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Mrs. Kleefeld
English 10
Narrative Writing Assignment

Youre a Card!
card
noun (informal) a person regarded as odd or amusing.
synonyms: eccentric, character, joker, wit, jester,
comedian, laugh, scream, hoot!

For this assignment you will be writing the personal narrative

of a character randomly assigned to you. You will only be given
a name, age and this characters profession, the rest is up to
you!
Through class brainstorming sessions, Artists Journal entries,
partner work, and many revision sessions, you will write a scene
in the life of your character. This piece must be at least two
pages in length in the format we have used all year.
One of the major focuses of your narrative should be a good
dialogue between the two characters. Your character should be
described well and in much detail. And since weve been focusing
on comic writing and satire, your piece must also make an
attempt at humor! At the conclusion of the assignment you will
be sharing these with your classmates and myself. Try to make us
laugh!
I look forward to meeting your characters who will be developed
thoroughly and given many specific details to make them come
alive!

Please see Writing Stages, Artists Journal

Dialogue Tags and a rubric attached to this sheet.

Expectations,

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Writing Stages: What to Expect

Stage 1: You will draw a notecard from my sombrero! Once your whole class has
drawn a card, you will have a brief opportunity to trade back your card into the hat or
with a peer. You may only make one trade! Like in kindergarten, you get what you get
and you dont throw a fit.
Stage 2: Next you will brainstorm in your Artists Journal as you begin to create your
character. Lists, bullets and columns are fine! Please refer to the Artists Journal
Guidelines in this packet. Examine the questions presented to you and see what you
can come up with. Remember, I am looking for good use of character detail for this
assignment.
Stage 3: We will Round Robin - Character Share. You will share your newly formed
ideas about your invented characters with the whole class. Maybe your classmates will
inspire you to beef up your character more; or maybe your ideas will inspire them!
Stage 4: I will assign you a partner to collaborate with on your narrative. During this
stage you and your partner are to introduce each other to the character you have
created. You will also make suggestions to your partner providing feedback on the
details for their character. Is your partners character believable? Are there good
details describing this person? Can you visualize the character? What details are
good? Can you suggest any more?
Stage 5: You will go back to your Artists Journals after meeting with your partner. You
will brainstorm and write ideas on how the two characters could have an interchange.
How did the two come to meet? What happens when they meet for the first time? Did
they have history before your narrative? Give us background and try to incorporate
humor.
Stage 6: After journaling you and your partner will reconvene to discuss your ideas.
You will collaborate and decide on a possible plot line for your narrative. Remember
to begin In Media Res as we have been talking about with our narrative writing.

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Decide on a beginning, middle and end for the interaction between your two
characters. Ask yourselves, is it funny yet?
Stage 7: This stage will begin after we have a brush up lesson on dialogue. You will
be required to pass the exit ticket before moving onto this stage. Once you show me
you understand the functions of how to properly use the conventions behind
dialogue, you and your partner will meet to focus on and discuss the possible
dialogue for your narratives.
Stage 8: You get to begin writing now! Hooray! Please write a first person narrative
from the perspective of your created character. This piece should be at least two
pages. You must include the dialogue that you and your partner agreed upon for this
story. This dialogue should be portrayed from your characters perspective (so it may
vary slightly from your partners narrative). Use the Dialogue Tags sheet in this packet
for inspiration.
*My rough draft is due for peer editing and initial teacher check on
Stage 9: Meet with your partner and exchange your narratives. Read to look for
consistency between your two pieces; do the stories mirror each other? Examine the
narrative for proper conventions of dialogue and make corrections where needed.
Look at the use of detail. Did your partner accomplish portraying the character the
way you had discussed? Help each other out here! We all want to produce our very
best work!
Stage 10: Take your partners comments and let them percolate. Make the necessary
revisions to your narrative.
*My rough draft is due to Mrs. K on
Stage 11: Teacher conference with rough draft. You will meet with me to discuss my
ideas about your narrative.
*My conference with Mrs. K is on
Stage 12: Revise your narrative a final time after our conference. Take into account all
the suggestions that have been made through this assignment. Please thoroughly

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copy-edit your paper. Misspellings, grammar, punctuation and clarity will be
examined.
Stage 13: Turn in FINAL DRAFT! Cue ominous music.
My final draft is due
Stage 16: You will read your narrative to the class. I am looking for appropriate
volume, pacing and presentation. See if you can add a little dramatic flair to make the
story come alive. Have fun with this! We all look forward to seeing what happens with
our collection of cards!

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Artists Journal Guidelines

For this assignment, you are the ARTIST!

Paint this clever character from scratch, have fun with it! Try to use some humor (be
appropriate as we have discussed in class)! Use as many details as you can. Develop
your character from when we first meet them. Try to incorporate sensory details as
well!
In your journal, please think about the following:
Who is your character?
What does their name make you think of them?
What about their age?
What do they do for a living?
What kind of clothes is your character wearing?
Are they holding anything?
What is their height? Weight? Build? Body shape?
What color are their eyes? Hair?
How do they sound when they talk?
Do they have any phrases or sayings?
Where are they from?
Do they portray any particular emotions?
What is something unusual about them?
What are their interests?
What is their favorite food, color, sport, animal, musician, etc?
What do they do for fun?
Do they have any bad habits?
What were they doing before they ran into the other character?

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*Resources*
io9.gizmodo.com
Make each character sound different
the sounds of friendship
using inarticulateness to make a point
putting the right people in the room
give the characters common interests
engineering misunderstandings
wikipedia
Mode (literature) an identifiable literary method, mood or
manner. eg. satiric mode, ironic, comic, pastoral and didactic.
readwritethink.org
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/
character-clash-minilesson-paragraphing-117.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/
lesson117/character_clash_instructions.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/
lesson291/dialogue_tag.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/
inside-outside-minilesson-quotation-118.html

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Rationale: Youre a Card
This assignment is intended to do several things. Students will get the
opportunity to express their creativity through characterization, narrative form and
also dialogue. The length of the final narrative is in line with pieces they have already
been working on and are comfortable with.
Students will be working with a partner throughout this assignment to share
ideas, and collaborate about characterization, plot line and dialogue. I feel strongly
that carefully assigned partner pairs will help my students further learn how to
collaborate and listen to another persons point of view. Since students will not be
able to select their own partner this forces many students to go beyond their comfort
zone with their classmates. Peer collaboration and revision will be strongly
emphasized as both are skills my students will need to continually be working on.
Students will be examining their narrative for good, strong use of dialogue.
This aspect of the assignment is important for tenth graders students who will be
continuing to write dialogue through their time in high school and college potentially.
There will also be a mini lesson between stages 6 & 7 that will reinforce the proper
conventions of dialogue.
The assignment is meant to follow some sort of satire such as Jonathan Swift or
the more current comic writing of Dave Barry. A 9-10 CCSS exemplar text could be
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. This scaffolding will allow students to use mentor
models for humor as well as further develop their own understandings of proper
conventions of good dialogue. This prompt is meant to allow students to be creative
and use the humor they have within themselves. I feel this is important because many
writing assignments do not allow students to bring themselves into their pieces.
I believe that the entry into this lesson, choosing a card from a hat, is out of the
box and will appeal to students. Many narratives are given to students without choice
and my idea behind this narrative allows students to have choice as they create a
character and develop a story. This assignment forces students to come up with good,
strong use of details as they attempt to make their character come alive.
Lastly the final stage of this project allows students to show off what they have
created. With humor as a focus, students might feel more comfortable in front of their
peers as they attempt to make them laugh. Public speaking is an important element
of schooling and life and this will help prepare students for speaking in front of
people. It is encouraged that student present their narrative with flair and allow their
character to come to life.
I am excited about this narrative project for I feel it offers students many
opportunities to apply many skills they have already learned in my class and extend
them even further. I think it will be fun and engaging. I look forward to doing this
assignment in the future and will be thrilled to see what students can come up with
under these frameworks.

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RUBRIC
4

Dialogue

This narrative
contains strong use
of dialogue. The
proper conventions
of dialogue are used
consistently
throughout the
narrative.

The narrative
contains good use of
dialogue. The proper
conventions of
dialogue are used
throughout the
narrative.

The narrative
continues a small
amount of dialogue
and is lacking proper
conventions of
dialogue.

The narrative
contains very little
effective dialogue
and the conventions
are not properly
used.

Characterization

The character is
strongly developed.
There are good
details to help the
reader visualize the
character. Sensory
details are used.

The character is
developed well.
There are many
details used to help
the reader visualize
the character.

The character is
poorly developed.
Details are lacking.

The character is not

described with many
details and is lacking
depth.

Narrative form

The story is told

with a consistent
first person point of
view. The story has a
clear beginning,
middle and end.

The story is told

with a consistent
first person point of
view.

The story is lacking

consistent point of
view.

The narrative lacks

consistent point of
view and doesn't
follow the
conventions of
narrative form.

Artists Journal

The journal is used

effectively and all
prompts are
complete and well
thought out.

The journal is used

fairly well with most
prompts completed.

The journal is
lacking many entries
and wasn't used
effectively as a tool
for brainstorming.

The journal is
lacking most entries
and wasnt utilized
effectively.

Partner Work

The students worked

effectively with their
assigned partner.
Good conversations
were conducted and
peer advice was
taken into
consideration for the
final draft.

The student worked

fairly well with their
partner. Some
revision
considerations were
taken into account.

The student had

difficulty working
effectively with their
partner and few
revision suggesionts
were taken into
account.

The student had

difficulty working
with their partner
and didnt take their
partners ideas into
account for the
narrative piece.

Revisions

The initial piece has

been examined for
necessary changes.
All feedback has
been taken into
account and the final
piece is much
stronger than the
original.

The student has

made many changes
from their original
draft. Some peer and
teacher feedback
was used.

The student made

few revisions from
their original draft
and didnt take many
revision ideas into
account.

The final draft of the

narrative is very
similar to the
original draft.
Revisions were not
applied.

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Oral Presentation

The student
presented their
narrative to the class
in an appropriate
volume, made some
eye contact and read
their piece clearly.

The student
presented their
narrative to the class
in an appropriate
volume and used
appropriate pacing.

The student was not

able to present their
narrative in an
appropriate volume
and several sections
were hard to hear.

The student
struggled to read
their narrative in
front of the class.

Coherence

The narrative as a
whole, is coherent
and makes sense.
The conventions of
grammar and proper
writing are present
throughout. The
narrative flows from
beginning to end.

The narrative is
mostly coherent and
the conventions of
grammar and proper
writing are used in
certain places. The
narrative has a pretty
good flow from start
to finish.

The narrative does

not use proper
conventions of
grammar and
writing. It does not
flow from beginning
to end.

The narrative does

not make sense.
There are key pieces
missing to make it a
coherent piece.

3 Bonus points: Humor is present in this narrative. You made us laugh!

Total points
Percentage grade
Letter Grade
Teacher comments:

(out of a possibly 32)