Sisters

By: Cambria S.
Courtney, Tabby and Penelope were in the middle of nowhere.
They were cold, hungry, and homeless.
We can work through this, as long as we can stick together.
Courtney said. The pets couldnt respond, because well, one was
a horse and the other was a tabby cat. Penelope kept on trotting
for her owner. Courtney was sad because her family was gone. All
she had was her little sister, Anne, which was lost somewhere out
there. Tabby had remembered when Courtney lost Anne

How Courtney Lost Anne

Courtneys family once lived on a farm. Indoors, there was her
mother making waffles for breakfast. Her dad was upstairs, doing
who knows what. Courtney was taking care of Penelope and Anne
was playing in the snow. Tabby was curled up on the sofa,
watching the dancing flames of the fireplace.
Courtney had come in from the 3-feet of snow outside.
Its really beginning to be a blizzard out there. Courtney told her
mother.
Oh really? asked mom. Anyways, where is your sister,
Courtney?

Before Courtney could reply, the blizzard had knocked down the
kitchen wall and the stove had caught on fire. Courtneys dad
came rushing down-stairs to save his wife.
Go find Anne! Now! Her dad yelled.
And Courtney took Tabby and Penelope and went to go find Anne.
Anne! Courtney hollered
Anne came running to Courtney.
Can we go someplace safe? Anne asked. Courtney nodded her
head and they all walked for miles.
Hey Anne, Courtney said I think I see some food to eat. There
was no reply. Anne? Courtney said once again. Courtney turned
around and realized that Anne was gone. And that is what Tabby
could remember.
Shelter
As soon as it was dark out they all fell asleep, but not Courtney.
She stayed up looking for shelter. She had her knife, her flashlight
and her notebook in her satchel. Courtney pulled out her
flashlight and began to search for a home. She found a small
shed. The shed was unlocked, so her pets and Courtney could
sleep in the shed. Courtney ran back to her pets and commanded
them to wake up and follow Courtney to the shed. As soon as they
got there, they fell sound asleep
The Apple Tree
Once it was morning, Courtney and Penelope were awake. They
were starving.
Come on, Courtney said. We

need

to find food.

And so, they rode till they found an apple tree!

Finally Courtney thought to herself.

Courtney climbed up the tree and grabbed two shiny red apples.
She climbed down the tree and tossed an apple to Penelope. She
ate it straight away, and so did Courtney.

Narrative Writing
Rubric
Narrative
Focus

The narrative, real or

imagined, is clearly focused
and maintained throughout:
effectively establishes a
setting, narrator and/or
characters, and point of view
(point of view begins in 7th
grade)

The narrative, real or

imagined, is adequately
focused and generally
maintained throughout:
adequately establishes a
setting, narrator and/or
characters, and point of view
(point of view begins in 7th
grade)

The narrative, real or

imagined, is somewhat
maintained and may have a
minor drift in focus:
inconsistently establishes
a setting, narrator and/or
characters, and point of view
(point of view begins in 7th
grade)

The narrative, real or

imagined, may be
maintained but may provide
little or no focus:
may be very brief
may have a major drift
focus may be confusing
or ambiguous

Organization

The narrative, real or

imagined, has an effective
plot, helping create unity and
completeness:
effective, consistent use
of a variety of transitional
strategies
logical sequence of
events from beginning to
end
effective opening and
closure for audience and
purpose

The narrative, real or

imagined, has an
inconsistent plot, and flaws
are evident:
inconsistent use of basic
transitional strategies with
little variety
uneven sequence of
events from beginning to
end
opening and closure, if
present, are weak
weak connection among
ideas

The narrative, real or

imagined, has little or no
discernible plot:
few or no transitional
strategies are evident
frequent extraneous
ideas may intrude

Elaboration of Narrative

The narrative, real or

imagined, provides thorough
and effective elaboration,
using details, dialogue, and
description:
effective use of a variety
of narrative techniques that
advance the story or
illustrate the experience
The narrative, real or
imagined, clearly and
effectively expresses
experiences or events:
effective use of sensory,
concrete, and figurative
language clearly advance
the purpose

The narrative, real or

imagined, has an evident
plot, helping create a sense
of unity and completeness,
though there may be minor
flaws and some ideas may
be loosely connected:
adequate use of a variety
of transitional strategies
adequate sequence of
events from beginning to
end
adequate opening and
closure for audience and
purpose
The narrative, real or
imagined, provides adequate
elaboration, using details,
dialogue, and description:
adequate use of a variety
of narrative techniques that
generally advance the story
or illustrate the experience

The narrative, real or

imagined, provides uneven,
cursory elaboration using
partial and uneven details,
dialogue, and description:
narrative techniques, if
present, are uneven and
inconsistent

The narrative, real or

imagined, provides minimal
elaboration using little or no
details, dialogue, and
description:
use of narrative
techniques is minimal,
absent, in error, or irrelevant

The narrative, real or

imagined, adequately
expresses experiences or
events:
adequate use of sensory,
concrete, and figurative
language generally advance
the purpose

The narrative, real or

imagined, unevenly
expresses experiences or
events:
partial or weak use of
sensory, concrete, and
figurative language that may
not advance the purpose

The narrative, real or

imagined, expression of
ideas is vague, lacks clarity,
or is confusing:
uses limited language
may have little sense of
purpose

The narrative, real or

imagined, demonstrates an
adequate command of
conventions:
some errors in usage and

The narrative, real or

imagined, demonstrates a
partial command of
conventions:
frequent errors in usage

The narrative, real or

imagined, demonstrates a
lack of command of
conventions:
errors are frequent and

Language and
Vocabulary

Conventions

The narrative, real or

imagined, demonstrates a
strong command of
conventions:
few, if any, errors in

usage and sentence

formation
effective and consistent
use of punctuation,
capitalization, and spelling

sentence formation but no

systematic pattern of errors
is displayed
adequate use of
punctuation, capitalization,
and spelling

may obscure meaning

inconsistent use of
punctuation, capitalization,
and spelling

severe and meaning is often

obscured

18/20 = 90% You really have an amazing grasp on writing narratives. It is imaginative, the plot progresses smoothly, and you keep the reader wondering at
all times. The command of conventions is amazing. You separate characters dialogue well and it was an honor to be able to read this piece.