Grade 4: Personal Narrative

Is your story a little hard to follow? These hints can help.

Keep to your topic. Ask yourself, “What is the most important part of my story?” Then make sure that everything else in your story helps to tell that part.

It was time to make my big decision. Would I go on the Ferris wheel, or wouldn't I? We were moving ahead in the line. Meanwhile, Dad took my baby sister and went to get a hot dog. I asked him to bring one back for me. Suddenly, the ticket man was asking Adya and me for our tickets. Our turn was next!

Tell the events in the order they happened. Reread your draft, paying special attention to time order. Did you wait until the middle or end to tell some events that actually happened earlier? Move these events to the right places in your story.

Use time-clue words and phrases. They signal to your audience when events happened.

In the meantime, the parade began to move. Steffie, Jon, and I held the banner proudly in front of us and began marching to the music with big, beaming smiles. Right away, I saw Austin waving wildly at us. Lots of people were waving, so I just grinned back at him. Then I noticed that he wasn't smiling. He was trying to tell us something. In a few seconds, we were close enough to hear what he was yelling. “Your banner is upside down!”

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