Abstract
A narrative is a special kind of story that is highly valued in English-speaking cultures. Narratives tell an imaginative story, although sometimes they are based on facts. There are many types of narratives, such as legends, myths, and historical fiction. Narratives are structured to be entertaining and t o teach cultural values. In narratives, normal events are disrupted and language is used to build up suspense until the plot reaches a crisis point. The basic stages of narratives are orientation, complication, evaluation, and resolution (Labov & Waletsky, 1967; Martin & Rose, 2008). A narrative may end with a writer’s evaluative comment (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, & Yallop, 2000; Education Department of Western Australia, 1994; Schleppegrell, 2004). Across different cultures, narratives share a similar organization, but what makes for a complicating event and resolution may differ (Martin & Rose, 2008).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Atwell, N. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Brett, J. (1991). Berlioz the bear. New York: Putnam.
Brisk, M. E. (2015). Engaging students in academic literacies: Genre-based pedagogy for K-5 classrooms. New York: Routledge.
Brunner, G. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1–21.
Butt, D., Fahey, R., Feez, S., Spinks, S., & Yallop, C. (2000). Using functional grammar: An explorer’s guide. Sydney, Australia: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University.
Common Core State Standards Initiative: Preparing America’s Students for College and Career (2010). Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org.
Education Department of Western Australia (1994). First steps: Writing resource book. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kamberelis, G. (1999). Genre development and learning: Children writing stories, science reports, and poems. Research in the Teaching of English, 33, 403–463.
Kress, G. (1994). Learning to write (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Kroll, L. (1990, April). Making meaning in writing: A longitudinal study of young children’s writing development. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, MA.
Labov, W., & Waletsky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Martin, J. R., & Rothery, J. (1986). What about functional approach to the writing task can show teachers about ‘good writing.’ In B. Coutoure (Ed.), Functional approaches to writing: Research perspectives (pp. 241–265). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre relations: Mapping culture. Oakville, CT: Equinox.
McKeough, A. (2013). A developmental approach to teaching narrative composition. In S. Graham, C. A. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction (2nd ed., pp. 73–112). New York: Guilford Press.
Rog, L. J., & Kropp, P. (2004). The write genre. Ontario, Canada: Pembroke.
Roser, N., Martinez, M., Fuhrken, C., & McDonnold, K. (2007). Characters as guides to meaning. The Reading Teacher, 60, 548–559.
Rothery, J. (1996) Making changes: Developing an Educational Linguistics. In R. Hasan & G. Williams (Eds.), Literacy in Society (pp. 86–123). New York: Longman.
Rothery, J., & Stenglin, M. (1997). Entertaining and instructing: Exploring experience through story. In F. Christie & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Genre and institutions: Social processes in the workplace and school (pp. 231–263). London: Pinter.
Schleppegrell, M. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Vardell, S. M., & Burris, N. A. (1986). Learning to write: A developmental/literary perspective. Retrieved from ERIC database http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED280073 (ED280 073).
Wright, A. (1997). The craft of story-making. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 Maria Estela Brisk, Deborah Nelson, and Cheryl O’Connor
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brisk, M.E., Nelson, D., O’Connor, C. (2016). Bilingual Fourth Graders Develop a Central Character for Their Narratives. In: de Oliveira, L.C., Silva, T. (eds) Second Language Writing in Elementary Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137530981_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137530981_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-70865-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53098-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)