Feb 21, 20215 min read

Growing a Narrative

When engaging in narrative writing there are TONS of components that students need to be aware of. According to Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6, “Beginnings and endings are important parts of story writing and are tied together with threads woven throughout the middle in the same way that introductions of informational pieces are tied to their conclusions. Before students can begin to work on the beginnings and endings of their pieces, they must have internalized the scaffold of narratives-the typical format of beginning, middles, and the end” (Cappelli & Dorfman, 112). For beginning writers, they have not built enough stamina to write books that tell a story in their eyes, like chapter books. Through the use of picture books as mentor texts, we can show students that they can convey a capturing story with little pages.

Drawn Together, written by Minh Lê and illustrated by Dan Santat, tells a beautiful story of a young boy and his grandfather building a connection through their love of drawing. The book depicts the boy and his grandfather experiencing a language barrier and not knowing how to communicate with one another. Until, the boy takes out his drawing pad, which sparks excitement in his grandfather. Together they spend all day drawing together and finding a way to connect through a shared passion. This is a wonderful mentor text to share with students who are beginning to learn about narrative writing. This book has only a few sentences and is able to create a story with a clear beginning, middle and end that is engaging to the reader. Drawn Together uses elements that are seen in graphic novels, mangas, and comics at the beginning of the story.

To guide a mini-lesson with your students to help build on their knowledge of forming dialogue and overall story, select the beginning few pages of the story that are wordless. Then, work together to create dialogue and context to the pictures. Discuss what is happening in each frame, how the characters are feeling, the differences in the characters, etc. The author is using the illustrations solely to convey details in the beginning of the story. By focusing on the pages that are wordless, the students can better visualize what is happening in the story while they are coming up with their own text to add to the pages. I also think this is a great tool for students to use when they are looking back on their own narrative writing. When looking back, students can see details they may have missed when writing or even notice something they can take out because it is not relevant to the overall message of the story.

In an interview with the author, that is linked under Additional Resources below, Lê discusses how Drawn Together is inspired by his relationships with his grandparents, particularly his paternal grandfather. He states how they loved each other very much, but could never communicate fully due to his grandfather speaking mainly Vietnamese and Lê spoke mainly English. In that way, their relationship was defined by what they could not communicate to one another. This book was a tribute to the love that existed between the two of them, even if it existed in a world beyond words. This small blurb about why Lê wrote Drawn Together brought me to tears. How relationships can be so impactful even if there is not a lot of communication. There is still that understanding and deep love for one another.

During the same interview, they asked the illustrator, Dan Santat, about why he dedicated this to his grandmother. He states how he had a similar experience with his grandmother when she moved to live with him and his family for a year. Santat states that he can not speak any Thai, which is what his grandmother spoke. He could understand about 75% of it, but when it came to speaking it, he was at a loss of words. He relates to the boy and grandfather in Drawn Together because they communicated through art and he and his grandmother communicated through food.

I Talk Like a River, written by Jordan Scott and illustrated by Sydney Smith, follows a young boy who learns to find his voice, even though he stutters. After a rough day at school, the boy’s father comes to pick him up and take him to the river to look at nature. His dad notices how upset his son is over not being able to talk like everyone else in his school. His dad points to the river and tells his son that he talks like a river” “bubbling, churning, whirling, and crashing.” But that is not all a river is. The river is calm after the rapids, smooth and glistening. The boy reflects on what his father is saying to him and is excited to share where his favorite place is because it is the river and he talks like a river.

Jordan Scott used I Talk Like a River as a way to reflect on a piece of his life that shaped the way he viewed his stutter. Jordan states, “But at the river, I learned to think differently about fluency. The river has a mouth, a confluence, a flow. The river is a natural and patient form, forever making its way toward something greater than itself. Yet as the river moves, it stutters, and I do too.” Jordan’s dad was able to connect Jordan’s stuttering to the outside world and nature. This allowed Jordan to be able to talk about something that used to feel scary and gave him a voice.

The illustrator, Sydney Smith, used his beautiful watercolors, inks, and gouache, to capture the nature surrounding the boy and his father. You could also feel the emotions coming from the illustrations by the selection of colors Smith chose.

Check out this educator’s guide for using I Talk Like a River to have engaging classroom discussions!

My Narrative Work

I worked on editing my narrative story and focused on crafting a lead sentence. The lead sentence is what hooks the reader and can decide whether or not they want to keep reading. I went to a new piece of paper and wrote my first sentence at the top. Then, I selected a part I wanted to edit and more detail to. I wrote two sentences that were me trying out different ways I could rephrase my original sentence, then I crafted what I wanted to say. I have to say, I really like how it turned out! I added this to my narrative writing and I think it helped me jump right into my story. I feel that before, my narrative piece took a second to get to the main point. But after crafting my new sentence the reader will be instantly hooked with the use of imagery and personification I used.