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reading
Access free download for 20 ways to develop a story
may 4, 2023
Beyond telling students to “add more details” to a narrative, teach them 20 different ways to develop their narratives.
Reveal examples
As you teach each strategy, reveal short excerpts or passages from picture books to show students the detail in action. Just telling them to use prepositional phrases, onomatopoeia words, comparisons, or number details isn’t enough. Students may need to see several examples of these elements in context to better understand how they can utilize them in their own writing. Students always need to see the strategy before they can successfully implement it.
While introducing one strategy at a time, consider building a wall chart for these 20 ways to add details. This would provide a constant resource and reference within the classroom environment for the next couple of months.
Student application
Give kids ample opportunity to play with these details by returning to previous writings. If students can’t insert a prepositional phrase as an afterthought, they can’t do it as an initial thought. If they can’t develop an idea using sensory details and comparisons as an afterthought, they won’t be able to do it off the cuff in a new first draft.
Gradually encourage students to apply these different development strategies in new first drafts. Remind them to add specifics and examples to ideas in order to produce long, well-developed writing.
[writing]
Overcome “listy” writing with idea development
[writing]
Develop paragraphs—one sentence at a time
[writing]
Love having all of these in one spot!
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