Narrative: It’s a STORY!
In the last few weeks, we’ve been learning and reviewing what the elements of a narrative. Here are some of the things we’ve been working on.
Narrative
A narrative is a story, and every story has some basic components or elements. You might be wondering what an element or a component is, so here are the definitions:
element: a part or aspect of something abstract, especially one that is essential or characteristic
component: a part or element of a larger whole, especially a part of a machine or vehicle: stereo components.
These are the basic elements of a narrative:
- characters
- plot
- setting
- point of view
- conflict
- and theme
This week in 7th and 8th grade we watched two videos explaining two of the elements of narrative: ‘characters’ and ‘point of view’. You also received handouts (notes) on the various types of characters, different types of conflict, and the 5 points of view.
In the coming weeks, we will also be reviewing plot, theme, and setting. Here are the videos we will be watching:
Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video for ‘theme,’ but here’s the link.
As we learn about the various elements in a narrative, we can think about how they work together to create a meaningful text. Think about what types of characters you are encountering in your independent reading. Think about why the author may have chosen a particular point of view to tell his/her story (narrative). Think about the theme, the setting, and the various conflicts in your novel.
Use the following to help deepen your understanding of narrative texts in general as well as the novel that YOU are reading for independent reading at home and at school.
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- the information we’ve learned from our class discussions about the short stories we’ve read (Seventh Grade by Gary Soto, Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes – 7th grade; The Fan Club by Rona Maynard – 8th grade)
- the information you’ve learned from these videos and our handouts
[embeddoc url=”https://rdeighton.edublogs.org/files/2017/10/Characterization-1ucs59c-1ody6vh.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ][embeddoc url=”https://rdeighton.edublogs.org/files/2017/10/Point-of-View-definitions-28efg7v-18mud94.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
- the questions and prompts given in the Reading Response Journal Guide you all have stapled into your Reading Notebooks [embeddoc url=”https://rdeighton.edublogs.org/files/2017/10/Reading-Response-Journals-1eufw2v-26pq1f1.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
- Response Journal Rubric [embeddoc url=”https://rdeighton.edublogs.org/files/2017/10/Reading-Response-Journal-Rubric-2eejacg-1jckfo2.docx” download=”all” viewer=”microsoft” ]
Sometime in the next week, we’ll do another Reading Response Journal entry, so use all of these resources to help you think of what you might want to say about your novel.
Happy reading! And don’t forget that a NARRATIVE is just a STORY!