Story Matters: Teaching Teens to Use the Tools of Narrative to Argue and Inform, Paperback

When we read a nonfiction text, what is the difference between one that keeps us interested and one that merely informs? Especially when the topic may be a bit, well, dry? The difference is narrative. The writer who threads a story throughout her text - using the tools of human connection, of narrative - is the writer who brings information to life. The argument she makes is compelling and real, because we care about the story within her story. This writer understands the power of narrative.

In Story Matters, Liz Prather provides activities, lessons, exercises, mentor texts, and student samples to help teens learn to seamlessly weave narrative into their nonfiction writing. She provides concrete ideas for using the tools and techniques of narrative, including:

- finding stories within any topic
- using characters
- creating tension
- exploring structure
- selecting details
- crafting words and sentences.

Give Liz's ideas a try and watch your students' writing rise to new levels. Because story matters.

Liz Prather is a writing teacher at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, a magnet arts program at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. A classroom teacher with 21years of experience teaching writing at both the secondary and post-secondary level, Liz is also a professional freelance writer and holds a MFA from the University of Texas-Austin. Liz is the author of Project-Based Writing: Teaching Writers to Manage Time and Clarify Purpose, and Story Matters: Teaching Teens to Use the Tools of Narrative to Argue and Inform.