Empower learners to write interesting stories

As Narrative composition writing is one of the several types of compositions that the learners ought to grasp. They should be able to write about their past experiences in a very captivating and creative way.Learners have lots of stories in their brains but they find it hard to express them in the written form. Therefore, it is important for the teachers of English Language to equip them with techniques of writing good stories.Teachers should encourage learners to tell stories in class about their past experiences so that they get used to sharing their experiences with classmates. They may keep prompting learners to ensure that they tell detailed stories in a chronological way. After listening to a given story, the learners may analyze the main events and show how they are connected. This helps them to figure out the flow of events from the beginning to the end and it prepares them to write their own stories in an organized way.The narrative composition writing task may be a post activity for reading comprehension as long as the passage is based on past events. After reading the passage and discussing the questions about it, learners may examine the way the writer presented his experiences in another lesson. They should be able to analyze the main events in the passage and how they are arranged from the beginning to the end. This gives them a clue on how their own narrative compositions are supposed to be. In this case, the teacher uses the passage as a model narrative composition.One of the learners may read the passage aloud in class as the rest of the students examine aspects such as the use of past tense. This helps them to realize that there is tense consistence which clearly shows that the message is based on past events. Learners may highlight the verbs used in the story and comment on their forms. In situations where the writer used direct speech, the teacher should show them the shift in punctuation. Some students find it hard to use direct and indirect speech in their stories simply because they are not fully guided on how and why the two should be applied in a story.Learners should base on the model composition to explain how the writer was able to create the mood. This helps them to realize the importance of using certain expressions that arouse the feelings of the reader. Learners should identify words in the story that appeal to the reader’s senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. Explain to them how such words help the reader to imagine the writer’s experiences. Let them realize that the writer has the responsibility of painting a clear picture of his experiences to the reader.Let them lookout for aspects that add flavour to the story like idioms, proverbs, similes and metaphors. Brainstorm on the relevance of those aspects and how they are placed in the story. Let them talk about their own past experiences using those aspects so that they are able to practice how to apply them. The model composition may be used to help learners in sentence construction, paragraphing, grammar and punctuation which are vital in the writing skill.Learners should be encouraged to plan adequately for their narrative compositions such that they do not mix up the events. Give them stories that are jumbled up and ask them to work in groups and rearrange the stories in the right order. Such tasks arouse excitement in the students and they enjoy the lesson.Give learners interesting topics to write about and after marking, display their compositions in class such that they are able to read and comment on each other’s work.Remember that narrative composition writing is vital in developing creative writing skills.The writer is a teacher at Riviera High School