Narrative Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching narrative writing this school year? Explore writing prompts, printable worksheets, storyboards and story maps and more teaching resources created by teachers for primary teachers like you.
This collection of teaching resources aligned with the Australian English Curriculum has been carefully curated by our expert teacher team to ensure every resource is ready to add to your lesson plans and ready for your students!
Is this your first year teaching students about writing narratives? Or maybe you're just looking for some fresh ideas to tackle the topic? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a look at how narrative writing is included in year 3 and year 5 students NAPLAN testing.
What Is Narrative Writing?
Narrative writing is the act of writing a story, and those stories can be fictional or non-fiction accounts of something the student has experienced or learned about.
This type of writing is often popular with students as it allows them to use their imagination and creativity!
Narrative Writing and NAPLAN
Are your students sitting NAPLAN this school year? They may be required to show they can write a good narrative!
Narrative writing is one of the three writing genres assessed in NAPLAN — along with persuasive and informative writing.
Your students may be required to respond to a narrative writing prompt that presents a scenario or situation that students will have to use as a starting point for their story. Your class will then have about 40 minutes to plan, draft and edit their narrative story.
NAPLAN assessors will be looking for the following:
- Text Structure and Organisation — Year 3 and 5 students are expected to be able to structure a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. There should be a resolution by the end of the story.
- Characterisation — Characters should be well-developed and relatable.
- Setting — The narrative should describe a setting to immerse the reader in the story.
- Language Use — Year 3 and 5 students are assessed on their ability to use descriptive language to engage the reader.
- Dialogue — If dialogue is included in the story, students need to correctly use quotation marks.
- Grammar — Students are expected to edit and revise their work for errors, showing proper punctuation use and spelling words correctly.
- Narrative Techniques — A good narrative example for NAPLAN will show the student knows how to use techniques such as creating suspense, using figurative language and pacing the story.
Which Elements Does Strong Narrative Writing Always Contain?
Of course, not every student will be sitting NAPLAN this year, and standardised testing is hardly the only reason we need to help students make their narrative writing engaging and strong. So what do you need to know in general? There are certain key elements students need to understand and include, so we've compiled this quick refresher for you.
Plot
The plot of strong narrative writing is crucial — without it, there's no narrative! Keeping the reader interested from the start of a story involves developing the characters well and including conflict.
Structure
The structure of the text is just as important as the plot when writing a strong narrative. Students should be writing texts that include a beginning, middle and end. This can include a clear introduction that sets up the main conflict, a rising action that builds tension and excitement and a resolution that provides closure and ties up loose ends.
Descriptive Language
Teaching students to go beyond overused words like "said" or "nice" and using more descriptive language can help them make their narrative writing stronger. This graphic element of writing works with imagery and figurative language to help readers visualize the story.
Descriptive language helps the reader to visualize the setting and the characters. Sensory details can help kids set the scene in their essay or story.
Point of View
Whether it is written in the first-person, the third-person or flips back and forth, a piece of strong narrative writing has a clear point of view. This helps the reader better understand the narrator or protagonist.
What Is a Hook in Narrative Writing?
One feature of narrative writing you may want to focus on with your students this school year is the art of writing a 'hook' to capture the reader's attention and draw them into the story. This is a compelling introduction that will engage the reader and make them want to keep reading!
There is no one kind of hook! It can be anything from an interesting fact or question to a dramatic opening scene or dialogue.
8 Narrative Writing Examples and Assignments to Share With Your Students
Are you looking for some different examples of narrative writing assignments that will engage your students and inspire them to write? Try these ideas from our teacher team!
- A personal narrative about a special day the student will never forget
- A fictional narrative about a group of friends going on an adventure
- A descriptive narrative that uses sensory details and describing words to create a vivid image of riding a rollercoaster
- A historical narrative that tells the story of their favourite historical figure
- A reflective narrative that explores the writer's thoughts and feelings about going to secondary school one day
- A fantastical narrative that includes magical or imaginary elements like the arrival of a magic hat in the classroom
- A humorous narrative that uses comedic elements to entertain the reader about a time the PE teacher was replaced by an alien
- A collaborative narrative that involves students writing a chapter book in small groups
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A Letter to My Teacher Activity
Get to know your students a bit better using a ‘Letter to Teacher’ template.
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Roll to Create a Christmas Story - Writing Prompt
Roll the die to generate a fun Christmas writing activity with a roll-to-create Christmas worksheet.
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Christmas Writing Prompt Dice Game - Roll-a-Story
Roll a Christmas Writing Prompt and write a fun Christmas story with our printable writing worksheets.
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Narrative Plot Structure - Story Mountain Template
Use a story mountain template to help your students write narrative texts.
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Christmas Writing - December Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write creatively with a set of 30 Christmas writing prompts for kids.
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Gingerbread Man Disguise Project
Design a Gingerbread Man disguise to save Gingie from getting eaten by Santa with a printable Gingerbread Man Disguise project.
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Dear Santa Letter Templates
Use a printable Dear Santa Letter template to write fun letters to Santa during your writing classes.
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5 Narrative Writing Stimulus Sheets
Writing stimulus sheets with a narrative focus.
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Narrative Sentence Starter Worksheets
Use our printable narrative writing prompt worksheets to boost your students' imaginative writing skills.
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Christmas Character Writing and Craft Templates
Choose between four adorable Christmas writing templates for your Early Years students.
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Time Connectives Word Wall
Help your students demonstrate the passage of time in their writing with 35 time connective word cards.
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Narrative Writing Visual Prompts Presentation
A 19 slide teaching presentation containing visual narrative writing prompts.
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Writing Narrative Texts PowerPoint - Year 5 and Year 6
A 20 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of narrative texts.
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Developing Narrative Writing Skills PowerPoint - Year 3 and Year 4
Teach your students about the structure and language features of narrative texts with an engaging interactive Narrative Writing Teaching Slide Presentation.
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Daily Writing Prompts Calendars - Upper Primary
Inspire your students and encourage them to write regularly with a set of printable Daily Writing Prompts in calendar format.
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Narrative Text Type Poster With Annotations
Display this narrative text with annotations to help students identify the structure of a narrative.
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Narrative Text Structure Posters
A set of 8 narrative text structure posters to add to your classroom narrative writing display.
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Narrative Writing Planning Template Pack
Use this narrative writing planning template pack to help your students plan a fantastic piece of writing!
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Five Senses Graphic Organiser
A graphic organiser to use when brainstorming sights, sounds, smells, touches and tastes.
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Seven Sensational Story Starters PowerPoint
Inspire creative and catching narrative story starters with this story starters set of teaching slides.
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Narrative Writing Bump It Up Wall – Year 5
A visual display for your classroom to help students ‘bump up’ their narrative writing.
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Using Quotation Marks in Narrative Writing PowerPoint
Teach the correct usage of quotation marks in narrative writing with this set of teaching slides.
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STEAL Characterisation Anchor Charts
Use the S.T.E.A.L. method of characterisation to help your students ‘steal’ the show with their writings using handy printable anchor charts.
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NAPLAN-Style Assessment Rubric - Narrative Writing
A NAPLAN-style rubric designed to help teachers to assess students' narrative writing.
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Developing Narrative Features PowerPoint - Year 5 and Year 6
A 26 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the features of narrative texts.
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Introduction to Personal Recounts PowerPoint
An 18 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching younger students about the structure and language features of personal recounts.
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Narrative Writing Checklist Pack
Use this narrative checklist pack when teaching your students how to edit their narrative writing.
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Blank Comic Strip Templates
Print blank comic book templates created by teachers to help students write their own comics.
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Imaginative, Persuasive and Informative Paragraphs Teaching Slides
Learn about the different structures of imaginative, persuasive and informative paragraphs.
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Narrative Elements Graphic Organisers – Portrait
Encourage your students to write and draw about various story elements with this set of differentiated graphic organisers.
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Story Elements Poster Set
Display these cute sloth-themed story elements posters when learning about narrative texts.
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Gold Miners' Bulletin Project
A creative writing newspaper project in which students design and write the front page of an imagined newspaper from the Australian Gold Rush era.
- Narrative Writing Templates
- Narrative Writing Worksheets
- Narrative Writing Posters
- Narrative Writing Teaching Presentations
- Narrative Writing for Foundation Year
- Narrative Writing for Year 1
- Narrative Writing for Year 2
- Narrative Writing for Year 3
- Narrative Writing for Year 4
- Narrative Writing for Year 5
- Narrative Writing for Year 6
- Narrative Writing for Year 7