Narrative Written Content on Notebook Paper: “Mrs. Miller makes superb grilled cheese. To begin with, I had the most scrumtios (scrumptious) snack, my teachcer (teacher), Mrs. Miller walked in our portable and announced, “We are going to have a special snack! She took…”
Consistency + Commitment=Authentic Impact
Meet Seth, a 4th grader, who expressed that he did not like writing. He was easily frustrated and rushed through writing assignments. In this example, Seth turned in his essay incomplete. He struggled with letter size consistency, word spacing, pencil grip, pencil pressure, and pacing to keep up with his thoughts. However, with most essays, Seth possessed an advanced command of language, solid grammar skills, advanced use of figurative language, strong vocabulary, and complex sentence structure.
Prompt: Write a narrative story about the day your teacher surprised the class with grilled cheese sandwiches.
Seth provided written permission for publishing his work samples 2/2026
Consistency + Commitment=Authentic Impact
After two lessons of explicit teaching and five days later, Seth showed dramatic improvement. Seth was also provided a three-sided pencil, instantly improving his grip. Seth improved his posture through modeling. In this sample on gridded paper, Seth dramatically improved his letter size consistency, word spacing, pencil pressure and, mostly, his self-esteem and attitude about writing. In fact, Seth presented this essay with genuflection (literally on one knee) and a proud smile! This dramatic improvement evidenced that providing a scaffolded framework for letter and word formation allowed Seth to fully demonstrate his narrative writing skills, while simultaneously improving his attitude and confidence.
Prompt: Write a narrative story about your favorite memory.
Jacob Y: 4th Grade 8.28.2007
The writing prompt to the left was about “Bill” the squirrel I rescued and took care of at school.
Jacob Y: 4th Grade October 2007
Jacob’s writing to the right is an “I am” poem where students use sentence stems to complete the poem about themselves.
Hold this space for Jade and Elli’s baseline and after samples
The writing prompt to the left was about “Bill” the squirrel I rescued and took care of at school.
Jacob Y: 4th Grade October 2007
Jacob’s writing to the right is an “I am” poem where students use sentence stems to complete the poem about themselves.