Middle School Language Arts, Middle School Writing

How to Teach Personal Narrative Writing in Middle School

Linda Asaro
September 10, 2022

Personal narratives. By far, they are my favorite writing piece to teach my middle schoolers. Why? It is about them. It’s more free-form. And it can be very, very powerful. But if you have ever taught writing to middle schoolers, you know it can be tough. Very tough. Sure, a few students will take to writing like a fish takes to water and sail through the unit effortlessly. But what about the rest? How do you do this when you have kids who think they hate writing and find it laborious? Read here for tips on teaching personal narrative writing in your middle school language arts class.

Blog post on personal narrative writing in middle school — Read here for tips to make your lessons and students’ writing seamless.

Why is Personal Narrative Writing so Powerful in Middle School?

Personal Narratives in middle school are incredibly powerful. One reason lies in the fact that it is more “free form”, meaning there are no strict rules on how many paragraphs, they are not tasked with creating a thesis, etc. This hands the power of the writing over to the students. Once they see how they can create on their own, they are likely to feel very accomplished in a short period of time.

More importantly, the personal narrative in middle school is a way for students to tell their stories. When you begin the unit, it is likely that many students will think that they don’t have anything interesting to write about themselves. Through the process, though, they will absolutely find that there is so much power in the small moments, and that valuable lessons and insights were gained from their experiences. When students complete this piece, they will not only feel proud of their writing but will see the value in the events of their lives.

Why You Should Start Your Year with Personal Narrative Writing

For me, beginning the year with personal narrative writing in middle school makes so much sense. First of all, all students have experience with stories. Whether they are avid readers, TV watchers, or moviegoers, students inherently understand the concept of storytelling. Secondly, as stated above, the personal narrative is not like essay writing. There is no real “format” or specifications, and this makes it a lot more freeing.

Lastly, and to me most importantly, personal narrative writing is a way to really get to know your students on a deep and meaningful level. You will have students telling you about the moment they won an award, or the moment their grandparent died, or the moment that they first saw their baby brother. A window into their experiences, feelings, and emotions will be accessed.

How to Teach Personal Narrative Writing – Conferencing: A Way to Connect

Conferencing and connecting with them will be not only about their writing but about their worlds. You will find yourself sharing stories about your own life, and your students will see you as a fellow human being, not just as their teacher. These conversations set the tone for the entire year. No “icebreaker” activity can come close or compare to what you will glean from this unit.

Helping Students Gather Important Moments in Their Lives

I absolutely love the “gather and collect” portion of the writing process when it comes to personal narrative writing. Kids can compile so many ideas, try them out via rough drafts, and then finally select one to bring to “publication”. There are so many ways to gather ideas. Here are a few that I have found to work well:

People and Small Moments: Students create a list of people in their lives. Then, they match them up with a moment. The moment should be “small”. Example: Grandmother: the time that we baked cookies together
Places: Students create a list of important places. Again, they match the place up with a small moment. Example: My grandmother’s house: the time that we stayed up late watching a movie together
Firsts and Lasts: Students create lists of “firsts” and “lasts”. Again, it’s the “small moments” that matter. Examples: The first time I saw my brother, the first day of middle school; the last time I hung out with my friend before she moved, the last time I played hockey before I decided to quit

How to Teach Personal Narrative Writing: Composing a Series of Rough Drafts

As you go through some of the gathering ideas, kids should pick their best to try drafting several before moving on to choose one to bring to publication. For example, during a workshop period, we will complete a brainstorming activity on people and small moments (as explained above). Kids will choose their favorite to try. I will ask them to write a draft on their favorite.

For 6th graders, I don’t like to tell them how much to write, but I do say that if they don’t write about a page to a page and a half, they are not doing their idea justice. I emphasize that this is not a final piece and will not be graded as a final piece. Encourage kids to write quickly without worrying about mechanics too much. Just get the idea down. Typically, I will have kids do 3-4 drafts (one from each category of the “gathering” portion of the workshop) before selecting one to go to “publication”.

A FREE Resource: Personal Narrative Writing Video Lesson

I have a free video lesson on personal narrative writing. It takes students step-by-step through the rough draft process. There are companion guided notes with the lesson presentation on TPT, but you don’t need them to do this successfully. Be sure to check it out!

free teacher resource: video lesson on teaching personal narrative writing (rough draft) — Be sure to check out this free, step by step instructional video!

Tips for Reluctant Writers

I can practically hear your concerns right now: “But what about the students who can’t think of an idea?” “What about the students who have a hard time getting their ideas on paper?”. Believe me, I’ve been there. There are no magic solutions, and remember, this is a process.

Ideas:

Conferencing: You really can’t have a successful writer’s workshop without conferencing. There are all sorts of ways to do this. I have seen people with clipboards, sets of skills, having small groups, having a special table where you conference…that is totally up to you. For me, I keep it simple. I mean, really simple. I roam around the room with my stool (or sit on the floor if they are on the carpet/bean bags), and ask them to tell me one specific thing about their writing. For example, if we are learning about theme that day, I’ll ask them a possible theme. Then we discuss and try to get to the bottom of it if they are struggling.
Ask Simple Questions: Simple questions like “How’s it going?” or “What can I help you with today?” open the door. When kids can’t get started, I might just ask, “Who is the person in the world that you love (or dislike) the most? Tell me one thing you did with this person to make you feel this way.” That usually gets the conversation going for sure.
Ask Kids “What Happened?”: I tell kids that a narrative can be told like a juicy piece of gossip that you are telling your friends in the lunch room. So I simply ask, “What happened?” and as they are talking, I tell them to write exactly that.
Talk to Text: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with allowing kids to use a “talk to text” feature on their device. Many kids find this much less intimidating than actually typing.

Fine-Tuning Personal Narrative Writing

Once students have several drafts to choose from, it is time to bring one to publication. It is up to you to decide what your focus will be for the narrative. This is done through your mini-lessons. For example, I always include dialogue and internal monologue as a lesson, and then kids do some brainstorming and then incorporate it into their narratives. Other ideas to focus on for this unit: theme, symbolism, improving vocabulary to get their ideas across precisely, and following a plot line.

I have a free literary terms and plot structure mini-lesson available if you are interested.

free literary terms and plot structure lesson for middle school — This is a paid product, but is free to my subscribers.

We all know that when kids finish a draft, they just want to be DONE. And I get that. However, it’s up to us to provide time and strategies for kids to improve their writing. Using centers to help refine writing is extremely beneficial. Check out my narrative writing centers on my TPT store for some great ideas:

narrative writing centers for middle school

Keeping Ideas Visible for Students

It is very useful to have some sort of anchor chart or bulletin board that is related to your current writing unit. Post the main ideas here so that kids can easily refer to them. It is also useful to have a writer’s notebook to keep notes. For example, when teaching about dialogue, it is helpful to post something that clearly shows how to punctuate it properly.

I have a personal narrative bulletin board available on TPT. I know it will be very helpful.

teaching personal narratives bulletin board for middle school — Anchor chart bulletin boards are not only for show…they are instructional and interactive.

Ways to Share and Publish Personal Narrative Writing

Sharing personal narrative writing is one of my favorite events of the year. Since it is their first “publication”, I do a little celebration. Not everyone likes to have (or is allowed to have snacks) in their room, but it is something that I find creates a special, celebratory environment. I set kids up in small groups and have them share with their small group. They then have a comment sheet to fill out (with specific guidelines) to share any compliments for their classmates (like “I love the symbolism of the swing in your narrative.”)

Another idea is to create a class book. It can be a physical book or a digital book that you post on your Google classroom. The assignment can be to assign each student to read 4-5 narratives and make comments on them (like the example above).

Another idea is for kids to share only what their theme was and share it with the class.

One final idea that comes to mind is having kids in partnerships and having their partner become the illustrator for each other’s narratives. I did this once and the kids loved it!

How NOT to Teach Personal Narrative Writing: Do NOT Do This

I personally would NOT have kids read their narratives to the entire class. First of all, it’s intimidating. Second of all, it gets boring listening to that many. I also do not like to display them on a bulletin board. Some kids have written very personal stories. I would, however, pick the best sentence from each and post it on a bulletin board entitled “Stunning Sentences” or something to that effect.

Note: If a student writes about a very personal and sensitive experience, they should not be forced to share. You can either let them sit this one out or read one of their other, less personal drafts.

The Bottom Line on How to Teach Personal Narrative Writing

Personal narratives writing is a window into not only student’s writing abilities but their personal lives as well. When done correctly they are incredibly valuable. Creating your unit ahead of time will help you feel more relaxed and ready to conference.

To make your life easier, I have a complete personal narrative unit available. Check it out!