W.7.3: Writing Narratives with Point of View, Vivid Action and Reflection
In plain English: W.7.3 is the Common Core grade 7 ELA standard that asks students to write narratives about real or imagined experiences. Students establish a context and a point of view, introduce a narrator and characters, order events logically, use dialogue, pacing and description, signal shifts in time or setting with varied transitions, capture the action in precise, sensory language, and end by reflecting on the events.
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
a.Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
b.Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
c.Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another.
d.Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
e.Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: Writing Standards · Cluster: Text Types and Purposes · Official standard
Seventh graders already know that a narrative tells a real or imagined experience as a sequence of events. W.7.3 raises the bar in two places. Students must now establish a point of view from the first paragraph, so readers know who is telling the story and how that narrator sees things, and they must end with a conclusion that reflects on the events, not only one that follows from them. The standard also asks for language that captures the action, not just describes it.
The lesson is built on an original model narrative, "Apartment 4C," in which a seventh grader spends a Saturday helping his grandmother pack up the apartment she is leaving. Students map how it handles all five parts of the standard: context, point of view and event sequence (a), dialogue, pacing and description (b), transitions for sequence and for shifts in time or setting (c), precise, sensory language (d) and a reflective conclusion (e). They sort openings by point of view, order a story that jumps into a memory, rebuild a weak draft, and plan their own narrative for homework. A second original narrative, "Above the Tree Line," is used for the quiz.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Write an opening that establishes a context and a point of view and introduces a narrator and characters
Organize events so that each one leads naturally and logically to the next
Develop events and characters with dialogue, description and pacing that slows at the turning point
Use transition words, phrases and clauses to show sequence and to signal shifts in time frame or setting
Capture the action with precise words and sensory language, and write a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the events
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Writing narratives with a context, dialogue, pacing, transitions for time and setting shifts, and a conclusion that follows W.6.3
Explaining how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text RL.6.6
Punctuating dialogue with quotation marks and commas
Telling apart a sentence that names a feeling and one that shows it through action
"Think of an ordinary object in your home that has a story behind it: a chipped plate, a worn-out jacket, a key chain. Write one sentence that helps a reader see the object and one sentence that says why it matters to someone."
Take four or five answers. For each one, ask: Who is the "someone"? Do we learn how the writer feels about the object, or only what it looks like? Point out that the second sentence did something the first could not: it gave a point of view, a way of seeing the object. Tell students that today they will study a narrative, a story that tells a real or imagined experience as a sequence of events, in which an ordinary object changes how the narrator sees a whole day.
Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
Post these terms and refer back to them all lesson:
Narrator: the voice that tells the story.
Point of view: who tells the story and how. In first person, the narrator is a character who says "I." In third person limited, a narrator outside the story says "she" or "he" and follows one character's thoughts. In third person omniscient, the narrator can enter any character's mind. Point of view also includes the narrator's attitude: what he or she notices and feels.
Context: what readers need at the start: the place, the time, the people and what is at stake.
Event sequence: the order of events. It unfolds naturally and logically when each event causes or leads to the next.
Narrative techniques: the tools that develop a story. The standard names dialogue (characters' exact words in quotation marks), pacing (how quickly time passes on the page) and description (details that let readers picture people, places and actions).
Transition: a word ("afterward"), phrase ("by noon") or clause ("when the bus stopped") that links events. A clause is a group of words with its own subject and verb.
Flashback: a scene from an earlier time, often a memory, set inside the main story.
Precise words name exactly what happened (shattered, not broke); sensory language appeals to sight, sound, smell, taste or touch. Together they capture the action, so readers see it happen.
Reflect: in a conclusion, to show what the experience meant, how the narrator changed or what he or she now understands.
Work through the five examples, then show Diagram 1 to compare the three points of view.
Establish a context and a point of view
Flat opening: This is about when I got a stepbrother. It names a topic but gives no place, no time and no narrator attitude.
Result: Revised: The day my new stepbrother, Luca, moved into my room, I ran a strip of blue tape down the middle of the carpet and told him the side with the window was mine. Readers know where, when and who, and they already know how this narrator feels about sharing.
Choose the point of view
One moment at a soccer game, when the referee checks a replay of a goal.
Result: First person: I stared at the ref and tried to remember how to breathe. Third person limited: Ana stared at the ref. She could not tell whether he had seen her foot cross the line. The first puts readers inside Ana; the second stands beside her but still shares only her thoughts.
Dialogue and pacing develop a character
Telling: Mr. Okafor was strict about lab safety.
Result: Shown with dialogue and a slowed moment: Mr. Okafor stopped at our table. He tapped the goggles hanging around my neck, once. "On your face," he said, "or out of my lab." One short action and one line of dialogue tell readers more than the adjective "strict."
Transitions for sequence, time and setting
Four jobs: move forward in order, jump back in time, jump to another place, and return.
Result: Sequence: within minutes, as soon as the bus pulled away. Time shift: the spring I turned nine. Setting shift: across the street, at the Garcias' house. Return: back in the kitchen.
Capture the action
Vague: The goalie went for the ball and got it.
Result: Precise and sensory: The goalie flung herself sideways, and her glove smacked the ball off the post while the crowd groaned. Flung, smacked and groaned let readers see and hear a two-second action.
Hand out "Apartment 4C." Read it aloud once for the story. On the second reading, students number the nine paragraphs and mark three things in three highlighter colors: every clue to the narrator's point of view, every transition, and every sensory detail. Ask: How do you know from the first sentence how the narrator feels? Where does the story jump to another time, and which words carry you there and back? What does the narrator understand at the end that he did not understand at the start?
1I was supposed to be at Kiran's birthday party at Sunset Lanes that Saturday. Instead, I was sitting on the kitchen floor of Apartment 4C with a roll of packing tape, watching my grandmother wrap a single spoon in newspaper. Nani had lived in that apartment for thirty-one years, and on Monday a truck would carry everything she owned to a smaller place ten minutes from our house. Mom had put me in charge of the kitchen. "Be quick," she had told me in the car. "Nani will want to tell a story about every fork. Don't let her."
2By eleven o'clock, I had filled three boxes. Nani had filled half of one. She held up each object and turned it over in her hands: a wooden rolling pin from her sister, the steel tiffin boxes she once packed Grandpa's lunch in, a calendar from 1998 that she would not throw away. I kept taping. Every few minutes, my phone buzzed with another picture from the bowling alley.
3Then I reached into the back of the top cupboard and pulled out a blue mug with a crack running through its handle. Without thinking, I held it over the box marked DONATE.
4"Not that one." Nani's voice was so sharp that my hand stopped in the air.
5I knew that mug. When I was five, on the night my little sister was born, Mom and Dad rushed to the hospital and left me here. A thunderstorm rattled the windows, and I could not stop crying. Nani warmed a pan of milk with cardamom and poured it into the blue mug. It was so hot that I had to hold it with both hands, and the steam smelled sweet and spicy. She sat beside me on the couch and counted the seconds between each flash of lightning and its thunder until the storm moved away and I fell asleep against her shoulder.
6Now, seven years later, I ran my thumb over the chip on the rim. "You kept it," I said.
7"I kept everything," Nani said, and for the first time all morning, she laughed.
8After that, I stopped checking my phone. I asked about the rolling pin, and she told me how her sister had carried it on a plane from Pune, wrapped in a sari. I asked about the tiffin boxes, and the calendar, and a jar of buttons. By the time Mom climbed the stairs at four o'clock, the kitchen was packed, and my phone had been in my pocket for three hours.
9The blue mug did not go into the DONATE box, and it did not go into Nani's boxes either. She wrapped it in a dish towel and handed it to me. "For my grandson's desk," she said. It sits on my desk now, holding pencils. That Saturday, I thought packing meant getting rid of old things as fast as possible. Now I think some old things are the only way a family's stories get carried to the new place, and someone has to be slow enough to listen to them.
SVHS lesson authors, Model narrative: Apartment 4C (a first-person narrative written for this page; the narrator and his family are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Guided Practice15 minutes
Pairs complete the map of "Apartment 4C." For each paragraph, they write what happens in a few words and one point-of-view clue or technique. Circulate and ask each pair where the narrator's attitude first changes, and which paragraph proves it.
Map of "Apartment 4C" (students fill in the last two columns)
Paragraph
What happens
Point-of-view clue or technique
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Then pairs read the weak draft below and list what a reader is missing: What would a reader want to know at the start that the draft never says? What does the narrator care about? Which moment matters most, and where is it? Which words are vague? What did the narrator actually learn? They keep the list for Activity 3.
This is a story about the science fair. I was nervous. My project was about plants and music. I set it up. Then the judge came. Then she asked me some questions. Then I answered them. My poster fell down at some point. Then my friend Jaylen came over. Then we got pizza. Then they announced the winners. I got second place. It was a good day and I learned a lot. The end.
SVHS lesson authors, Weak draft for revision: Science Fair Day. Original passage written for this page.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Each student picks a real or imagined experience in which something changes for the narrator: an object, a place, a person or a mistake. Before writing, students choose a point of view and write one line at the top of the page: "My narrator is ... and at the start feels ... ." Then they draft the opening paragraph and the turning point. The opening must establish the context and the point of view and introduce at least two characters. The turning point must be slowed down, with at least two lines of dialogue and details for at least two senses. Students keep the drafts for Homework Problems 2 and 3.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: (1) Copy the sentence in your opening that shows your narrator's attitude most clearly. (2) In one sentence, say what your narrator might understand by the end that he or she does not understand at the start.
Before students leave, read "Above the Tree Line" aloud. Students listen for the same techniques they marked in "Apartment 4C." The quiz uses it for questions 11-14 and 19.
1Tess Moreno had wanted to turn back at the last trail sign, but her brother, Eli, was sixteen and in charge, and he said the summit of Mount Asher was only forty minutes away. So she kept climbing. She counted her steps in sets of one hundred and tried not to think about how far below them the parking lot was.
2Above the tree line, the trail became a slope of gray boulders. There were no trees to paint trail markers on, so hikers had stacked rocks into small towers called cairns, each one within sight of the next. Tess liked them. They looked like short, patient people pointing the way.
3Twenty minutes from the top, the fog came. It did not drift in slowly, the way fog does in movies. One minute Tess could see the summit sign; the next, she could barely see her own boots. The air turned cold and wet against her cheeks, and the only sound was the wind.
4"Stay right behind me," Eli said. His voice sounded calm, but he had stopped walking.
5Tess searched for the next cairn. Gray fog. Gray rock. Nothing standing up. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears.
6Two summers before, at the lake, Grandpa Luis had taught her to build a cairn from flat stones. "Big ones on the bottom," he had said, setting a stone in her palm. "And on a trail, never walk past one without finding the next. If you can't see the next one, you wait, or you go back to the last one." At the time, she had thought it was just a game for a rainy afternoon.
7Back on the mountain, Tess grabbed Eli's sleeve. "We can't see the next one," she said. "Grandpa says we wait or we go back."
8Eli stared into the fog for a long moment. Then he nodded, and they picked their way back to the last cairn and crouched beside it, shivering, for fifteen minutes. When the fog finally thinned, Tess spotted the next cairn. It stood far to the left, nowhere near the direction Eli had been heading.
9They never reached the summit sign. On the drive home, Eli told their parents that turning around had been Tess's idea, and he said it like he was proud.
10That night, Tess thought about the cairns standing in the fog, each one built by a stranger for a stranger. Reaching the top, she decided, was the part people bragged about. Knowing when to stop and look for the next marker was the part that got them home.
SVHS lesson authors, Quiz narrative: Above the Tree Line (an imagined narrative written for this page; Mount Asher and the Moreno family are invented). Original passage written for this page.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give an opening frame: "It was [time] at [place]. I was supposed to be [somewhere else], but instead [problem]." The frame builds in the narrator's attitude
Let students plan on Diagram 1 by circling one point of view and writing three things their narrator would notice first
Provide a two-column list of vague verbs and precise replacements (went: dashed, crept, stumbled; said: whispered, snapped, muttered) for the revision step
For Advanced Students
Ask students to retell paragraphs 3-7 of "Apartment 4C" in the third person limited from Nani's point of view, keeping every event the same
Have students add a flashback to their own narrative that explains why the turning point matters, with transitions into and out of it
Challenge students to write two conclusions for their story, one that follows and one that also reflects, and explain which is stronger
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Check that the opening sets up where and when the story happens and what is at stake, and that readers can tell who is narrating and how that narrator feels. Events should follow one another logically. Look for one turning point that is slowed down with dialogue, action and sensory detail, and faster summary in the less important stretches. Transitions should vary (words, phrases and at least one clause), and at least one should carry readers into another time frame or setting and back. Verbs and nouns should be precise enough that readers can see the action. The conclusion should grow out of the events and reflect on them: what the narrator realized or how he or she changed, not just what happened last.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Whose Story Is It?
15 minPairs
Pairs read four openings for the same invented event, a chorus concert where a microphone squeals, and work out who is narrating each one and how that narrator sees the moment. Then they write a new opening from another point of view. The activity builds standard a: establishing a context and a point of view and introducing a narrator and characters.
The 4 Point-of-View Cards
Card A: My hands were shaking so hard that the sheet music rattled, and when I stepped up to the microphone, it let out a squeal that made the whole front row flinch.
Card B: I had counted forty-two ceiling tiles in the gym by the time my big sister finally walked up to the microphone for her solo.
Card C: Ms. Hart spotted the microphone cord tangled around the stand one second too late, and she knew exactly what was about to happen to her soloist.
Card D: There was a concert at the school. A girl sang a solo. The microphone made a noise.
Procedure
For each card, pairs answer three questions: Who is the narrator? Is it first person or third person? What does the narrator notice or feel?
Teacher key: Card A is first person, told by the soloist, who is nervous. Card B is first person, told by her younger brother in the audience, who is bored. Card C is third person limited, following the choir teacher, Ms. Hart, who is worried. Card D has no clear narrator attitude and no context beyond "a concert," so it establishes no point of view
Pairs rank the cards by how well they engage and orient a reader and give one reason for each rank
Each student writes a new opening of two or three sentences from a fourth point of view, such as the student running the sound board, and establishes when, where and what is at stake
Discussion Questions
Cards A and B are both first person. Why do they feel so different?
What can Card C tell readers that Card A cannot?
Which card would you keep reading, and what did the writer do to make you curious?
2
Time Travel Timeline
20 minGroups of 3
Groups put six scrambled event cards from an invented story in a logical order and glue a transition card in front of each one. The story jumps into a memory, returns, and cuts to another place. The activity builds standards a and c: an event sequence that unfolds logically, linked by transitions that show sequence and signal shifts in time frame or setting.
The 6 Event Cards (shown scrambled)
Coach Brandt called Omar's name twice and frowned at the empty spot on the bench.
Omar dove in for his first race, still smelling faintly of bike grease.
Omar's bike chain slipped off halfway up Hollis Hill, twenty minutes before warm-ups.
Omar rolled into the parking lot with black grease on both hands.
Uncle Rafi showed Omar how to lift a slipped chain back onto the gear and turn the pedal slowly until it caught.
Omar flipped his bike upside down, hooked the chain over the gear teeth and turned the pedal until it clicked into place.
The 6 Transition Cards
At 7:40 on the morning of his first swim meet,
Last July,
Back on Hollis Hill,
Meanwhile, at the Alder Park pool,
Finally,
As soon as he had scrubbed his hands in the locker room,
Procedure
Groups lay out the event cards in the order that makes sense and glue a transition card in front of each one
Teacher key: At 7:40 on the morning of his first swim meet, (the chain slips off); Last July, (Uncle Rafi's lesson); Back on Hollis Hill, (Omar fixes the chain); Meanwhile, at the Alder Park pool, (the coach calls his name); Finally, (the parking lot); As soon as he had scrubbed his hands in the locker room, (the first race)
Groups label each transition as a word, phrase or clause and give its job: sequence, time shift, return or setting shift. "Finally" is the only single word and "As soon as he had scrubbed his hands in the locker room" is the only clause. "Last July" is the time shift, "Back on Hollis Hill" is the return, and "Meanwhile, at the Alder Park pool" is the setting shift
Groups write one sentence of dialogue for Uncle Rafi to add to the memory card
Discussion Questions
Why does the memory of Uncle Rafi belong right after the chain slips, and not at the start of the story?
What does the pool card add that Omar himself could not see?
Which transition has its own subject and verb, and what are they?
Modification for Distance Learning
Put the cards on a shared slide that students can drag. Each student orders the cards alone for five minutes, then the group agrees on one order in a breakout room and explains any card they placed differently.
3
Capture and Reflect
20 minPairs
Pairs rebuild the weak draft "Science Fair Day" into a narrative with a clear point of view, a slowed turning point told in precise, sensory language, and a conclusion that reflects. The activity builds standards b, d and e.
Revision Checklist
Opening: rewrite the first two sentences so that they orient a reader and let the narrator's attitude show (Is he or she proud? Terrified? Pretending not to care?)
Sequence: decide where the poster falls, and move that event to the moment when it causes the most trouble
Turning point: write the fall of the poster in at least five sentences, second by second, with at least two lines of dialogue
Precise words: replace set it up, came, fell down and good with words that show exactly what happened
Relevant details: add details for at least three senses, and cut one detail that does not help the story (does the pizza matter?)
Transitions: replace every "Then" with a word, phrase or clause that fits
Conclusion: replace "I learned a lot" with what the narrator actually learned, tied to the events
Procedure
Pairs use their Guided Practice list and the checklist to plan the rewrite
Each partner drafts half, then they join the halves with a transition
Pairs trade drafts with another pair, who underline each precise verb and label each sensory detail with its sense
Pairs read their conclusions aloud, and listeners say whether it follows from the events, reflects on them, or both
Judge's-Eye Variation
Pairs rewrite the turning point in the third person limited from the judge's point of view. They keep the events the same and change only what the narrator notices and feels.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Three Points of View
A first-person narrator is a character in the story and can share only his or her own thoughts. A third-person limited narrator stands outside the story but follows one character closely. A third-person omniscient narrator can move into any character's mind. Whichever one a writer chooses, the narrator's attitude (what he or she notices and feels) is part of the point of view, and W.7.3a asks writers to establish it early.
Diagram 2: From Stopping to Reflecting
All three endings belong to the invented swim meet story from Activity 2. The first only stops. The second follows from the events: Omar is careful with the chain that slipped. The third follows and reflects, showing what the experience meant to him. W.7.3e asks for the third kind of ending.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
W.7.3 Homework: A Narrative with a Point of View
Directions: Write a narrative of 5-7 paragraphs about a real or imagined experience in which something changes for the narrator or main character. You may build on the opening and turning point you drafted in class. Work through the six problems in order, and hand in your planning notes with the final draft.
Part 1: Plan and Establish (Problems 1-2)
Choose your point of view: a first-person narrator, or a third-person narrator who follows one character. Write one sentence naming the narrator's attitude at the start (for example, suspicious, bored or proud). Then list five to seven events in order, check that each one causes or leads to the next, and circle the turning point.
Draft your opening paragraph. Establish where and when the story happens and what is at stake, let readers see the narrator's point of view through what he or she notices and feels, and introduce at least one other character. Do not open by announcing the topic.
Part 2: Develop the Events (Problems 3-4)
Write the middle of your narrative. Develop at least one character through dialogue (at least four correctly punctuated lines), and write the turning point as a slowed-down scene of at least six sentences. Cover less important stretches in a sentence or two each.
Use at least six different transitions, including at least one word, one phrase and one clause. At least one must carry readers into a different time frame (such as a memory) or setting, and another must bring them back. Highlight each transition and label its job in the margin: sequence, time shift, setting shift or return.
Part 3: Sharpen and Reflect (Problems 5-6)
Revise the language. Replace at least four vague verbs or nouns with precise ones that capture the action, add sensory details for at least three senses at the turning point, and delete one detail that does not help the story. Record each change in a before-and-after chart.
Write a conclusion that follows from your events and reflects on them: what did the narrator or main character realize, or how does he or she now see something differently? Then write two sentences explaining how your conclusion connects to the attitude you set up in your opening.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Context, Point of View and Sequence
Place, time and stakes are clear; the narrator's point of view and attitude are established early; events unfold logically
Context or point of view is thin, or one event is out of order
No context or point of view; events listed at random
Narrative Techniques
Dialogue and description develop characters; the turning point is slowed down and minor stretches move quickly
Some dialogue or description, but the pace stays the same throughout
No dialogue or description
Transitions and Language
Varied transitions, including a clause and a time or setting shift with a return; precise words and details for three senses capture the action
Transitions repeat or one shift is unclear; language is often vague
No transitions; vague throughout
Reflective Conclusion
Follows from the events and reflects on what they meant to the narrator
Follows from the events but only summarizes them
No conclusion, or an unrelated ending
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-8 use the model narrative "Apartment 4C" in Direct Instruction, questions 9, 10 and 20 use the weak draft "Science Fair Day" in Guided Practice, and questions 11-14 and 19 use "Above the Tree Line" in the Closure section. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything so you or your students can try again.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 1 of "Apartment 4C," what point of view does the writer establish?
Answer: C
The narrator says "I" and opens with "I was supposed to be at Kiran's birthday party," so readers meet a first-person narrator who is reluctant from the first sentence. A is wrong because the story uses "I" and never enters Nani's or Mom's thoughts. B reverses the narrator's attitude. D mistakes quoted dialogue for the narrator: Mom's words are inside quotation marks.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which detail in paragraph 1 establishes the problem that sets the events in motion?
Answer: A
Paragraph 1 says that "on Monday a truck would carry everything she owned" and that Mom "put me in charge of the kitchen" with the order "Be quick." B invents a canceled party; the party goes on without the narrator, whose phone keeps buzzing with pictures. C invents a problem that is not in the text. D reverses the situation: Nani is moving, and nothing is locked.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which transition from the narrative signals a shift to an earlier time frame?
Answer: D
The clause "When I was five" opens paragraph 5 and takes readers back seven years to a memory, a flashback. A, B and C are sequence transitions: each one moves the packing day forward in order (paragraphs 2 and 8), not back in time.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 2 moves through a whole morning in five sentences, but paragraphs 3 and 4 slow down to a few seconds. Why does the writer change the pace?
Answer: B
The writer speeds through the routine packing and slows down when the narrator holds the mug "over the box marked DONATE" and Nani stops him. That moment changes the story. A reverses which part matters. C confuses paragraphs 3 and 4 with the flashback in paragraph 5. D mistakes the turning point for the conclusion, which is paragraph 9.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which detail from paragraph 5 appeals to the sense of touch?
Answer: A
Needing "both hands" to hold a hot mug is a detail readers feel. B appeals to sound (the rattling windows), C appeals to smell, and D is an action that readers see; "blue" is a sight detail.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 4, what do Nani's three words and the narrator's reaction do for the story?
Answer: C
"Not that one," said so sharply that the narrator's "hand stopped in the air," tells readers the mug is important before the narrator explains why, and the story turns from hurrying to remembering. A is wrong because the narrator did not crack the mug; it was already cracked. B is wrong because the story never explains the crack. D reverses her meaning: she is stopping the donation.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
How does the narrator's attitude change between paragraph 1 and paragraph 8?
Answer: D
In paragraph 1 he wants to be at the party and has been told not to let Nani tell stories. In paragraph 8, "I stopped checking my phone. I asked about the rolling pin." A reverses the change. B is not supported: he is never excited about the move. C ignores paragraph 8, where the annoyance is gone.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why does paragraph 9 work as a conclusion that reflects on the events?
Answer: B
The ending follows from the events (the mug is saved and given to him) and then reflects: "That Saturday, I thought packing meant getting rid of old things as fast as possible," and now he thinks old things carry a family's stories. A adds a new problem, which a conclusion should not do. C describes a summary, which the paragraph is not. D invents an event.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What is the main weakness of the first two sentences of the weak draft "Science Fair Day"?
Answer: A
"This is a story about the science fair. I was nervous." announces the topic and tells a feeling without showing where the narrator is, when it happens or why it matters. B is wrong because these sentences contain no transitions. C is wrong because the draft uses "I" throughout. D is the opposite of the problem: nothing happens yet.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The weak draft says My poster fell down at some point. Which revision uses precise words to capture the action and a transition that places it in the sequence?
Answer: C
The clause "Just as the judge reached my table" places the event exactly, and "the tape let go" and "slid" are precise actions readers can picture. A keeps the vague "at some point" and adds only feeling words. B repeats "fell" without adding anything. D goes back to the chain of "then" and the vague verb "fell."
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
From what point of view is "Above the Tree Line" told?
Answer: B
The narrator calls her "Tess" and "she" and tells readers what she thinks ("Tess liked them"). A and D are wrong because no narrator says "I." C is wrong because the story never enters Eli's mind.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which words signal a shift to an earlier time and a different place?
Answer: D
"Two summers before" moves back in time, and "at the lake" moves away from the mountain, so paragraph 6 is a flashback in a new setting. A moves the hike forward in order. B shifts the setting to the boulder slope, but it stays in the present. C does the reverse job: it brings readers back from the memory to the present.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 5 uses very short fragments (pieces of sentences), such as Gray fog. Gray rock. Why?
Answer: C
Each fragment is one thing Tess sees as she searches, so time slows to a few seconds, and "Her heartbeat thudded in her ears" shows her fear. A reverses the effect on the pace. B misreads her mood. D is wrong because they never reach the summit.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What does Tess reflect on in the last paragraph?
Answer: A
Tess decides that reaching the top "was the part people bragged about," but "knowing when to stop and look for the next marker was the part that got them home." B is wrong because Eli gives Tess the credit and is proud of her. C reverses the lesson: a cairn helped them find the trail. D invents a plan that is not in the text.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Write an opening of two or three sentences for a narrative about this situation: a seventh grader babysitting his four-year-old twin cousins sees the family dog slip out the front door. Establish the context and a point of view (who tells the story and how the narrator feels), and introduce the narrator and at least one other character.
Model answer: "Aunt Rosa had been gone for exactly nine minutes when I heard the front door click. I was on the rug helping the twins, Mia and Leo, stack blocks into a tower, and I looked up just in time to see Pickles's tail disappear down the porch steps. I had promised my aunt that nothing would go wrong." Rubric line: 2 points for a clear place and time, a first- or third-person narrator whose attitude shows, other characters, and the problem; 1 point if one of these is missing; 0 for an opening that only announces the topic.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Rewrite this telling sentence as a short scene of three or four sentences. Use dialogue, and slow the pace to show how the characters feel: My older cousin was angry that I had borrowed her headphones and broken them.
Model answer: "Nadia held the headphones up by the cracked band. 'Did you do this?' she asked, very quietly. I opened my mouth, shut it, and stared at the carpet. 'I was going to tell you,' I finally said." Rubric line: 2 points for punctuated dialogue from both characters and at least one action or pause that shows feeling without naming it; 1 point if the dialogue is there but the feeling is still only told (for example, "she was angry").
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Write three or four sentences in the third person that tell these events in a logical order: Jada waits backstage before her first piano solo; she remembers practicing on her grandmother's old piano when she was eight; out in the audience, her grandmother turns off her phone and sits up straight. Use a transition clause, one transition that signals the shift in time, and one that signals the shift in setting.
Model answer: "Backstage, Jada pressed her cold hands between her knees. When she was eight, she had practiced scales on Grandma Ines's old upright piano, which had a sticky key she learned to press twice. Out in the audience, Grandma Ines switched off her phone and sat up very straight. As soon as the stage manager nodded, Jada walked into the light." Rubric line: 2 points for a logical order, a clause such as "As soon as the stage manager nodded," a transition into the memory and one that moves to the audience; 1 point if the order works but one required transition is missing.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Rewrite this sentence so that it captures the action with precise verbs and uses sensory language for at least two senses: The cat knocked the glass off the counter and it broke.
Model answer: "Olive, our gray cat, nudged the glass once, twice, and then swatted it over the edge; it shattered on the tile with a sharp crack, and cold lemonade splashed across my bare feet." Rubric line: 2 points for precise verbs in place of "knocked" and "broke" (here nudged, swatted, shattered) and details for two senses (here sound and touch); 1 point for precise verbs or sensory detail, but not both.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
In paragraph 4 of "Above the Tree Line," Eli's voice sounded calm, but he had stopped walking. In two or three sentences, explain what this detail shows about Eli and why it fits the story's point of view. Cite the paragraph.
Model answer: Paragraph 4 shows that Eli is more worried than he sounds: his words are calm, but stopping gives him away. The story follows only Tess's thoughts, so readers cannot look inside Eli's mind; they learn how he feels the same way Tess does, by noticing what he does. Rubric line: 2 points for explaining what the detail reveals and connecting it to the third-person limited point of view, with the paragraph cited; 1 point for describing Eli's feeling without the point-of-view connection.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
The weak draft "Science Fair Day" ends It was a good day and I learned a lot. The end. Write a conclusion of three or four sentences that follows from the events in the draft and reflects on what they meant to the narrator.
Model answer: "When the judges read my name for second place, my poster was still held up by two strips of Jaylen's tape. All week I had worried about the judge's questions, but what I remember most is the poster falling and deciding to keep talking anyway. I learned something about plants and music, but I learned more about keeping going when a plan comes apart in front of people." Rubric line: 2 points for an ending that grows out of the draft's events (the judge, the poster, second place) and reflects on what they meant; 1 point for an ending that follows but only summarizes; 0 for "The end" or a new, unrelated event.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does W.7.3 mean?
W.7.3 means that seventh graders can write a narrative, a story about a real or imagined experience, with effective technique, relevant details and a well-built sequence of events.
Its five parts ask students to establish a context and a point of view, introduce a narrator and characters, and order events logically (a); use dialogue, pacing and description (b); use varied transitions for sequence and for shifts in time or setting (c); use precise words and sensory language to capture the action (d); and end with a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the events (e).
What is the difference between W.6.3 and W.7.3?
Grade 7 adds three things: establishing a point of view, language that captures the action, and a conclusion that reflects.
In W.6.3a, students establish a context and introduce characters; W.7.3a adds "and point of view." W.7.3d adds "to capture the action," and W.7.3e changes the ending from one that "follows from" the events to one that "follows from and reflects on" them.
What does "establishing a point of view" mean in W.7.3a?
It means making clear, early in the story, who is telling it and how that narrator sees the events.
Students choose first person ("I") or third person ("she," "he," "they"), and they let readers sense the narrator's attitude through what he or she notices and feels. A narrator who opens with "Nobody asked me whether I wanted a stepbrother" has a point of view before anything happens.
Should seventh graders write in first person or third person?
Either works: the standard asks students to establish a point of view, not to use a particular one.
First person is natural for real experiences. Third person limited, which follows one character's thoughts, lets a writer describe that character from outside. Many teachers have students try both, for example by rewriting one scene in the other point of view.
What does it mean for a conclusion to reflect on the events?
A reflective conclusion shows what the experience meant: what the narrator realized, how he or she changed, or why it still matters.
An ending that follows tells how things turned out. An ending that reflects also looks back, often by comparing what the narrator thought at the start with what he or she thinks now. It should grow out of the story's events, not add a moral that the story never showed.
What are narrative techniques in W.7.3b?
Narrative techniques are the tools that develop a story; W.7.3b names dialogue, pacing and description.
Dialogue lets readers hear characters, pacing controls how fast time passes on the page, and description helps readers picture people, places and actions. The words "such as" mean writers may use others too, for example a flashback or a character's inner thoughts.
What does "capture the action" mean in W.7.3d?
It means choosing words that let readers see an action happen instead of being told it happened.
Precise verbs (lunged, skidded, snatched) and sensory details (the squeak of sneakers, the sting of cold water) do most of the work. "He ran and got the ball" reports the action; "He lunged, skidded across the wet grass and snatched the ball" captures it.
Which transitions signal a shift in time frame or setting?
Transitions such as "the summer I turned ten," "years earlier," "meanwhile, across town" and "back at the house" tell readers the story has moved to another time or place.
A clause works well for a jump into a memory ("When Grandpa still lived with us, ..."). After a flashback or a cut to another place, a second transition, such as "Now" or "Back on the field," brings readers back.
How is W.7.3 usually assessed?
W.7.3 is usually assessed with a written narrative scored on a rubric for organization, development, language and conventions.
Some state tests give students a short text and ask them to continue it, retell it from another character's point of view, or write a new ending. Check your state's released practice tasks and scoring guides for the exact format.
How can parents help a seventh grader with narrative writing?
Ask your child to tell you about one moment from the day, and then ask what a reader would ask: What did it sound like? What did you think right then? What do you think about it now?
The last question is the one that builds reflection. Reading a story together and asking "Who is telling this, and how do they feel?" builds the habit of noticing point of view.
07
Related Standards
5 standards
These standards connect to W.7.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Before this lesson
W.6.3Prerequisite
Write narratives about real or imagined experiences with technique and detail
