Draw Then Tell: Personal Narrative
Draw a real event, then tell it as a complete narrative with orientation, complication and resolution.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Insist on the shape rather than the length. The went wrong prompt is the most useful because it forces a complication, which is the element most students leave out — a story where nothing goes wrong is a description of a day. The five-sentence prompt is a good constraint for a student who tells everything at once; the sportscaster one suits a student who tells too little. Twenty minutes covers one narrative with a retell.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- Question promptAsk a story-grammar question: who, where, what was the problem, what happened next?Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two possible next parts of the story and let the student pick and say it.Log as cued
- ModelTell that part yourself; the student tells it back in their own words.Log as cued
Adjust it
Use fewer parts, and keep a first-next-last visual on the table.
Ask for the retell without the pictures, with a feeling or a reason added to each part.
Matching IEP goal
Given a picture or story prompt, Student will tell a story that includes a character, setting, problem and ending in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than one question prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight prompts that ask for a drawing and then a story: draw the best part of your weekend and tell it with a beginning, middle and end; draw a time something went wrong — what was the problem and how did it end; draw a time you were surprised and tell me what you had expected instead. Personal narrative is what a student is asked for constantly outside school, and it has the same structure as the fiction they are graded on.
What to listen for
Listen for the internal response. Students reliably give the setting and the events, and the part that goes missing is how the character — themselves — felt about it, which is what makes a sequence into a story. Watch the surprise prompt, which requires stating an expectation that turned out wrong, and is the hardest inference-adjacent task in the set.
Carrying it home
Dinner conversation is personal narrative. Asking for the best and worst part of the day, with a beginning and an end, is a routine some families already have and is exactly this task.
What's in this activity
- Draw the best part of your weekend. Then tell it as a story with a beginning, middle and end.
- Draw a time something went wrong. What was the problem, and how did it end?
- Draw a place you know well. Now take me on a tour of it out loud.
- Draw a person who matters to you. Tell me one story about them.
- Draw something you learned to do. Explain the steps in the order you learned them.
- Draw a time you were surprised. Tell me what you had expected instead.
- Draw your last day off. Tell the story in five sentences, no more.
- Draw one moment from a game or a performance. Describe it like a sportscaster.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Fourth through sixth, and the prompts scale up easily for older students.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight prompts are free to use here.
- Why personal narrative rather than retelling a story?
- Because the student owns the content, so all the effort goes into the structure. A retell tests memory as well as narrative; a personal story tests only the structure.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.