Lesson Plan
Ideas and Hooks: Personal Narrative
This lesson walks students through the first few steps of crafting a personal narrative. Writers will start by going through a process to select an idea to write about, then begin to craft a hook that invites readers into their story.
Grades:
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Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify a topic for a personal narrative and experiment with different hooks for their piece.
Introduction
(5 minutes)- Ask students how they choose what to read when it’s time for a new book. Take suggestions from the class.
- If it hasn’t arisen in the discussion, tell them that oftentimes readers select books based on the story idea.
- Ask students how they find out what the story idea is for a particular book. Share responses. Make clear that ideas are on the back of the book or the inside cover. If searching online, they are in the publisher’s summary.
- Explain that story ideas should be interesting — and that as a writer, you want to select an idea that you can retell, with lots of emotion and imagery to pull the reader into the story.
- Inform students that today they will be selecting an idea for a personal narrative and crafting a hook.