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Lesson 5

We will draft the closing scenes of our narrative.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I develop my Culminating Task draft into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by using strategic organizational structures appropriate to purpose, audience, topic, and context?

  • Can I develop my Culminating Task draft into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by developing an engaging idea reflecting depth of thought with effective use of details, examples, and commentary?

  • Can I compose Culminating Tasks such as personal essays using genre characteristics and craft of informational text?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read

We will begin thinking about the closing scenes of our narrative—the story’s final events, climax, and resolution—by reviewing a text from the unit.

Either return to the text you have been using as a model for the past couple lessons, or choose another text you know you would like to emulate.

Analyze how it brings the story or ideas to a close and think about how you will bring your story to a climax and resolution in its final acts.

Activity 2: Discuss

We will discuss our ideas for the end of our story with our writing partners.

Review your story drafts and discuss ideas for developing the ending of your narrative with your writing partner, considering what you learned from your model text. Discuss what you recorded in the Resolution section of your Storyboard Planning Tool and how you might best bring the draft of your narrative to a climactic moment and then resolve the story.

Activity 3: Write

We will draft the closing scenes of our narrative.

Using your storyboard as a guide, draft the closing scenes of your story.

Resolve your story by building to a climax, then add a concluding scene that brings its meaning into focus.

  • Describe and dramatize a scene that presents both a high point of action or confluence of ideas and a turning point in the narrative.

  • Bring character and idea conflicts and interactions to a head, then suggest how they are resolved.

  • Surprise or delight your reader through unexpected events, vivid description, or new understandings.

  • Follow your climactic scene or turning point with the story’s falling action, which leads to its ending.

  • Create a dramatic final scene that presents an interesting ending to your story or that highlights its theme or meaning.

Activity 4: Write

For homework, we will complete our stories.

For homework, continue working on the closing scenes of your narrative.

As you complete your draft, review your work, considering how well you have connected the elements and scenes of your narrative. Consider the following review questions:

  1. How well have you made connections and transitions among scenes, events, and character interactions?

  2. Is the story well-paced? Is it strongly and evenly developed in all four of its storyline phases (exposition, Act 1; complication, Act 2; climax, Act 3; resolution, Act 4)?

Review and revise your draft narrative for the coherence of its plotline and character development, looking at how you have made connections and transitions among scenes, events, and character interactions.

Make sure that your story is well-paced and that it is strongly and evenly developed in all four of its phases.