Narrative

After using several mentor text for personal narrative, Patrica Polacco, for one, I knew I had to model what I expected from kids.  If I am going to asking students to write from a personal experience, then my anchor text was going to be from my own experience. I wanted to teach "Diving-in" as a way to begin a narrative, while also modeling a "seed story."

"Bella, Bella come here. You want to see a bear?' I whispered. Bella whispered loudly, "Yes!" Her mother, Molly looked worried and  said, "Yes, no, I don't know." We were the stragglers of a mile hike to a huge rock to take a family picture. Little Bella, only three years old, did pretty well but was getting tired. Bella had been dragging a large bag of Dorito's which her mother brought to keep 'Bells' happy. She needs her snacks. There we were in Moraine Park in Rocky Mountain National Forest, along a trail that parallels a river, trying to keep Bella moving when I spotted a bear cub. As Bella and Molly came around a large bush, we saw another bear cub catch up to the first and playfully swat at its back. We were transfixed. Our distance felt safe, about 75 feet on a well traveled trail. The bear cubs turned away from us and headed towards the stream when suddenly a mother bear came lumbering along, following her cubs. A thought struck me. Bears have great sense of smell, I looked down at the open bag of Doritos and suddenly 75 feet didn't feel so safe. Molly and I looked at each other and the bag. We smiled when the bears continued to head towards the river. The rest of the family was sad they didn't get to see the bears. We're glad we lived to tell them about it.