Personal Narrative using "Step Up to Writing" format

     I am taking a fresh look at writing this year and I wanted a better way to teach my Personal Narrative Lesson. Every year my grade introduces personal narrative by describing a birthday party that they have attended or had for themselves. We also use the "Step Up to Writing" program. I really wanted a way to combine the two. So, I created this graphic organizer to generate ideas.

Day 1: Today I instructed the students to come up with three parties that they have attended, then they listed three events that happened at each of the parties. Next, I had them star the party that they felt they could elaborate on. On the bottom of the sheet I added a word box. I asked the students to write down words that they thought they would use in their writing. This was a little more difficult for some than others.
I wanted to use the word box for two reasons:

1. Generate ideas of things to write about.
2. To see how they are using their applied spelling rules.
After they finished, I collected the papers. Some could only come up with four words of their own, I thought this was a good start for this format. I will expect more from them as we move through the year. I will correct any words in their word box before they begin writing.

Day 2: Students will use their organizers to begin the writing format on the "Step Up to Writing" form that I created.
I will be back later in the week to let you know how it went.

Graphic Organizer get it here.

Here is a sample of the rest of the writing bundle that I will have available on TPT soon.