The Narrative Voice

Recently, forty-five of my grade ten students penned personal narratives that derived from their life experiences and as a result, a valuable lesson was learned. Narration is an astonishing way to share experiences with others.

Narratives are closely linked to personal events and kids wrote about specific aspects of their lives including childhood memories, school years, family trips, overcoming challenges or a topic of their choice. Topics that mattered the most to them comprised of: the six letter word that changed my life, crazing driving experience, chemistry is stronger than biological, having two families, discovering you’re adopted when applying for a Passport, overcoming test anxiety, your cousin being found after a tragic accident, leaving home to become an international student in Canada, and bonding with siblings while on family trips.

Entertaining the reader and providing a sense of community were purposeful because the stories were planted on their life experiences. They were written in chronological, flashback and reflective methods. By introducing narratives, I learned about my students in unique ways very early in second semester of 2019.

The writing process became a positive experience for my students once they discovered topics that mattered to them.

They read many texts prior to our writing process and dialogued in their writer’s notebooks their connections to the texts. They were able to recall their memories. Student voices became powerful through their final pieces and also they organized their stories through meaningful events which were rich with imagery.

I taught students that everyone has a story worth narrating. Once they penned their introductions and revisions made to their drafts, I discovered that my students were engaged in writing what mattered most to them and their experiences shaped them into the young people they are today.

After I read each of their narratives, I was drawn closer to them as kids who have powerful stories. It’s imperative they are given opportunities to share stories. Sometimes it’s painful to write about our memories and experiences. However, it’s the rich valuable lessons which motivate us to become the individuals we are today. Michelle Obama declares in her latest memoir Becoming, “Your story is what you have, what you will always have and it is something to own.” (Obama 2018) If you can express who you are then you can express what you want. Student voices are worth being heard and the time is now in our everyday classrooms.

Narrative writing freed a path for my students to explore their writing abilities based on their feelings. Also, they took a risk in sharing their personal stories and therefore, I was respectful in recognizing that kids need someone who understands them.