Historical Narrative: Learning Targets
In a historical narrative, you tell about a historical event, blending facts with imagined characters and situations. When you write a historical narrative, you combine fiction with nonfiction. Like
nonfiction, a historical narrative describes people who actually lived and events that actually happened. However, a historical narrative also includes fictional people and details imagined by the writer. A historical narrative should have the following characteristics:
- accurate historic events and details of actual places
- one person’s point of view
- some characters and circumstances invented by the writer
- chronological organization
Step 1: Select a historical event, print a picture representing the event, and tape it to the poster paper
Step 2: Research
In order to write a convincing historical narrative, you need to learn as much as you can about the event you are relating. Use the guiding questions below to add research to your prewriting poster.
Step 3: Choose a Central Character
Now that you have researched a historical event, you need to develop a central character. Begin by choosing a real or fictional person to place at the center of your narrative. Use the guiding questions to help you brainstorm details on the back of your historical event brainstorm.
Step 4: Describe Central Character & Setting
Open you notebook and label:
Date (month, day, year)
Historical Narrative: Describe central character and setting
Write a few sentences in which your central character describeshimself or herself in the first person ("I", "me", "my", etc.). Then, have your central character describe the setting of the historical event, the time and the place in which he or she lives.
Step 5: Draft
Exposition: Introduce setting (stated or implied) and characters (min. of two)
Plot: develop events leading to climax
Conflict: does your story allow your readers to understand the challeges your characters face
Character vs. Self, Character vs. Character, Character vs. Society
Dialogue: Are you on Target? Using dialogue
Word Choice: Cat got your tongue? Resources to the rescue!
*Character Traits
*Said is Dead
*Colors
*Sounds
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