Skip to content
Oak National Academy
Oak National Academy
Teachers
Pupils
icon-background-square
New
New
Year 11
AQA

Planning outstanding narratives

I can plan an interesting narrative.

Download all resources
arrow-right
Share activities with pupils
arrow-right
icon-background-square
New
New
Year 11
AQA

Planning outstanding narratives

I can plan an interesting narrative.

Download all resources
arrow-right
Share activities with pupils
arrow-right
warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
View new resources
arrow-right

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. When writing a short story, we can condense the traditional narrative arc.
  2. We need to craft for a believable unfolding of events for a short story.
  3. In short stories, we may need to plant seeds of conflict from the very beginning.
  4. We can also manipulate time in a short story to hook the reader,
  5. We can begin our story with the climax, a flashback or a moment after the events of the narrative have taken place.

Keywords

  • Chronological - following the order in which a series of events occurred

  • Manipulate - to change or control something in a skilful manner

  • Ignominy - public shame or disgrace

Common misconception

All narratives have to follow the traditional story arc and have a chronological order for them to make sense.

Short stories often have to manipulate the traditional story structure to be engaging from the very beginning.


To help you plan your year 11 english lesson on: Planning outstanding narratives, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Take one of your pupils' story ideas and put it under the visualiser/on the board. As a class, discuss ways that you could plan each section this narrative. This will help with pupil confidence but also show pupils that there is not just one set way to plan their story.
speech-bubble
Teacher tip
content-guidance

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of upsetting content
  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

Skip lesson video

Loading...

Starter quiz

Download starter quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
'Chronological' describes a narrative in which ...
events are described in a different order to which they actually occur.
Correct answer: events are described in the order events actually occur.
large chunks of time between events are skipped.
Q2.
Starting with the first, put each section of the narrative arc in chronological order.
1 - Exposition
2 - Rising action
3 - Climax
4 - Falling action
5 - Resolution
Q3.
What is a flashback?
Correct answer: transitioning to a past time in a narrative
transitioning to a future time in a narrative
skipping large chunks of time in a narrative
Q4.
Which of these is not a manipulation of time in a narrative?
Correct answer: anaphora
flashback
flashforward
Q5.
What is a climax in a narrative?
the part of a text where characters are introduced
the part of the text where conflict is resolved
Correct answer: the part of the text with the highest point of dramatic tension
Q6.
Which of these events is the most appropriate for a climax?
a woman is alone in the forest
Correct answer: a battle between a robot and human breaks out
it starts raining heavily

Exit quiz

Download exit quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
'Exposition, rising action, , falling action, resolution'. Which is the technical term for the part of the narrative arc that is missing from the sequence?
action
Correct answer: climax
drama
tension
Q2.
For short narratives, what might an exposition need?
biographical details of the author
an introduction to every character one by one
Correct answer: a seed for something to go wrong
Q3.
Which of these sequences does not manipulate time?
Correct answer: Exposition -> rising action -> climax
Flashback -> exposition -> rising action -> climax
Present -> past -> past
Q4.
Which of these would be most likely to lead to ignominy?
Correct answer: a leader pays for people to vote for them in an election
someone wears last season's fashion to a party
two friends argue on the bus
Q5.
When writing a short story, what is the least important thing to do?
Correct answer: allow a full narrative arc to unfold
craft each scene consciously
allow for a strong sense of voice to shine through
Q6.
In order to begin with the climax in a short story, which order could these narrative events be described in?
1 - a violent, brutal fight is described
2 - a character is describing that they are homeless
3 - the character describes how conflict developed between them and a flatmate