Writing with FRAMEs The Elementary Edition: Personal Narrative or Memoir

Writing with FRAMEs The Elementary Edition: The Personal Narrative or Memoir

Purpose: The purpose of this FRAME is to give students an outline in writing personal narratives of memoirs. By providing sentence stems with 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 granddaughter but is based on the FRAME provided to my 7^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 but 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.  You will find that page 5 is blank lined paper – this is intentional! Print as many copies of this page as your scholars need!

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 – to tell a story or memory of something that they did or witnessed. This is how you focus the students’ writing.

After completing an introductory paragraph, students assemble the body of the narrative by Actively placing their reader at the scene in the “A” section of the FRAME.

In this FRAME, I refer to the “M” as “Make your readers show emotion!” This is where we want the student to elicit specific feelings from the reader. Have the students decide what they want the reader to feel, then play with word choices to draw out those emotions.

As with my other FRAMEs, the “E” is an extension and reflection. Reflecting on WHY they have written is an important aspect of learning how to write, and it is important at all grade levels.

Yes, Suzanne and I realize that the “expected” work product from a 2^nd grade (or 4^th!) student is generally expected to be minimal; however, who wants to be minimal?

On a separate note, we would greatly value your feedback! Please let me know how this (and other products you may have gotten from me) worked for you and your scholars/students! Is there any way you feel it could be improved? Email me at elainmiddleschool@gmail.com, or through the feedback!

Sincerely,

Matthew

ELA in Middle School

Please Note that on this cover, ELA in Middle School uses a frame from Charlotte’s Clips and a school boy from Melonheadz!