A brief intro to writing a personal narrative story.

2. Big Picture
• Read and appreciate personal stories and mentor
texts written by renowned writers and other
teenagers.
• Analyze content and structure of personal narrative.
• Summarize the anchors for writing a good personal
narrative story.
• Write a narrative about a past experience.

3. A true story about a meaningful moment in your life.
• self growth
• lesson learned
• reflections

5.  Do you know any differences in
table manners between Asian and
western countries?

6.  Who was your first crush?
 Would you share or even introduce your crush to your
friends/family?

7. American author of novels about Chinese
American women and the immigrant
experience.
In 1987, she took her Chinese immigrant mother
to revisit China. There Tan, for the first time,
met two of her half sisters, a journey and a
meeting that inspired part of her first novel, The
Joy Luck Club (1989; film 1993). The novel
relates the experiences of four Chinese mothers,
their Chinese American daughters, and the
struggles of the two disparate cultures and
generations to relate to each other.

8. When I found out that my parents had
invited the minister’s family over for
Christmas Eve dinner, I cried.
Why do “I” cry hearing the minister’s family is coming
for Christmas dinner?

9. Story Sequence
1. Mom prepares an extremely “fancy” Chinese meal for dinner.
2. “I” wish for a new nose and a white boyfriend for Christmas.
3. My family is enjoying the meal, licking chopsticks and dipping
in the dishes.
4. My dad offers me the fish cheeks.
5. The minister’s family is invited over for Christmas dinner.
6. My mom taught me a lesson.
7. I had a self-reflection.
chronological order

10. What was the lesson learned in this story?
How did Amy Tan feel about the dinner?
How did she show her feelings through writing?

11. prawns
cod
tofu fungus
squid

12. pulling black veins out of the
backs of fleshy prawns slimy rock cod with bulging eyes
that pleaded...
stacked wedges of
rubbery white sponges dried fungus
crisscrossed with knife
markings so they resembled
bicycle tires

13. On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself
in creating a ______________ menu. She was... . The
kitchen was ___________ with ___________ of food:...

14. My family
The minister’s
family
 licked the ends of...
 reached across the table
 dip into the dozen or so plates
of food
 murmured with pleasure
 poked his chopsticks... and
plucked out...
 leaned back and belched loudly
 waited patiently for platters to be
passed to them
 grimaced
 look down at his plate with a
reddened face
 managed to muster up a quiet burp

15. Have you experienced any embarrassing moment
during your teenage years?
Have your parents “unconsciously” embarrassed
you in front of your friends or even your crush?

16. What makes you who you are?
Is it possible to change your identity?
Should you try? Why/why not?

17. “They had a clear narrative arc with a conflict and a main character
who changed in some way. They artfully balanced the action of the
story with reflection on what it meant to the writer. They took risks,
like including dialogue or playing with punctuation, sentence
structure and word choice to develop a strong voice. And, perhaps
most important, they focused on a specific moment or theme — a
conversation, a trip to the mall, a speech tournament, a hospital
visit — instead of trying to sum up the writer’s life in 600 words.”
-- -- New York Times’s comments on winning stories

18. Anchors for Narrative Writing
A clear story arc (a beginning, middle and ending)
Smooth transition between each part
A lesson learned or a meaningful conclusion
Use dialogues
Focus on one simple moment
“Show, not tell”(descriptive details)
A catchy hook to drop the readers into the scene
A consistent 1st person point of view

19. Which Following Scenes can Be Small but
Memorable, And Worth Writing?
• First time failed a promise
• A first-class flight trip
• When a family member
passed away
• A fancy dinner at a luxury
hotel
• Feeding street cats
• First camping experience
> Biggest argument with
family/friends
> First public speech
> Running into a celebrity
> Attending your cousin’s
wedding
> Graduating from middle school

20. Let’s start with some prompts!
-A time when I felt rejected
-Something I am really proud of
-Something that changed the way
I think or look at the world
-How I am different from most
people I know
-Some of my fears
-A time I failed at something
-An object I own that tells a lot
about me
-A time I took a risk:
-A time I learned something
about myself:
-A memory from childhood I
think about often:
-Something that happened to
me that still makes me laugh:
-Something very few people
know about me:

21. Drafting and Editing

22. Task in today’s session:
Step 1. 10min self revise:
Use the anchor checklist to review your own writing. Make changes on the
first draft.
Step 2. 25min peer review and editing:
Show your work to your partner.
• 1st ---- grade each other’s work using the marking criteria.
• 2nd ---- give advice on parts that need to be elaborated with more descriptive
details.
• Check for and correct any grammar mistakes while you are at it.
Step 3. 5min class sharing and feedback

23. •What is the one small moment your partner
focuses on?
•What is the lesson learned/reflection of this
story/experience?
•What do you think of the language used in overall?
•Which part is elaborated with more descriptive
details? Why?
Class share and feedback

24. Drop the Reader Into a Scene
Opening Part

25. Ten minutes after meeting my future
mother-in-law, I was wearing only
underwear and socks.
“__________[Amount of time] after meeting
__________[person], I/we ___________ [was/were doing sth
memorable or surprising].”
• An hour after I met my uncle for the first time, I made plans to
move in with him.
• Five minutes after meeting my girlfriend, I accidentally insulted
her entire family.

26. Ten minutes after meeting my future mother-in-law, I was
wearing only underwear and socks. Acres of magenta chiffon
and piles of gold sequins and faux-emerald jewelry — the
regalia for my engagement ceremony — lay on the bed. I sucked
in my stomach as she deftly wrapped the fabric around my waist.
But in the Kolkata humidity, the sari clung to my skin like Saran
Wrap. My consternation must have been apparent, because she
rushed to reassure me. “Don’t worry!” she said warmly. “You
will look sundor!” That means beautiful in Bengali.

27. Read Para 2-3
1. Is your prediction correct?
Are your questions answered?
2. What did the author write about in these 2 paragraphs?
3. What different effect would it have if the author had
started with these 2 paragraphs?

28. Write about a memorable moments from the summers of your
childhood
We were up to our necks in the gurgling swamp.
The counselor in charge of Nature Walk, Tom, had taken us to
this pungent fen, filled with snapping turtles and croaking
frogs. “Can we go in?” asked one of the campers. Counselor
Tom didn’t see why not.
----What I Learned from Summer Camp
start right at a dramatic moment

29. Write about a moment in your life when you just “knew there
would be trouble”
When my mother pulled up in front of our house in a flatbed
truck, my stomach dropped. It was summer, and she’d been
away for two weeks. Her boyfriend was carrying a large plastic
container. I knew there would be trouble. My younger brother,
Dan, who was not quite a teenager yet and used a wheelchair to
get around, rushed to the front door to lock it.
---- My Mother’s Water Cure
sets a scene while also briefly introduces the characters

30. • Using Time Gap
 __________[Amount of time] after meeting __________[person],
I/we ___________ [was/were doing something memorable or
surprising].
 When _______ [someone] __________[an action], my stomach
dropped/ my eyes sweltered/ my jaw dropped.
 I was _________[age] when my _________[relative/friend]
___________ [did or said something I’ll never forget.]
• Using rhythm and repetition
I never had summer – I had summer school. First grade, summer
school. Second grade, summer school. Third grade, summer
school. Fourth grade, summer school.

31. Marie walked into the room. She looked at the
blue walls and the torn curtains at the window.
She was afraid. In the sink were plates with
rotten food and two dirty glasses. The room
made her feel both disgusted and nostalgic.
Adding Descriptive Details

32. Marie walked into the room. She looked at the blue walls and the
torn curtains at the window. She was afraid. In the sink were plates
with rotten food and two dirty glasses. The room made her feel
both disgusted and nostalgic.
Marie stepped into the kitchen, faltering at the deep blue murals on
the walls and ceiling. She shivered. The dark color absorbed the
morning sunshine that filtered through frayed curtains.
Drawn to the odor of sweetness and decay rising from the sink, she
stepped close. She ran a finger over the porcelain. Still smooth after
all these years. Smooth and still ice cold.
WEAK VERBS, BASIC SENSORY WORDS and
EMOTION EXPLAINING WORDS

33.  Self revise:
Use the anchor checklist to review your own writing.
Try rewriting your openning line/part with help of the sample
patterns.
 Peer review and editing:
Show your work to your partner.
• Grade each other’s work using the marking criteria.
• Give advice on parts that need to be elaborated with more
descriptive details (show, not tell), edit on the first draft.