Engaging Introduction and Narrative Essay Lesson

Every year, we have students write an essay or introduction paragraph about themselves. This year, I made it more formal and planned out a lesson surrounding how to write a narrative in an interesting and sophisticated manner. I hope it goes over as well as I think it will in my head :)

Engaging Introduction and Narrative Essay

First, I will talk about different ways to begin a narrative piece. We give them these handouts all the time, and all the time, they neglect to use them. So I added the next page which has examples from different texts of engaging hooks. 

For each excerpt, students must determine which hook strategy was being used. 

Then, I give them expectations for their introduction essay. This is a pull-out Special Education English I class, so I want them to write at least four well-written paragraphs. The information is from their head, and I have included lots of prompting questions to guide them, so I am hoping this will not be too overwhelming. 

I have highlighted questions that I want them to answer. They obviously do not have to answer all the questions. They are just to get them thinking because many students will bore me with details that are not particularly applicable, interesting, or relatable. Definitely remind students NOT to simply answer questions in order. They should read the questions, get a feel for what types of information I am looking to learn about them, and then write comprehensively.

Students are to hand write this first assignment because the computer lab is always overrun the first couple weeks of school. It seems silly, but that indentation is key for me to drill into their heads as freshmen, so my sophomore coworkers will be spared the disorganization. Thus, I do waste the paper and ink to print this out for this assignment. 

I plan on giving students a participation grade for completing the strategies and warm-up activity. The essay will be graded using the TN state narrative writing rubric. For the most part though, I will be looking at their hooks, basic organization, and thoughtfulness since it is their first long writing assignment, and they are just adjusting to my expectations.