Will The Real Narrator Please Stand Up?

Teach students the power of narrators with this 15-20 minute exercise. (It involves a mini-field trip in your own school.)

Jan 28, 2025

Welcome to the Plug & Play section of Desk Notes! Every week you’ll receive an ELA/creative writing activity that I’ve had success with in my classroom.

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TLDR: A simple 15-minute exercise for students to practice the style of their narrative voice.

When my students write, they are often unconscious of the narrative opportunities they have. The author and narrator are very different things indeed, so how might they discover the distinction?

Cue: the mini field trip.

The Plan

Overview:

Go on a mini-field trip.
Return to class and teach.
Rewrite with narrative intent.

Go on a Mini-Field Trip

Pick a spot in your school where students can sit and write down observations. I brought my students near the front doors and office. We have large windows, so the students were able to see students walking in and our secretaries doing their work.

These are the instructions I gave to my students:

“Your sole task is to silently observe what happens in front of you. Record the information down in your notebook. See that security camera up there? Pretend it doesn’t exist. Your notebook will now be the log that keeps record of everything that happens for the next few minutes.”

I mention the “camera” part because it leads students to write objectively. It helps them focus on the facts of what transpires in front of them.

Return and Teach

After students finish their writing, we walk back to class. This is when I do a bit of direct instruction using the whiteboard to communicate the distinction between the person who writes the story (author) and the voice telling the story (narrator).

I also tell students that “most people assume when they’re reading someone’s poetry that they’re reading the thoughts and feelings of the poet, but that isn’t always the case.” My students are surprised to learn that poets will create “personas” or “characters” and have the poems be voiced from those “people.”

Rewrite with Narrative Intent

Now for the second part of the activity.

I give each student a slip of paper that has an adjective on it (things like curious, fearful, suspicious, etc.)

Here are the instructions they receive:

“This word, this adjective, is top secret. Confidential. You mustn’t show it to anyone nor allow anyone to see it. You remember the stuff you wrote out by the main office? Your job is to rewrite those same observations, but instead of being an ‘objective security camera,’ I’d like you to create a narrator based on the adjective you have. So if the adjective you receive is “angry,” then your writing should make me feel like the person telling the story is angry… Remember: don’t tell anyone the word on you paper.”

After students have time to write, I have them share their writing with a partner. The partner guesses what adjective the person had and points to specific parts of the writing that led them to their conclusion. This gives the writer a chance to hear what parts of their writing conveyed strong emotion.

Here is a link to all the adjectives on a Google doc; here’s a pdf for those who’d prefer it:

Narrative Vibe Exercise

34.1KB ∙ PDF file

Download

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Have students read something they’ve recently written and analyze the “narrative vibe” it has. This is something that can be done later in the year as a follow-up/reminder.
Give students time to write a story or poem, and ask them to be intentional about their narrator.
The principles in this could transfer to informational writing as well. Have students evaluate the tone of their writing (arrogant, assertive, rambling, direct, etc.).
This activity could be done in a unit where you’re reading a book (especially one who’s narrator is ✨unreliable✨).

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear from you if you use this activity or any adaptations of it in your class! If you find something that makes it better, let us know in the comments.