with a certain topic. See our free personal narrative essay examples and brainstorm various ideas before you start. Don’t forget to check our helpful checklist to make sure that you follow the general structure rules for this essay: 

• You write in the first person.
• Your tone is narrative and explanatory where and if necessary.
• You keep up with the same idea and avoid vague statements.
• You have a strong hook or some fact in your introduction.
• You bring out a moral lesson in your conclusion part.
• There are transitions and topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph. ( Use words like “Therefore”, “As a result of”)

Although it’s a personal narrative, make sure that you choose your topic wisely by exploring the objectives and checking your grading rubric twice! 

Exploring the Essence of Personal Narrative Examples

Diving into today’s exploration, we’ve encountered the enchanting essence of personal narratives. Far from mere storytelling, these narratives act as vibrant conduits for conveying messages, rendering abstract ideas tangible, and forging authentic human connections. Whether deployed in a polished professional presentation, a candid conversation, or the draft of your latest writing endeavor, the strategic integration of a well-crafted story can significantly amplify your message.

Navigating the art of personal storytelling requires a balanced approach—aim for authenticity without veering into the realm of TMI (Too Much Information), and strive to captivate without tipping into melodrama. The arenas for employing these personal narratives are boundless. Whether in formal professional environments or spontaneous casual interactions, a memorable story can leave a lasting impression, elevating you in the minds of your audience.

In conclusion, mastering the art of crafting personal narrative essays involves not only understanding the intricacies of storytelling but also appreciating the nuanced form of memoir essays. By dissecting a memoir essay example , writers can glean valuable insights into narrative structure, thematic elements, and emotional resonance, thereby enhancing their storytelling prowess.

Narrative: Why Softball Is Important in My Life

Softball has been a significant part of my life for as long as I can remember. It has shaped me into the person I am today, teaching me valuable lessons both on and off the field. The sport has given me a sense of belonging,…

Personal Narrative: a Day I Lost My Best Friend

It was a day that started like any other, with the sun rising in the sky and the birds chirping outside my window. It was a day that would change my life forever, a day I lost my best friend. I had known Sarah since…

The Impact of a Funeral: a Personal Narrative

Death is an inevitable part of life that we all must face at some point. For me, the experience of attending a funeral was a significant event that left a lasting impact on my life. In this essay, I will explore the emotional, psychological, and…

Personal Narrative: Confirmation Changed My Life

Confirmation is a significant event in the Catholic Church where individuals reaffirm their faith and commitment to the teachings of the Church. For many, including myself, this sacrament marks a pivotal moment in their spiritual journey. My own confirmation experience was a transformative one that…

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Personal Narrative: I Am a Perfectionist

Personal Narrative Essay: I Am A Perfectionist As long as I can remember, I have always been a perfectionist. From the smallest details to the biggest tasks, I have always strived for perfection. It has shaped my personality, influenced my choices, and impacted my relationships….

Personal Narrative: My Fear of Failure

Failure is an inherent part of life, and it is something that everyone experiences at some point in their lives. However, for some individuals, including myself, the fear of failure can become debilitating, leading to feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, and a reluctance to take risks….

Narrative about Losing My Dad

It was a warm summer day when my world was turned upside down. I received a phone call that would change my life forever. My dad had been in a car accident, and the news was not good. I rushed to the hospital, my heart…

Personal Narrative on Winning The Lottery

Winning the lottery is a dream that many people have. The thought of suddenly coming into a large sum of money can be exhilarating and life-changing. For me, winning the lottery was something that I had never even considered. I had always seen it as…

Personal Narrative: from Childhood to Adulthood

The transition from childhood to adulthood is a significant and transformative period in an individual’s life. It is a time of immense personal growth, self-discovery, and the development of independence. This personal narrative aims to explore my journey from childhood to adulthood, highlighting the key…

Personal Narrative: The Hero’s Journey

The concept of the Hero’s Journey has been a fundamental aspect of storytelling for centuries. Originating from mythologist Joseph Campbell’s theory, the Hero’s Journey outlines the common stages that a hero undergoes in their quest for growth, transformation, and self-discovery. This narrative structure has been…

What is a personal narrative essay?

In most cases, you must take ideas that deal with a personal narrative that can be a story from your life or a case that you have been involved in. You should write from the first person. Personal narrative examples include writing about your birthday or meeting your best friend in middle school. The topics should inspire you and have a beginning with a hook sentence, content, and a conclusion.

How to write personal narrative essays?

Regardless of what subject you may write about, most personal narrative essays should include an argumentation or a lesson. Ask yourself about what can your audience learn when reading your story. It may be a little difficult to write at first, yet start with a brief introduction, thesis, and a story itself with a powerful conclusion. See our free personal narrative essay to see how it can be done right.

What is the purpose of a personal narrative essay?

The primary purpose is to share a personal experience or story, allowing readers to connect with the author on a deeper level. It may also convey a lesson, moral, or reflection.

How do I choose a topic for my personal narrative essay?

Select a topic that holds personal significance, such as a life-changing event, memorable journey, or lesson learned. Choose something that resonates with you.

What makes a personal narrative essay compelling?

Vivid descriptions, sensory details, and emotional connections make a personal narrative essay compelling. Show, don't just tell the story.

Can I write a humorous personal narrative essay?

Absolutely! Personal narrative essays can be humorous, serious, or a mix of both, depending on the tone you want to convey.

How do I conclude a personal narrative essay effectively?

Summarize the main events, reiterate the central message or lesson, and end with a thought-provoking statement or reflection.

What is the recommended word count for a personal narrative essay?

The word count can vary, but a typical personal narrative essay may range from 500 to 1,500 words. It's best to follow the guidelines provided by your instructor or publication if applicable.

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A List Of Interesting Personal Narrative Essay Topics For Middle School

One of the most powerful papers that you may be asked to write in middle school is a personal narrative essay. A personal narrative is a paper that describes something that has happened to you. It is a great paper for students to write because it focuses on how you view a certain situation that has happened in your life. Since you don’t need any other resources but your memory to write this type of paper, it is a great essay to have students write because they can concentrate on the writing methods and not on finding information.

When you need to decide on a topic to write about, it can be a little difficult because most people can’t really think of something that they think is interesting enough to write about. Here is a list of some ideas you can use to write this paper.

• Favorite vacation
• Moment that was really hard
• Your greatest accomplishment
• A family reunion you went to
• Your first day of middle school
• An embarrassing moment
• Something scary that happened to you
• A big argument you and a friend had
• A sporting event you went to
• A meeting with an important person

Once you have chosen your topic, the next step will be to create an outline that lists the main ideas that you will discuss in your paper. For example, if you chose to write about your favorite vacation, you will want to jot down the various things that happened on your trip that made it so special. For this type of paper, you probably want to write these events in chronological order. That means to write them in the order that they happened.

You are telling a story to your audience about your topic. You will want to include details in your story so that it paints a picture of the events. You want to work on describing how you felt that day and what it meant to you. It is a look into your life and your perception of the day. How did that moment make you feel? Be sure to let your reader know you through your writing. It is designed for your reader to get to know you a little better so just tell a story about a day in your life.

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The Best Narrative Writing Prompts for Middle School

Narrative writing can be super exciting, especially when guided by a super fun prompt!

Prompts are powerful tools for inspiring students to their best writing. They allow you to guide and help young learners stay focused on a specific topic as they engage in the writing process. Furthermore, the sheer simplicity of writing prompts in middle school classrooms, compared to worksheets or handouts , makes them the perfect last-minute addition to any lesson plan.

In this article, we’re giving you a few narrative writing prompts for middle school that students will absolutely love! Before we begin, however, let’s take a quick look at the importance of narrative writing.

The importance of narrative writing

People ask–why do students need to learn narrative writing? For teachers, the answer is simple. Many standardized tests , such as the Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP), require students to demonstrate their ability to analyze and write narratives.

Learning to write narratives helps learners understand narrative structure, which in return, improves their reading comprehension. Thus, a wholistic approach to narrative instruction, which includes both reading and writing, is an effective way to help students place higher on standardized assessments.

Aside from test-related motivations to study narratives, this particular style of writing gives students a creative outlet for expressing themselves. As a matter of fact, narrative writing is often called “creative writing.”

The purpose of a narrative is to tell audiences a story, and students are given countless opportunities to make creative choices when telling stories. Through writing, they learn to develop a unique voice and imbue their work with a distinct, personal touch.

“…students are given countless opportunities to make creative choices when telling stories.”

Example middle school narrative writing prompts

As promised, here are a the best–and only–narrative writing prompts for middle school students you’ll ever need!

• Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live as your favorite animal? What animal would you be? What would you do during a typical day? What challenges might you face? Write a narrative essay about what a day in the life as your favorite animal would be like. Use the questions in the prompt to guide your response.
• Imagine winning the lottery tomorrow. What would you do with the money? Would you spend it? If so, what would you buy? Would you save it? If so, why? Write a narrative essay describing what you would do after winning the lottery. Use the questions in the prompt to guide your response.
• Everyone has fears, and sometimes we have to face them. What is your worst fear? When did the fear begin?  Why does it make you afraid? How could you overcome it? Write a narrative about overcoming your worst fear. Use the questions in the prompt to guide your response.
• At some point, we have all had an opportunity to be strong. What has been your strongest moment? Were you mentally or physically strong? Or both? What did it feel like? Write a narrative essay about a time when you were strong. Use the questions in the prompt to guide your response.
• Imagine you are elected president of the United States. What would you say to the American people during your inauguration speech? How would you run the country? What laws would you pass? What laws would you abolish? Write a narrative essay about what you would do as the president of the United States. Use the questions in the prompt to guide your response.

Rather use narrative writing handouts? Make sure to explore our Resource section for additional teaching tools.

Final words

These narrative writing prompts for middle school students are simple, fun, and effective. Try them out and witness the endless creative stories your students will come up with!

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Note: This article doesn’t cover how to teach using mentor texts. Read how to use mentor texts here .

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Table of Contents:

Personal Narrative Memoir Fiction Informative Literary Analysis Argumentative Speech

Personal Narrative

Eleven   by Sandra Cisneros Best for 6th Grade

It’s Rachel’s eleventh birthday but she doesn’t feel eleven. On this day she feels more like one. Her insensitive teacher wants to find the owner of a red sweater that’s been sitting in the coatroom for a very, very long time. No one in Rachel’s class wants to claim it. When Rachel is accused she doesn’t speak up for herself. The following writing skills are beautifully done in this short story:

• Descriptive Language
• Figurative Language
• Inner Thinking

Everything Will be Okay   by James Howe Appropriate for Grades 6-8 (very sad though)

James finds a sick kitten in the woods and tells the kitten everything will be okay. He takes it home hoping his his family will help. His mother says, “we’ll see…”. His brother Paul, who works for Dr. Milk, comes home and knows what to do. They drive the sickly kitten over to the vet’s office and the scenes that follow are heart wrenching. This story flows back and forth between the events of this day and memories involving James’s family. These components of narrative writing stand out most in the story:

• Building Tension
• Character Development
• Past and Present Transitions

First French Kiss by Adam Bagdasarian Best for 8th Grade

Will is in sixth grade and invited to Maggie’s party. He and Maggie have been exchanging notes in class. She confessed she liked him better than two other boys. Will gets ready for the party and has high hopes for the night. He and Maggie slow dance and afterward Will gets pressure from his friends to french kiss Maggie. When I read this story out loud to my students they are anything but disengaged. This story is related in so many ways. The following writing skills could easily be taught using this mentor text:

Out of Bounds by Amanda Werner Appropriate for Grades 6-8

My husband and I lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for five years and bought season ski passes every year we were there. We spent most weekends in the Wasatch mountains skiing the greatest snow on Earth. As fantastic as this sounds, things went very wrong one day. Erik, my husband wanted to ski out of bounds. We’d done so before and nothing had gone wrong but every time we did it I struggled with a decision, follow my husband out of bounds or stick to the groomers. On this day, I chose to follow and things went seriously wrong. The following writing skills could be taught using this short story:

What’s the difference between memoir and personal narrative? Memoirs are usually centered on a time period in a person’s life, or a theme, whereas personal narratives are about one important event. The memoirs below are powerful stories about facing both small issues and huge. Your students will find connections and ideas from reading these:

Fish Cheeks   by Amy Tan Best for 8th Grade

Amy Tan is in love at the age of 14 with a boy named Robert. He doesn’t know it. To her horror, his family is invited over to dinner for Thanksgiving. Amy is mortified by her family and their traditional Chinese ways. This story is so short but is packed with wonderful writing lessons about the following topics:

• Setting Description
• Reflective Ending

The Jacket by Gary Soto Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Gary needs a new coat. He describes a super cool biker jacket to his mom and is excited by the potential this new piece of clothing could have on his identity. The next day he finds a guacamole colored, too large coat hanging from is bedpost. His mom says it’s for him. He wears the ugly thing for years and describes in sad detail the negative impact it had on his life and his eventual acceptance of the thing and his situation.

Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie Best for 8th Grade

Alexie describes his love of reading from the age of three to adulthood. He knows this love of reading saved him from the poverty and struggles of life on an Indian Reservation. But he doesn’t just want to save his own life, he wants to save others’ lives too, through books and writing.

Two Kinds by Amy Tan Best for 8th Grade

Jing-mei’s mom has big plans for her daughter. She wants her daughter to be a prodigy. But as time goes on and Jing-mei fails her mother’s expectations over and over, Jing-mei begins to resent her mother and fail on purpose. She and her mother eventually face off and Jing-mei wins. Her mother backs off, but eventually Jing-mei regrets what she did and the things she said to her mother that day.

• Transitions

I believe that most teachers neglect teaching fiction writing because it is a beast! Fiction includes many, many genres and trying to teach how to write all those genres seems daunting. It is daunting! Here’s what I suggest…let students choose the genre and teach core writing skills that apply to all of them. Those core skills might be: plot, character development, setting, tone, mood, point of view, description, dialogue, theme, figurative language, transitions, organization and the writing process.

But what about mentor texts? You can do one of two things: use short excerpts from your favorite fictional books or use short stories. Below are some of my favorite fictional short stories. I think most English teachers use these stories to teach reading analysis, but fictional writing skills can be taught with these stories too!

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Margot is from planet Earth and just moved to Venus. Most children in her class have never seen the sun, because on Venus it rains for seven years straight. On the day that the rain is finally supposed to stop the kids in Margot’s class make a horrendously cruel decision. The following fictional writing skills are very obvious in this classic sci-fi story:

Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Mrs. Jones is walking through the street at night when suddenly a young boy tries to take her purse. She is a strong women and grabs a hold of the boy and doesn’t let go. Instead she brings him to her house, feeds him and talks to him. She learns his name is Roger and soon they begin to develop an understanding. This very short story is packed with writing lessons, here are some of the more obvious ones:

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu Best for 8th Grade (has mature content)

Jack or “Kan-kan”, as his mother likes to call him, has a magical, paper lion named Laohu. Jack’s mother made it for him. She has an incredible talent for making origami creatures come to life. Jack loves all his “pets”, but when another boy comes over with his Star Wars toys, Jack realizes he is different…and even more so…his mother is different. He begins to keep his distance from his mother and wants her to be more American by learning English. Jack stops speaking Chinese with her and as time goes on he discovers the story behind his mother’s past. This story is worth a read by you and your students! Here are some writing skills you could teach using it:

• Dialogue & Inner Thinking
• Integrating Historical Time Periods & Events into Stories
• Formats/Letters as Part of Stories

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury Appropriate for Grades 6-8

George and Lydia Hadley just purchased the HappyLife Home. This house does absolutely everything you can think of for them and their two children. It even has a playroom that can turn into the African savannah for their children’s entertainment. Lack of discipline and too much reliance on technology leads to a treacherous end. There are so many awesome writing techniques used in this story:

• Ending with a Twist

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Appropriate for 8th Grade

Members of a small village gather for many events throughout the year, square dances, teen club, the Halloween fair and other civic activities. And now all the members of this small town, men, women and children gather for the annual lottery. This dark story has many writing techniques that students can emulate in their own fictional stories:

• Foreshadowing

Informative

It is fairly easy to find information mentor texts, they are all over the internet in the form of blog posts and news articles. Tween Tribune and Dogo News are my favorite free websites for informational writing mentor texts. They always have articles that interest students. Kelly Gallagher also has a comprehensive list of both information and argumentative articles all formatted to use in your classroom: Articles of the Week . Gallagher uses these articles in his high School English classes, so they are more advanced, however, access to all of these articles in one place can be super helpful for an 8th grade teacher like myself and maybe you too.

Teens and adults say they feel tethered to their phones from Tween Tribune Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Parents are depicted as a bit hypocritical in this article (students will love it). They say they want their children to use their devices less. Yet, parents seem to be on their devices just as much, if not more than their children!

• Citing Studies
• Quoting Sources

How Online Gaming Platform Roblox is Helping Teenagers Become Millionaires  from Dogo News Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Kids can become developers for games like Roblox. The company pays 30% in royalties and this has made some millionaires! Students will love reading about how to make money through what they are most passionate about…video games!

• Citing Data
• Organization

Homework and Tests Stressing You Out? Consider Moving to Sweden  from Dogo News Appropriate for Grades 6-8

A school in Sweden decided to do an experiment…no homework or tests for a whole month. If stress is reduced in these students’ lives they may never have to do homework again! Other countries are experimenting with this idea too. Students will love learning about the negative impacts of homework in this article. Here are some of the features of this article students could emulate in their own informational writing:

• Bias (this article is a bit one-sided)
• Summarizing Studies
• Embedding Video

Giant boom hopes to corral Pacific Ocean’s plastic trash from Tween Tribune Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Between Hawaii and California there floats a patch of trash twice the size of Texas! It is disgusting. Boyan Slat, a 23 year old, has taken it upon himself to find a solution. This article talks about his invention and how he is working toward a solution to this very large and concerning problem. Here are some writing skills students can glean from reading this informative article:

• Embedding Quotes from Interviews
• Providing Differing Viewpoints
• Providing Statistics
• Use of Commas to Add Detail

Literary Analysis

Ever wonder why it is so difficult to find mentor texts to teach literary essays? It’s because people don’t write literary essays in the real world! The only time this type of writing is done is in school. This worries me a bit because I believe students should be writing what people in the real world write. Then, I came across this article called, Thinking About Mentor Texts for Literary Analysis , and was convinced that yes we should definitely still teach literary essays. Not because it is what we’ve always done in English classes, our reason should be to help students develop their analysis skills so that they can think critically about world events, business, politics, books and even their own lives! The mentor texts below are about a wide range of topics but can still be used to teach literary essay writing skills.

Picture Books Tell Children the Harsh Story of Refugee Picture Books by Monica Edingar Appropriate for 8th Grade (advanced writing)

Edingar starts off arguing how important it is that we talk about the experiences of migrants and refugees, especially to our children. She then goes on to beautifully summarize and analyze six children’s books about people from places ranging from Chile to Greece to Mexico. Students could learn these writing techniques from reading all or part of this article:

• Quoting Individuals
• Summarizing

YA Thrillers to Give You Chills This Summer   by Elisabeth Egan Appropriate for 8th Grade

Three thriller YA novels are discussed in this well written article. Not only will students learn the writing techniques listed below, they’ll also learn about some high interest YA novels too.

• Comparing Literature
• Making Connections
• Narrative Hook
• Providing Details in Parentheses

10 Benefits of Reading Everyday  by Lana Winter-Hebert Appropriate for Grades 6-8

This article discusses some excellent reasons why we should be reading everyday. Many important points are brought up such as how reading helps you become a better writer and develop analytical skills! The following writing techniques could be taught using this article:

• Hooking Reader with Questions about Their Life
• Providing Photo Credit

Movie theaters fight streaming by assaulting the senses Appropriate for Grades 6-8

Movie theaters are struggling to compete with the streaming television services Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, they are adding many creative features to keep movie goers coming back.  Reclining seats, food service and even augmented reality! There are many things to learn from this article:

• Using Dashes to Add Extra Detail
• Word Choice

Argumentative

Finding age appropriate argumentative writing samples that are at the middle school level is tricky. I rely heavily on newspaper editorials. This is real life argumentative writing at its finest. However, newspapers are often written above our students’ reading levels. Because of this fact I read these articles out loud with students first read then I have them reread and annotate. It is more likely students will retain the information and the writing skills you teach when you read it out loud first. Then, on a different day during your argumentative writing unit, analyze parts of the articles pointing out skills you want to teach that day. 

Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away   by James Doubek Appropriate for Grades 7-8 (article is a bit advanced)

Doubek argues that taking notes by hand is actually better than taking notes on a laptop. When you take notes by hand you synthesize information into memorable chunks because you can’t write absolutely everything down when a teacher is lecturing. When you take notes using a laptop you tend to type word for word what you hear, skipping the important synthesis and thinking process. Not only is this an important article for students to read, you can also teach the below writing skills using the article too.

• Connecting to Audience in Hook
• Making Counterarguments
• Quoting Interviews

The Big Myth About Teenage Anxiety by Richard A. Friedman Appropriate for 8th Grade (term sex is used)

Friedman is a psychiatrist and argues that screens are not causing a rise in psychological disorders like anxiety and depression. Studies done about the impact on screens to our mental health only show correlations and not causation. He argues that anxiety and stress are a normal part of everyday life and parents need to stop assuming it is psychological trauma. This article has all sorts of argumentative writing techniques students can learn from:

• Counterarguments
• Dashes to Include More Detail

An Open Letter About Female Coaches by Pau Gasol Best for 8th Grade (some locker room talk)

Pau Gasol is an NBA basketball player who has been coached by Becky Hammon, the first and only female to ever coach in the NBA. Paul writes this letter to question societal norms and assumptions about women in positions that are dominated by men. It is an excellent read. Here are some skills you could teach using this article:

• Setting Sentences off to Emphasize

Is it Actually Smart to Sit Still? by Hannah Amell

Hannah Amell is a 15 year old New York Times Learning Network essay finalist. Find out more about the contests here: Learning Network Contests.  She wrote her editorial arguing against block schedules. She thinks schools need to start incorporating more movement in their classrooms. Here are some writing techniques she used:

• Connecting with Audience in Hook
• Incorporating Interviews
• Sentence Variety
• Ending with a Question

Thanks to TED Talks (and the transcripts that are provided right beneath them), there are tons and tons of examples of speeches available online for our students. I believe this is why so many teachers are shifting from having students give speeches to having their own TED Talks! If you do this have students watch some talks, read the transcripts and then begin planning their own. Here are my favorite TED Talks to show students:

Overcoming Obstacles  [ Transcript ] by Stephen Claunch Appropriate for All Grades

Stephen Claunch was born with many health issues. But these issues have not stopped him from reaching his goals. Stephen explains that obstacles can be overcome with hard work, not excuses. There are multiple heartwarming stories and lessons students need to learn in this talk!

• Weaving Multiple Stories Together

How to Start a Movement   [ Transcript ] by Derek Sivers Appropriate for All Grades

This humorous talk analyzes the process of creating a movement. Sivers points out that leaders are important but followers might be more important to making a movement. Here are some speech writing topics you can cover with this talk:

• Summary of Lessons to End Speech
• Using Humor
• Video Analysis in a Speech

8 Secrets to Success [ Transcript ] by Richard St. John Appropriate for Grade 8 (the words damn and assholes are used)

This super concise and funny talk gives students advice for how to be successful in life. Here are some speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

• Acronyms to Teach
• Listing as a Way to Organize a Speech
• Slideshow Graphics

How to Tie Your Shoes [ Transcript ] by Terry Moore Appropriate for All Grades

This short talk teaches us that we’ve been tying our shoes wrong! It is eye-opening in the simplest way. Here are a few speech writing techniques you can teach with this talk:

• Connecting with the Audience
• Doing a Demonstration During a Speech
• Using a Quote to End a Speech

Type your favorite mentor texts in the comments below…

Related Articles:

How I Teach Reading and Writing Workshop in 54 Minutes

10 Best YouTube Channels for Writing Teachers

11 Comments

This is soooo helpful! Thank you so much for sharing!

Thanks Lyndsey! I’m so happy that you found this article helpful! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know:)

This post is absolute gold, Amanda! Finding good mentor texts is the biggest time-suck, and this post saves sooo much time. Thank you so much for putting it together!

Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback on this article Jeanne! It means so much to me:)

Thank you! This is so helpful! I just shared this page w/teachers in a Twitter chat about mentor texts. I appreciate it! 🙂

Tara, thanks for taking the time to comment and share:) I appreciate YOU!

Thanks you so much for all of the valuable resources and information! Can you please advise/ explain how you incorporate grammar lessons? Thank you SO much!

Hi Gina, I teach grammar as needed during conferences to students who need specific instruction because of glaring mistakes they are making over and over again. I rarely teach grammar lessons to the whole class because I honestly don’t feel my students benefit from knowing grammar terms. Their writing improves the more they read and write not the more they do grammar exercises. I hope that answers your question:)

I wish there was a section with historical fiction. I find historical fiction very interesting and it’d be very helpful right now for my assignment from class.

Great idea! My favorites are Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and I could go on. Historical Fiction is probably my favorite genre to read. Writing historical fiction brings a whole other challenge! What are your favorite historical fiction books?

The Lorax is great for teaching argument.

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Tiny Memoir Contest for Students: Write a 100-Word Personal Narrative

From Oct. 4 to Nov. 1, we invite teenagers to tell a true story about a meaningful life experience in just 100 words.

By The Learning Network

Update, Jan. 17: Winners have been announced!

Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we posed to teenagers last fall with our first-ever 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest, a storytelling form popularized by Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories series .

The answer, we discovered, was a resounding yes , so we’re bringing it back for a second year.

We’re not asking you to write to a particular theme or to use a specific structure or style, but we are looking for short, powerful stories about a particular moment or event in your life. We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice, and we hope you’ll experiment with style and form to tell a tale that matters to you, in a way you enjoy telling it.

And, yes, it’s possible to do all that in only 100 words. For proof, just look at last year’s 13 winning entries . We also have a step-by-step guide full of advice that is grounded in 25 excellent 100-word mentor texts, as well as a rehearsal space , published for last year’s contest, that has over 1,000 student-written mini memoirs. Because that space was so successful, we’re keeping it open for this year’s contest. We hope students will use it to get inspiration, experiment and encourage each other.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

Resources for teachers and students, frequently asked questions, submission form.

Please read these rules carefully before submitting an entry. You can find more details in the Frequently Asked Questions section below.

Your tiny memoir should be a short, powerful, true story about a meaningful experience from your own life.

It must be 100 words or fewer, not including the title.

You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.

The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

Your piece should also be original for this contest, meaning, it should not have been published anywhere else at the time of submission, such as in a school newspaper.

Keep your audience in mind. You’re writing for a family newspaper, so, for example, no curse words, please.

Only one entry per student is allowed. And while many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.

New for 2023 : As part of your submission, you must also submit an “artist’s statement” that describes your process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. below to learn more.

All entries must be submitted by Nov. 1, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific using the submission form at the bottom of this post. Entries submitted via the comments section will not be read by our judges.

How do you write a tiny memoir? Check out these helpful resources:

The winners of our first 100-word narrative contest : Read the 13 teen-written memoirs that were selected from more than 12,000 entries.

A step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative : This guide walks you through six steps, from reading examples of tiny memoirs, to brainstorming your own meaningful life moments, to writing and editing your final piece.

Writing prompts: Our step-by-step guide has a related PDF full of prompts to help students brainstorm “meaningful moments” from their lives. If those aren’t enough, you can find many more questions to inspire you in our updated list of 525 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing .

Two “rehearsal spaces” for teenagers to experiment: Last year, we published a student forum asking, “ What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? ” In it, we lead students through a few questions, and provide a few examples, to show them how. Because that space already has over 1,000 comments, we’re keeping it open for students to use again this year. This year we’re asking “ What Small Moments From Your Life Do You Think About Often? ” and are again inviting our audience to use it as a place to brainstorm topics and try out techniques, as well as find inspiration and encouragement for their writing.

Two lesson plans inspired by Times columns that tell tiny stories: Our main inspiration for this contest is Tiny Love Stories , a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships. Here is a lesson plan that can help you teach and learn with this column. You can also find short memoirs in the Metropolitan Diary column , where readers submit tales about New York City. Here is a lesson plan and a writing prompt you can use to teach and learn with that feature.

A lesson plan on fixing wordy writing — in your personal narratives, or anywhere else.

A personal narrative writing unit : This unit includes mentor texts, writing prompts, lesson plans, videos and on-demand webinars that teach the skills essential for any kind of narrative writing. (Yes, they were developed for our original narrative contest, but the tips for making your writing shine apply to this format too.)

Our contest rubric : These are the criteria we will use to judge this contest. Keep them handy to make sure your piece meets all of the qualifications before entering.

Still have questions? Post your query in the comments or write to us at [email protected].

QUESTIONS ABOUT WRITING

What is a personal narrative?

A personal narrative is an essay about an experience from your life. It is a type of nonfiction writing, which means that whatever you choose to write about should be true. And keep in mind the “personal” in personal narrative; you should tell your own story, not someone else’s.

Personal narratives can take many different forms, but for this contest, we’re asking you to tell a story . That means you should focus on a particular moment. There should be a clear narrative arc — a beginning, a middle and an end — that is driven by a conflict of some kind, which eventually gets resolved or spurs an attempt at an ongoing life change.

Keep in mind, however, that any story from your life can work. It doesn’t have to be the most dramatic thing that has ever happened to you; it can, instead, be about baking brownies with your brother, or a conversation you had on Tuesday’s bus ride to school. What matters is that readers understand why this moment was meaningful to you and perhaps take away some greater meaning or message they can relate to.

Yes, all this can all be done even in 100 words, and our step-by-step guide , and last year’s winners , can show you how.

How can I make my 100-word narrative stand out?

While we are asking you to write your personal narrative in the form of a story, we’re not asking you to use a particular structure, style or tone. We hope this is where you’ll have fun.

We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice — with the words and phrases you use in your everyday life and your specific sense of humor and emotion. You might experiment with technique, such as dropping your reader into a scene, using details to show instead of tell, integrating dialogue purposefully, or trying out creative storytelling forms (read last year’s winning story “ Baby Tim ” to see what we mean).

And remember, with only 100 words to tell your story, every word matters. The editors of Tiny Love Stories suggest approaching your piece as you would a poem, playing with sound, punctuation, sentence length and repetition to make each syllable count.

You can find examples of all of these writing moves and more in last year’s winning essays , as well as in our step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative and our personal narrative writing unit .

I don’t know what to write about. Where should I start?

Everyone has a story to tell. Don’t believe us? Take a look at last year’s winning mini memoirs to see the range of topics — big and small, serious and lighthearted, emotional and laugh-out-loud funny — that students wrote about.

Then you might respond to some writing prompts that get you thinking about meaningful moments from your own life. Start with our student forum “ What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words? ” and this PDF of prompts taken from our step-by-step guide. For more inspiration, scroll through our list of 525 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing that includes questions about childhood memories, friendship, travel, social media, food, sports, school and more.

After you’ve responded to a few questions or categories that interest you, you might choose one that you enjoyed writing about to turn into your final memoir.

Where can I find examples of personal narratives in The Times?

The Times is full of personal narratives — on life , love , family , rites of passage , our animal friends , living with disabilities and navigating anxiety .

For examples of mini memoirs like the ones we’re asking you to write for this contest, look at Tiny Love Stories , a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships, or Metropolitan Diary , a long-running column of short reader tales from New York City.

Plus, there are the winners of our first-ever 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest and our traditional Student Personal Narrative Contest from 2021 , 2020 and 2019 .

QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING

How will my 100-word narrative be judged?

Your work will be read by New York Times journalists as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

What’s the prize?

Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to be chosen to have your work published in the print editions of The New York Times.

When will the winners be announced?

We plan to announce winners in early January 2024.

My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?

We typically receive thousands of entries for our contests, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s essay.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES

Why are you asking for an Artist’s Statement about our process this year? What will you do with it?

All of us who work on The Learning Network are former teachers. One of the many things we miss, now that we work in a newsroom rather than a classroom, is being able to see how students are reacting to our “assignments” in real time — and to offer help, or tweaks, to make those assignments better. We’re asking you to reflect on what you did and why, and what was hard or easy about it, in large part so that we can improve our contests and the curriculum we create to support them.

Another reason? We have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words what you wanted to express, and why and how you made artistic choices to do that, can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger. For our staff, they offer important context that help us understand individual students and submissions, and learn more about the conditions under which kids around the world create.

We won’t be using your statements to choose our finalists, or publishing them alongside the winning work. Instead, they will strictly be for our staff to read. If we later decide to post something about student process using these statements, we will ask for your permission before quoting you. In other words, this is fairly informal; just be yourself and be honest in telling us as much as you can about how you worked and why.

Who is eligible to participate in this contest?

This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.

My piece was published in my school newspaper. Can I submit it to this contest?

No. We ask that your 100-word narrative be original for this contest. Please don’t submit anything you have already had published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.

Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?

Leave a comment on this post or write to us at [email protected].

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST

I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?

Start with our step-by-step guide for entering this contest and take a look at last year’s winning entries .

We also have a full unit plan for personal narrative writing . It includes writing prompts, mentor texts, lesson plans and on-demand webinars that teach the narrative writing skills essential for this contest.

Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?

Students can get free access to Times pieces through The Learning Network . All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.

However, if you are interested in learning more about school subscriptions, visit this page .

This contest is closed.