Explore Narrative Craft

Overview

In this first lesson of Crafting Engaging Narratives, students investigate how authors keep readers interested. Through a shared Aotearoa New Zealand mentor text, they identify narrative stages and notice how structure, character, setting, language and visual presentation shape a reader’s response.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify the main stages of a narrative: setting and characters, problem or goal, plan, actions, and resolution.
• WALT explain how an author creates interest through structure, paragraphing, sensory detail, dialogue, vocabulary and sentence variety.
• WALT describe how the intended audience influences an author’s choices.
• WALT discuss whose perspectives are represented in a text.

Success criteria

• I can identify the main narrative stages in a mentor text.
• I can explain how at least two author choices create interest for readers.
• I can describe how the text’s audience has influenced its language or presentation.
• I can respectfully discuss whose perspectives are included and whose may be absent.

Curriculum links

• Reading — Comprehension: text form, structure, style and features.
• Reading — Word recognition and reading enrichment: selecting texts that spark curiosity and connect with personal interests.
• Writing — Composition: audience, purpose and language choice, including deliberate use of literary devices.
• The refreshed English curriculum’s emphasis on making meaning, responding critically, and communicating for an audience.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–10 min · Connect and predict. Teacher introduces a published, age-appropriate Aotearoa New Zealand narrative selected for respectful representation of local places, whānau, pūrākau or an imagined world. Briefly explain the author’s and illustrator’s perspective where known, and invite students to consider: “What might make readers want to keep reading?” Open with the hook and learning intention slides and display the learning intention and success criteria. Students examine the cover, title and any illustrations, then think-pair-share predictions about audience, setting, characters and possible problems. Clarify that students should not treat Māori stories, tikanga or cultural symbols as material to copy without permission; today they are studying the author’s craft.

2. 10–25 min · Read and notice. Teacher reads the mentor text aloud or shares reading with the class, pausing at two or three purposeful points to ask what has changed, what the reader now wonders, and which words or images create a response. Provide the narrative craft noticing sheet for students to record brief evidence. Students follow the text, noticing the opening, problem or goal, plan, actions and resolution, as well as interesting vocabulary, sensory detail, dialogue and sentence patterns. Offer audio/read-aloud support and allow students to sketch a quick mental image or key event.

3. 25–45 min · Group annotation. Teacher forms five mixed-ability groups of five and gives each group one craft focus: narrative structure; paragraphing and pacing; sensory detail; dialogue and characterisation; or vocabulary and sentence variety. Revisit the task instructions on the group annotation and evidence slides. Give each group a copy of the text, annotation sheet and highlighters. Students locate two or three examples, annotate the text, and discuss: “What did the author do?”, “What effect might this have on readers?”, and “Why might this suit the intended audience?” Groups must record the relevant words or sentence, not just label a feature. Circulate, question, and prompt students to distinguish an author choice from their personal opinion.

4. 45–55 min · Share and synthesise. Teacher brings the class together and builds a shared structural diagram on the board, using the narrative stages and discussion slides as a visual prompt. Each group gives one example and explains its effect. Students listen for connections, add useful findings to their worksheet, and contribute to a class statement such as: “Authors entertain readers by combining ___ with ___.” Discuss whose viewpoint the narrative centres, what readers are invited to feel or notice, and how a different audience or narrator might change the writing.

5. 55–60 min · Exit reflection. Teacher displays the final prompts on the exit ticket slide and collects responses. Students write: “One narrative stage I identified was…”, “One author choice that created interest was… because…”, and “The intended audience influenced the text by…”. If available, finish with the success criteria exit ticket slips as a quick self-check before students hand in their response.

Resources

• A published, age-appropriate Aotearoa New Zealand mentor narrative
• the Explore Narrative Craft slide deck
• the narrative craft noticing sheet
• Structural stages diagram for display or modelling
• Highlighters and pencils
• Enlarged or digital copies of selected pages
• Vocabulary wall or board space
• Audio/read-aloud version where available

Assessment

• Use questioning during the read-aloud to check predictions, comprehension of narrative stages and awareness of author choices.
• Review group annotations for accurate feature identification, quoted evidence and explanations of effect; confer with groups that only label features.
• Use exit responses to identify who can recognise structure, explain a craft choice and connect writing decisions to audience. Record students needing further support before Lesson 2.

Differentiation

• Provide a narrative structure mat with the stages already named, colour-coded page sections, and sentence starters such as “The author uses ___ to make the reader ___.”
• Offer audio/read-aloud support, enlarged text, reduced annotation quantity, and opportunities to respond orally or through labelled sketches. Pre-teach essential vocabulary using the class vocabulary wall.
• Use mixed-ability groups with clear roles such as reader, evidence finder, recorder, discussion leader and reporter; accept home-language discussion before sharing in English.
• Extend ready learners by asking how changing the narrator, target audience or cultural viewpoint could alter the vocabulary, structure, details and reader response. Encourage them to justify ideas with evidence rather than rewrite cultural material.