Jackpot!!!!!

At school we are knee deep in personal narratives. Admittedly, this is not my most favorite genre to teach, even though each day this month I've been writing on here a personal narrative for you.  A little backstory about my not.so.loving. relationship with personal narratives.

Four years ago when I was a novice writing teacher we jumped into personal narratives first.  Most of our kiddos cried and we unable to produce a story that was remotely close to a personal narrative.  In my second year, we were at it one more time.  The result was better, but just not what I expected or wanted.  We decided to skip it in my third year because that's what you do when something is hard, right?  Abandon it.  (Don't judge me.)  

After every year is over, we mull over how each of our units went, if we liked when things were taught, etc.  Guess what..... this year personal narratives are back and better than ever!  We moved when we taught them... super helpful!  I also just used the three Knuffle Bunny books as our mentor text, added a few amazing mini lessons about details, hooks, closure, dialogue, etc.

The fruits of my labor have been paying off.  This little firstie had a super boring lead.  In our conference we talked about taking a risk and trying to start her piece with a different type of hook such as:  dialogue, time, sound, or weather.  This is what she came up with!

JACKPOT!!!!  I'm so proud of her for taking a risk as a writer.  I just want to say, "My job here is done." and drop the mic. :) hahaha  Here's to taking more risks and most likely keeping personal narratives in our curriculum for next year! haha  :)

From my Brown eyes to yours.....