Planning questions
- Who needs help, and why?
- Why is the helper surprising?
- How do the characters work together?
NarrativeYears 3–9
The Unexpected Helper
Someone needs help, and it arrives from the last place anyone expected. Write a story about an unexpected helper.
Bring your characters and setting to life, and give your story a clear beginning, complication and resolution.
NarrativeYears 3–9
The Unexpected Helper
Someone needs help, and it arrives from the last place anyone expected. Write a story about an unexpected helper.
Bring your characters and setting to life, and give your story a clear beginning, complication and resolution.
Planning and teaching notes
Writer’s checklist
- Plan the characters, setting and main problem.
- Shape the events so the reader can follow what happens.
- Choose words carefully and vary your sentences.
- Use paragraphs, punctuation and spelling to make meaning clear.
- Reread and edit before you finish.
Teaching notes
Show kindness through actions and their effects, not just the word “kind”.
Support: Pair an unlikely helper with a problem, and talk through how they might meet.
Extend: Let the helper need something too, so the kindness goes both ways.
Choose one skill from your current teaching. Model it and practise it together before students write, then check it again in a later task.
How to teach narrative writingOriginal Writing Boost classroom resource for Years 3–9. Print and share with your class.
Feedback on the story they write
Writing Boost marks students’ writing and gives each writer feedback for their next draft.
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Typed or handwritten
Bring typed work into Writing Boost, or review a transcript of a handwritten piece before sending it for feedback.
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Feedback on each criterion
Students see what is working and where to focus next, with a specific change to try in their draft. From “improve your vocabulary” to a next step a writer can act on.
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Revise and compare drafts
Feedback stays close while students revise. Compare versions to see what changed and talk about why. Students make the changes. The writing stays theirs. See a writing example
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See the whole class
See criterion results across your class, spot shared needs and strengths, and open the student work behind them.
Illustrative product views with example writing and fictional class data.
See Writing Boost in a demo
- Persuasive
