Patricia Polacco and Cynthia Rylant have some great personal narratives that I use with my 4th graders. Some of Polacco's are more challenging, but well worth it because she has SOOO many that are funny and really key in on individual events rather than her whole life.
I second Patricia Polocco. All of her books are good. In third grade I use Thundercake and My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother. As long as you are using them as read alouds they should be fine as mentor texts.
I love using The Chalk Doll by Charlotte Pomerantz.
It lends itself to recording small moments rather than an entire story.
I have found that it's a great way to introduce personal narratives at the
beginning of the school year. All students can successively capture a small moment in their lives. Give it a try, I think you will like it.
we do an ezra jack keats author study about half way through first grade, focusing on personal narratives...some of the books we use are the snowy day and a letter to amy...hope this helps!
I heard about this book at TC and read the book at the library. It wasn't appropriate for my kinder students but I remember it having wonderful langauge.
08-17-2008, 06:40 PM
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