How do you teach students to write a great narrative text?

Narrative writing is much more than just fiction. It can be easy to assume that narrative writing and fiction are one and the same, but they’re not. Fiction describes imaginary events and/or people. Narrative writing is an account of connected events, regardless of whether they are real or not.

Did you know that most popular books, movies and fairy tales follow a similar narrative structure? Understanding this basic structure will improve your students’ narrative writing by giving them a framework around which to build their stories.

Teaching your students to write a narrative piece involves training them on the skills and techniques authors and writers use. You’ll need to help them understand what great narrative writing looks like and the skills writers use to create the biggest impact.

The Seven Steps chunking and skilled-based approach will help any new learner to improve and become masters of story-telling.

Free Narrative Writing Resources

Writing samples and exemplars

See the difference the Seven Steps can make with student samples and discover how professionals use the Seven Steps techniques in narrative texts.

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Planning for narrative writing

Explore ready-made lesson plans, activities and planning exemplars to discover how to teach the key concepts behind each Step.

Each lesson plan includes relevant links to the Australian Curriculum and NAPLAN marking criteria, plus a learning intention and success criteria to assist with planning and assessment.

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Narrative picture writing prompts

Fun and quick writing practice to develop your students’ writing and to get students’ creative juices flowing.

Use them daily or weekly to build students’ confidence in their narrative writing and as a fun way to practise one Step at a time.

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Comprehensive Step-by-Step resources

Transform narrative writing

Narrative Writing Manual

Packed with practical, time-saving classroom resources, this manual makes planning and implementing the Seven Steps just as fun as learning it!

Includes a user-friendly digital file, plus a photocopy and intranet licence for your entire school.

Teacher Hub: Narrative Writing Course

Step-by-Step teaching modules to guide your implementation process. The Narrative Writing Course in Teacher Hub gives you a clear pathway to learn, teach, apply and assess narrative writing.

Discover how to get the creative juices flowing in your writing lessons and create unique narrative texts.