The lesson begins by looking simply at the orientation of a story and what needs to be in the orientation. We discuss the aspects of what makes a good orientation (description of characters, settings - using a variety of interesting adjectives) and we look at the 'Who, what, where and when. Then the students and myself begin to write just the orientation paragraph of a narrative.
Once everyone has finished I ask them to pass their books to the person who is sitting to their left - I also pass my story and get a new story.
We each take a minute or two to read the orientation we were given. Then we look at what a complication involves. We discuss how to 'stretch out' the complication so it isn't described in just one sentence. We discuss how the different characters might be feeling and we also discuss the fact that the problem should not be solved in this paragraph. The students then write a complication for the book they have in front of them (not their original book!).
Once everyone has written the complication we pass the narrative to the left again, with each person getting a new narrative. We read through the orientation and complication of the new narrative and then we discuss the beginning of solving the problem. I listen to what each problem is and then we discuss ways the problem could start to be solved (but not solved completely!). We discuss using descriptive language and adjectives to make it interesting for the reader and then we write the first sequence of events paragraph.
Once again, when we have finished we pass the narrative to the left and read the new narrative to ourselves from the beginning. Then we discuss how the problem needs to end up being solved completely in this paragraph. We discuss different ways the characters could once and for all solve their problem. Then we write.
The books are passed again. This time the students read all the way through and have to come up with an ending for the narrative. They need to tell us what happened for the characters after the problem was solved. Did their character learn a lesson? What was that lesson? Did they all live happily ever after? If so, what were they doing - give some detailed examples etc. Then we conclude the narrative.
The books are passed for a final time and the next person who gets the book is the reader. Each person takes a turn to read the narrative that is in front of them aloud. The students enjoy this bit the most as they get to hear different bits they have written in numerous narratives.
The students usually enjoy this activity. It breaks the writing cycle down into an easy to understand way. It stops the students from rushing ahead and skipping details and it keeps their interest as they are getting a new narrative each time. They seem to enjoy 'fiddling with' or 'messing around with' other people's characters and narratives more than they do if they wrote the entire narrative themselves.