Lesson 5

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “Points of Impact,” excerpt from Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier, Hampton Sides, Anchor Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2004

Optional

• • “The Birdman Drops In,” Hampton Sides, Outside, 2002

Materials

Tools

• Telling Stories: Section 4 Diagnostic Checklist

Reference Guides

• Narratives Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Telling Stories: Section 4 Lesson 5 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Telling Stories: Section 4 Diagnostic Checklist

• Telling Stories: Section 4 Lesson 5 Question Set

Activity 1: Discuss

We will think about recent events or people from the News who might be the subject for a nonfiction narrative we will write.

As a class, discuss recent events or people from the news who might be interesting to write about in a nonfiction narrative, modeled after the style of Hampton Sides or another writer.

Share what you have learned through research about interesting recent events, and include the images you have located.

For each event or person, think about what you would need to recount in the narrative: the things that happened and the people involved.

Consider how you could dramatize each event, as Sides does in "Points of Impact" or "The Birdman Drops In."

Based on the discussion, choose an event or person as the subject for a nonfiction historical narrative you will write.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will review the task and expectations for the historical narrative we will write and present in the section 4 diagnostic.

With a partner, review the Section 4 Diagnostic Checklist:

Discuss what the task seems to be expecting, then focus on each of the expectations listed in the "be sure to" statements. For each statement, consider the following questions to help you plan your narrative:

1. What do I know about the event that I will want to communicate in my story?

2. Will I organize my story in a chronological order or a nonlinear sequence as in "Points of Impact"?

3. How can I tell the story in a vivid and memorable way?

4. How can I tell the story through people’s own words?

5. What do I see as the meaning or theme of the story? How can I communicate this theme?

6. Which writer will I model my story after? What will I try to emulate?

7. How can I present my story in a dramatic way?

Share with your partner what you might write about, what you have learned so far about the event or person, and the images you have found to illustrate your story.

As a whole class, ask questions to clarify the task and its expectations.

Activity 3: Write

We will list events that we will relate and describe in a nonfiction narrative.

Use the following planning questions to help you initially think out your story or storyboard.

1. What do I know about the event that I plan to communicate in my story?

2. How might I organize my story in a chronological order or a nonlinear sequence as in "Points of Impact"? Will I develop an outline or a storyboard?

Quickly sketch out a storyline for your nonfiction narrative, based on the event or person and source article you selected. Think about what you will recount, describe, and dramatize to tell your story and how you will organize and sequence it.

Consider how you can illustrate your story or present it visually as a storyboard.

Activity 4:

We will draft our historical narratives, based on the events, people, and sources we have studied and the brainstorming we did in the previous activity.

Use the following planning questions to help you write or draw out your narrative.

1. How can I tell the story in a vivid and memorable way?

2. How can I tell the story through people’s own words?

Using the plan you sketched out in the previous activity, do a free-write in which you try to talk out the news story you have decided to dramatize—almost as if you were retelling the story to a friend. While thinking about the best sequence in which to recount your narrative, try to write freely about what happened and how you visualize the story taking place. Try to use vivid images and dialogue as you tell the story.

Finish your draft for homework.

Activity 5:

We will practice presenting our historical narratives for an audience.

For homework, practice presenting your narrative.

Find someone—a fellow student, family member, or another supporter—to whom you can retell your dramatized story from the news. Begin by reading them your source article. Then read your own draft narrative about the news story to them. Listen to how your reading or presentation sounds as you ask them to think about these questions:

1. What did you learn about this event or person? How is my dramatization different from the source news story?

2. How easy is it to follow the story I am telling? How might the narrative sequence be improved?

3. How dramatic, vivid, and interesting is the story as I have told it? How might the description or dialogue be improved?

4. What meaning do you find in my story? What theme?

Compare your audience’s responses to Question 4 to what you thought about in response to the following planning question:

5. What do I see as the meaning or theme of the story? How can I communicate this theme?

As you think about your audience’s responses, also consider the following planning question:

6. Which writer or documentarian will I model my story after? What will I try to emulate?

Reread or review a section from the writer or documentarian you are modeling your story after. Think about what you notice as key elements of that artist’s storytelling. If you have not already done so, how might you bring these elements into your own historical narrative?

Based on what you notice as you read and the reactions that you get to the review questions, redraft your dramatized news story to improve it as a historical narrative that you can present to other students and submit to your teacher for review. Consider what researched images you will use to accompany your presentation in a class gallery review.