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Lesson 6

Writing a First-Person Narrative – How do I combine, integrate, and unify my storyboard plan with the narrative vignettes I have previously written to retell key events of the story from my character’s point of view?

We will work to combine, integrate, and unify our storyboard plan with the narrative vignettes we wrote to draft a first-person narrative that retells the story of Animal Farm from a selected character’s point of v Working in a peer-review writing process, we will collaborate with partners to plan, draft, and review our narratives.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze the meaning of the allegory in Animal Farm and the role my character plays in it?

  • Can I analyze my character’s role in the allegory and how the character acts and develops over the course of story?

  • Can I draw on previous work from Sections 1 and 2 and the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool to plan my narratives?

  • Can I begin drafting my narratives, focusing on writing in first-person and connecting the string of vignettes and scenes I have compiled on my storyboard?

  • Can I begin drafting my narratives based on descriptive details and sentences I have developed on my storyboards and feedback from my editing partner?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Animal Farm, George Orwell, Signet Classics, 2004

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss – Write

We will review the feedback for our previous Section Diagnostic.

Reread your Section 1 Diagnostic portfolio and the teacher comments and evaluations you received. With a writing partner or your teacher, discuss how you might improve your understanding or writing.

Consider how to address the feedback you received on your narrative vignettes as you draft your first-person narrative for the Section 2 Diagnostic and Culminating Task.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will refamiliarize ourselves with the Central Question and the Culminating Task checklist. We will clarify expectations and answer questions regarding the section 2 and Culminating Task narrative.

Step 1

Individually, reread, annotate, and discuss the Central Question, thinking about how you understand Animal Farm and the role your character plays in the allegory:

How do authors develop themes and commentary through allegorical stories and characters?

In your Learning Log, write a response to this question now that you have finished reading the novel and learned about the historical and social context in which Orwell wrote it. Then, go to your Learning Log where you answered this question in Section 1.

In pairs or small groups, do the following:

  • Share the response you wrote today that answers the Central Question.

  • Discuss how your answer to this question has changed.

Step 2

Read and annotate the Section 2 Diagnostic and Culminating Task Checklists to better understand what you will be expected to do as you write your first-person narrative.

Finally, revisit your Culminating Task Progress Tracker.

Discuss with other students and your teacher what you understand the task to be. Ask questions about expectations that are not clear to you.

Step 3

You will be meeting with your writing workshop peers during this lesson as you prepare and draft your narrative for the Section Diagnostic. You will finalize and submit your narrative in Section 4 for the Culminating Task.

As a class, discuss how to establish a respectful work environment in which you feel comfortable seeking and offering feedback.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will review the thinking and writing we have done so far in creating a first-person retelling of key scenes in Animal Farm from a selected character’s point of view.

Step 1

Gather and review the work you have done so far in developing a first-person retelling of key scenes in Animal Farm from a selected character’s point of view.

This should include:

  • Your character self-introduction (from Section 1, Lesson 6)

  • Your character’s narration of a key scene from the climactic chapters of Animal Farm (from Section 1, Lesson 10)

  • Your character’s narration of a key scene involving that character (from Section 1, Lesson 11)

  • Your character’s response to a speech by one of the pigs (from Section 2, Lesson 4 homework)

  • The lead sentences you wrote in the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool (from Section 2, Lesson 5)

  • Any paragraphs you have begun to develop from your lead sentences

Step 2

Refamiliarize yourself with your analysis of your character and their role in the story.

Think about what you have come to understand about your character’s:

  • personality

  • voice

  • point of view

Review the two character “descriptions” you wrote at the top of the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool.

Reread your “Lead Sentences” in the third column of the chart and think about if or how they align with your descriptions. Note in particular the lead sentences for the key scenes from the story that you will retell from your character’s point of view.

Step 3

Consider also your expanded thinking about your character’s symbolic importance as you have learned about the historical context in which the novel was written and how it represented the Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.

Review the “Claim about Symbolic Role” you formed in Section 2, Lesson 3, and recorded at the top of your Animal Farm Storyboard Tool.

Reread your key scene “Lead Sentences” recorded in the third column of the chart and think about if or how they align with your claim about your character’s symbolic role.

Step 4

Begin to develop a unified plan for the final retelling of the story you are writing, thinking about how you will do the following:

  • Make sure your storyboard plan retells the key developments of the story from your character’s point of view

  • Use your storyboard plan as an organizer as you develop narrative paragraphs from the lead sentences and the vignettes you wrote

  • Combine and integrate the previous vignettes with the new narrative paragraphs you will write

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will begin to work with an editing partner to review our storyboard plans and draft narratives.

Step 1

As directed by your teacher, join with an editing partner who is focusing on the same character as you. You will work with this partner throughout this lesson and again as you finalize your first-person narrative in Section 4.

Access the Culminating Task description and the list of “be sure to” statements that outline the specific expectations for your final narrative. Pay attention to the first three expectations:

  • Clearly identify, introduce, and represent the personality, voice, and symbolic role of your character

  • Describe the major plot developments of the story from your character’s point of view (as identified on the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool)

  • Reflect your understanding of Orwell’s allegory and the characteristics of totalitarian societies he satirized

With your partner, review the vignettes and lead sentences you wrote.

Explain your current thinking about your character’s personality, voice, point of view, and symbolic importance, then share the draft material you have compiled.

Step 2

Provide constructive feedback to your editing partner using these review questions:

  1. How well do the current storyboard plan and vignettes meet the expectations of the task:

    1. Clearly identify, introduce, and represent the personality, voice, and symbolic role of your character

    2. Describe the major plot developments of the story from your character’s point of view (as identified on the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool)

    3. Reflect your understanding of Orwell’s allegory and the characteristics of totalitarian societies he satirized

  2. How might the various vignettes and lead sentences that have been written so far be combined and revised?

  3. What is most interesting in the current narrative vignettes and sentences? How might the writer build the story from these strengths?

  4. What is most confusing or uncertain in the current narrative vignettes and sentences? How might the writer improve these issues?

Activity 5: Write

Based on our own review of the material we have drafted so far and our editing partner’s feedback, we will continue planning and drafting a retelling of Animal Farm’s storyline from our character’s first-person point of view.

Step 1

You will be using your Animal Farm Storyboard Tool to organize your retelling of Animal Farm’s storyline from your character’s first-person point of view.

Review the chart and highlight things you might use from it, considering these questions:

  1. Which plot developments and key scenes are most central to my character?

  2. Do I want to add additional key plot developments for my character or create additional plot details that are not presented in the book?

  3. How can I use, develop, and unify the lead sentences I have written in the storyboard?

  4. How might I expand the lead sentences in the storyboard to retell that part of the story’s plot?

Step 2

Based on your review, analysis, and the notes you have added to the storyboard, finalize your plan for drafting your retelling of the story from your character’s point of view.

Activity 6: Write

We will draft or revise a sequence of paragraphs that retell key scenes in the Animal Farm storyline from our character’s first-person point of view. We will consider how to incorporate our vignettes from section 1 and 2 into our narratives.

Step 1

For homework, complete a working draft for the first-person narrative you are building from your storyboard, lead sentences, and narrative vignettes. You will submit this draft in Lesson 8 as part of your Section 2 Diagnostic portfolio.

Building from the lead sentences you wrote in the storyboard, draft a sequence of paragraphs that describe what happens in each phase of the plot that involves your character, trying to bring in and describe key details of that part of the story.

As you draft the first-person retelling of the story, use what you wrote under “Descriptions” and “Claim” at the top of your storyboard to think about your:

  • character’s personality

  • voice

  • point of view

  • symbolic importance

Step 2

Return to the character self-introduction you drafted in Lesson 6 of Section 1. Decide how and where you might use this vignette in the sequence of paragraphs you have drafted to retell the storyline.

If you want to use this vignette as an introduction to your narrative, redraft it so it reflects your current understanding of your character’s personality, voice, point of view, and symbolic importance and so it leads into the first narrative paragraph you have drafted.

If you want to integrate the self-introduction into the retelling of the storyline, decide where you can reveal key details of the character’s view of themself.

Step 3

As you get to each part of your retelling that connects to the vignettes you have previously written, decide on the following:

  • If and how you want to use them

  • How you can integrate them into the storyline

  • How you might revise them to reflect your current understanding and depiction of your character

Complete your working draft of key scenes in the Animal Farm storyline for review in the next lesson and submission in Lesson 8 for the Section 2 Diagnostic.