Narrative Assignment

Freshmen English

Short Story and Narrative Assignment

During the past week or so, we have read a variety of short fictional pieces and narratives that share a theme of learning a lesson (sometimes in unexpected ways.) Now, you will write your own narrative or imaginative piece about a situation in which you learned a lesson or learned something about yourself through some situation in your life. The main goal in this unit is to strengthen your understanding of narrative and fiction elements through both the reading and writing of stories. TEXTS: “The Lesson” Toni Cade Bambara “Cyclops” David Sedaris (audio) “Music Lessons” by Sarah Vowell “The Littlest Hitler” Ryan Boudinot My stories (“The Lesson Narrative” and “SuperChunk”) (“Tricked” David Sedaris) “Brownies” ZZ Packer Write a narrative about your own experience or experiences in which you learned some sort of lesson. These experiences can be anything. Some ideas to get you started: Write about any of the following: • Lessons you have learned “accidentally” (see the story “Music Lessons”) • Holidays or other occasions gone wrong (see the story “The Littlest Hitler”) • Warnings that you should have paid attention to (see the story “Cyclops”) • First job, first kiss, first heartbreak, first anything (see the story “SuperChunk”) Rough draft written in class Wed. May 13 Typed first draft is due in class Tuesday May 19 Final typed draft is due in class Friday May 22