Basic Story Writing
The Basic Story
Prewriting form should be introduced once the child can complete and use
the introductory story form. Basic Story Prewriting teaches the child to plan
and outline some of the story elements prior to actually writing it.
Explain
to the child that using the form helps him organize what he is going to write.
Tell him that we are writing down his ideas to make his story writing easier
and better--this is called prewriting. Use whatever language you think he will understand to explain to him
WHY we are doing the prewriting (it helps organize his thoughts and visually
shows him how his story is going to go). Plus it keeps him from forgetting
things he wants to write about.
The Basic Story Prewriting Form asks the
child to write the title of the story, the name of the character, the setting
of the story, and when the story takes place.
After the basic story prewriting form is filled
out, then the Basic Story Writing form can be
used to write the story. The Basic Story Writing form introduces two new
elements: 1) Integrating the prewriting elements into the story and 2) writing
an elaborative statement about each of the events.
The teacher may have to help the child write
the sequence of events. The teacher may also have to help the child come up
with elaborative statements using prompts such as “Tell me about _____”, or
“What did the ____look like?”
After the story is written, the procedure is
the same as for the introductory stories. The child should read the story to
the teacher using the writing form. The teacher asks comprehension questions
and the child orally answers them. Then the form is taken away and the child
retells the story orally and in correct sequence.