Class Date

Approx. Time
Goals

Standards

Class 9
60 minutes
Students will be more comfortable with narrative writing.
Students will be more comfortable using select narrative writing literary
terms and techniques.
Students will have a greater appreciation for the prose style narrative of Out
of the Dust.
Standard: 3. Writing and Composition.
ii. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and
reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. (CCSS: W.8.3b)
v. Establish and maintain a controlling idea appropriate to audience and
purpose
vi. Integrate the use of organizing techniques that break up sequential
presentation of chronology in a story (use of foreshadowing; starting in the
middle of the action, then filling in background information using
flashbacks)
vii. Write using poetic techniques (alliteration, onomatopoeia); figurative
language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole); and graphic
elements (capital letters, line length, word position) for intended effect

Anticipatory Set Open the discussion by asking students what the like and dont about the
story presentation of Out of the Dust. Write on the board likes and
dislikes. I would suggest that you remind students that this book has over
200 pages, but they are already almost halfway done on the 5th day of
reading it. Turn this conversation into a talk about poetry. Have them discuss
what they like and dislike about poetry. You will want to hit the following on
Out of the Dust
-Readability
-Short length
-Story is powerful
-Characters are well developed
-Literary elements.
This discussion should really get them thinking, so it is important that
you really engage them to think about their answers. Do not be afraid to
pause for thinking.
(10 minutes)
At this point, have students draw a picture that represents the
tone/spirit/attitudes/characters of Out of the Dust on a piece of scrap paper.
Ask them to clearly indicate what their drawing is about at the top of their
paper. It is important that you also do this.
(3 minutes)
Now, ask students to write 5 words (encourage vocabulary words)
underneath the picture that describes it. You do the same for yours.

Once you have chosen your five words, try turning the words into short
lines. Try this. Then, have students Making sentences in between each line
that connects them as a story. Try this.
These will make a short poem about your picture.
(5 minutes)
You should now share both your picture and poem to the class. Ask for
student volunteers to then read their creations. offer praises of their
attempts.
(4 minutes)
It is now important to have the discussion that writing poetry can be that
easy. Writing narrative poetry incorporates literary terms, characters, and
plot devices to make something happen. Then explain to your students that
this activity is designed to have them push themselves with their narrative
prose writing abilities.
(3 minutes)
Teaching/
Presentation:

At this time, instruct students to get their online journals out. They will be
completing the activity on their online journals. You should then hand out
the narrative writing handout to students
As a class, read over the instructions for the worksheet. Explain to students
that although they have the worksheet in front of them, they should be
completing the task in the journals. This means that they answer all of the
questions in the journal.
As a class go over what figurative language is, what dialogue is, what
characterization is, and what syntax means.
(4 minutes)

Teaching
Strategy:
Guided

Allow students to work.

If they appear to be getting off task, remind them that they only have x
amount of time left. Or if you are noticing plenty of the same mistakes, go
over any clarifications that students might benefit from (i.e. restate what a
simile is, or what dialogue does within a story).
(25 minutes)

Closure

Materials

As a closure, have students come back together as a class. Next to where you
created the like and dislike chart on the board, write the phrases
What Im good at about narrative prose writing, What I still need practice in
to develop my narrative prose writing, what I like about narrative prose
writing, what I dislike.
Have students come to the board together and write under at least 2 columns.
As a class, read these. Making notes where you might improve your
instruction.
Tell your students that they are developing their skills quite nicely and they
will be experience narrative prose writers before they know it.
(6 minutes)
Online journal, internet access, handouts provided, writing utensils,
smartboard.

Name: _________________________________ Date: ________________________________

1. In order to better understand characterization, dialogue, figurative language (simile,
metaphor), and syntax (vital skills to master in narrative prose writing) we must practice
using and identifying them.
2. Complete a TPCASTT (title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude, shift, title (again), and
theme) for the poem, My City. If you need a refresher on this method of poetry analysis
please visit the link below. Identify all of the following elements if applicable:
Characterization:
Dialogue:
Figurative language:
Syntax:
Once you identify these, please offer how their implementation added to the development of
the story/benefitted the poem.
My City
When I come down to sleep death's endless night,
The threshold of the unknown dark to cross,
What to me then will be the keenest loss,
When this bright world blurs on my fading sight?
Will it be that no more I shall see the trees
Or smell the flowers or hear the singing birds
Or watch the flashing streams or patient herds?
No, I am sure it will be none of these.
But, ah! Manhattan's sights and sounds, her smells,
Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes
From being of her a part, her subtle spells,

Her shining towers, her avenues, her slums-O God! the stark, unutterable pity,
To be dead, and never again behold my city!
~ James Weldon Johnson (1923)
3. What is the overall tone (A of TPCASTT) of the speaker? (Use your Tone handout to
help you choose a precise descriptor.) Support your claim with cited evidence from the
poem.
4. Annotate song lyrics for tone: New York, New York ~ Frank Sinatra, New York ~
Alicia Keys and Empire State of Mind by Jay Z. (featuring Alicia Keys).
Identify all of the following elements if applicable:
Characterization:
Dialogue:
Figurative language:
Syntax:
Once you identify these, please offer how their implementation added to the development of
the story/benefitted the poem.
New York, New York" -Frank Sinatra
Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York
I want to wake up, in a city that never sleeps
And find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap
These little town blues, are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New YorkNew York
New York...New York
I want to wake up, in a city that never sleeps
And find I'm A number one, top of the list
King of the hill, A number one....
These little town blues, are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere

It's up to you, New YorkNew YorkNew York!!!
1. For this next poem:
Identify all of the following elements if applicable:
Characterization:
Dialogue:
Figurative language:
Syntax:
Once you identify these, please offer how their implementation added to the development of
the story/benefitted the poem.
2. Using this as your model, try to write your own narrative poem. Remember to try and
have it follow a plot development, but if everything doesnt fit, thats ok.
Remember to include
Characterization
Dialogue
Figurative language
Syntax
"IS anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence chomped the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor.
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Walter De La Mare