Since STELLAR (Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading) began in our schools, pupils have been exposed to many good quality children’s books. The advantages of good literature are plentiful: enjoyment of good stories, learning about what makes for good stories and good writing, enriching vocabulary etc. However, these benefits remain a list unless teachers know how to use these books purposefully to maximise learning.
Recently, I learnt that a fellow teacher was planning to improve the teaching of narratives to her 7 year olds. I thought then of how I would do that if I were in her shoes. The result is this sample lesson plan based on Owl Babies, which is a title used in P2. This delightful story is about a trio of owlets who woke up one evening and found Mum missing. I hope this lesson plan will be useful to teachers.
The first thing about writing narratives is to help pupils understand the way narratives are structured. One useful way to do this is to deconstruct the story as a class. For Owl Babies, here is a simple story structure to use. Teachers should complete this story map together with the pupils and with close reference to the book. My book has no page numbers but I have indicated roughly what the possible pages could be. Close reference to the story helps students locate the information systematically instead of trying to retrieve the information from their memory.
Story Structure
| Characters | Sarah, Percy, Bill and Mother Owl (p.1-2) |
| Setting (place & time) | hole in a tree trunk/ one night (p.1-2) |
| Problem | The baby owls woke up and found mother was gone. (p.3-4) |
| What did the characters do? | 1. They thought about where she might have gone. (p. 5-6) 2. They came out of their house and sat on the tree and waited. (p.7-8) 3. They sat on one branch and talked and thought some more. (p.9-10) 4. They closed their eyes and wished their mother would come home (p. 11-12) |
| How the problem was solved (resolution) | Their mother came home. ( p. 13-14) |
| How they felt? What they learnt | They felt happy. ( p. 15-16) They learnt that they should trust their mother to come home. (p. 17-18) |
Deconstructing the story this way has a number of merits. First, pupils will learn what the essential elements of a good narrative are. Then they also see that details are important to a story-for instance, what the characters did after they discovered the problem. Pupils also learn that a satisfactory conclusion is necessary and that a good closure involves some element of change in the characters (the lesson learnt).
Once pupils have understood the structure of a story, it’s useful to help them jointly reconstruct the structure by writing a parallel story. A parallel story is simply one that follows closely the original story but with some changes in the details of the story. Here are some possible suggestions:
| Story titles/ Characters | Storyline |
| 1. Cat Babies | Baby kittens find their mum missing after coming back from a romp in the garden. |
| 2. Bird babies | Birdies miss their mum when they awake from their afternoon nap. |
| 3. Josie Baby | Josie baby wakes up from her afternoon nap and finds no one in her room. |
| 4. Mum is missing | A primary school pupil wakes up from her nap and finds no one at home. |
Selecting the story is important. You can choose any of the four given above but note though that the two stories about children ( 3&4) are different from stories about animals. It won’t be appropriate to begin these stories with Once as in the Owl Babies story, as this is more suitable in fables.
Choosing any of the other two plans will allow us to follow the introduction in the book closely. You need to decide what your students can do at this stage to help you make the correct decision. On the other hand, you can simply change Once to One day and the plan will still work. A plan for the cat story is also given here.
Once pupils have selected a parallel story, then brainstorm a plan. This is a crucial aspect of the writing and should not be neglected. Use the story structure to plan the story.
Here's plan A for story number 4.
| Characters | Nadera, a Primary 1 pupil, and her mum. |
| Setting | at home in an HDB flat |
| Problem | Nadera had an afternoon nap with her mum after school. When she woke up, she found her mother was gone. |
| What did Nadera do? | 1. She got up and looked around the flat, room by room. 2. She was afraid but tried to be calm. 3. She sat down and thought about where mother could be. 3. She decided to call her on the mobile phone. |
| How the problem was solved (resolution) | Her mother was next door at their neighbours helping Aunty Lucy to make nasi lemak. |
| How Nadera felt? What they learnt | Nadera was relieved. Mother apologised for scaring her. Nadera learnt to be calm even when she was afraid. |
Here's plan B for story number 1.
| Characters | Kitty and Percy, two little kittens and Cat Mother. |
| Setting | A garden shed where the cats lived |
| Problem | The kittens came back from playing in the garden and found mother was gone. (p.3-4) |
| What did the characters do? | 1. They thought about where she might have gone. 2. They got worried and scared. 3. They decided to remain in the shed and not go out to search for her. |
| How the problem was solved (resolution) | Their mother came home. ( p. 13-14) |
| How they felt? What they learnt | They felt happy. ( p. 15-16) They learnt that they should trust their mother to come home. (p. 17-18) |
Now that you have a plan, you can begin writing but well before you do that it’s helpful to direct pupils’ attention to some details in the story. A plan is good but good writing and a good story is all about the details. Each book will provide different details for you to focus on.
Look out for Part 2 of this blog where I will talk about teaching pupils to write dialogues and descriptions from Owl Babies.
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