Writing with FRAMES: Personal Narrative or Memoir Writing

Teach your student-scholars the art of writing a Personal Narrative or Memoir! Although this should be the easiest of writing assignments, our students often struggle with narratives and memoirs. This FRAME will walk them through both the WHY and the WAY to successfully write a Personal Narrative or Memoir. This is the first in our top selling Writing With FRAMES line of products!

Based on the Strategic Instructional Model (SIM) FRAME routine, this organizer will walk your student scholars through the process of writing a personal narrative or memoir. Simply use a prompt of your choosing and guide your class through the writing process. Complete with sentence stems for differentiation and language support for SPED and EL students.

Thank you, Narrissa G., for the recommendation that the sentence stems be editable! They are now editable in the PowerPoint format!

Purpose: The purpose of this FRAME is to give students an outline in writing essays, particularly with persuasive essays. By incorporating sentence stems into the FRAME model, we are also providing differentiation and support to EL students, as well as our native speakers who need additional support.

This FRAME was constructed for my 7^th and 8^th grade Pre-AP, ESL, and Gen Ed students. It is based on the Strategic Instructional Method (SIM) FRAME Routine. The original use was to help guide students in writing a personal narrative on the topic of a favorite family gathering, but it has been subsequently used for a number of assignments. The FRAME is used for the first rough draft only, and students do all subsequent drafts on lined paper or using google docs. I do collect and grade the FRAME as a daily grade, with all drafts attached or referenced.

The PowerPoint version is editable in the sentence stems thanks to a request from Narrisa G., a super teacher who needed flexibility for her students. Thank you, Narrisa!

The first step in the FRAME is to have students write out the prompt you are having them write to. When you give them the prompt, have them write it both verbatim and paraphrased; this will help you recognize students who may be misunderstanding the prompt. It is also essential to have the students identify the purpose of the writing – it is to inform or to entertain. This is your FOCUS stage.

I now skip to the “M” portion of the FRAME, and “Make your readers show emotion.” This is not to start writing, but to reflect on what the writer wants the reader to feel. By having our students determine what emotions they want to elicit from the reader, it becomes easier to make word choices as they progress.

The next step is to have students introduce the fact that this is a memory, either as a personal narrative or memoir. At this point, I encourage my students to decide what memory they will be discussing. Unlike the persuasive essay lesson, when students begin writing, I have them begin with paragraph 1, completing the “R” and moving to the “A” stage.

It is now time to move into the “M” portion of the FRAME in the narrative. This should be something that the students have already been aware of.

The “E” step is used for extension, and with this FRAME it also lends itself to moving into the editing and revising, as well as rewriting, portions of the writing process. I use the A.R.M.S. and C.U.P.S. methods for revising and editing. Additionally, I always add a reflective element to my lessons, and you will find these at the end of the FRAME.

Objectives:

The student will complete a first draft of a personal narrative/memoir written to a prompt.

Teacher Prep Time: Just print and go!

Lesson Duration: One to five class periods depending on depth of writing project.

Included in This Product:

Writing FRAME for students

Teacher notes for implementation

Aligned to TEKS: 7.14, 7.18, 8.14, 8.18 (sections A and B for each)

And Adopted 2017 Standards (in effect 2019): Strand 6, 110.23 and 110.24 inclusive

Aligned to CCSS: ELA.Literacy.W.7.3; ELA.Literacy.W.7.10; ELA.Literacy.W.8.3; ELA.Literacy.W.8.10.

This lesson is appropriate for grades 7-8.

ELA in Middle School

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