Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Writing · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What W.4.3 Means in Plain English
Fourth graders set the scene and introduce the narrator or characters, then let events unfold in order. Dialogue shows how characters react, transitions like later that night move time along, concrete and sensory details let a reader see and hear it, and the ending grows from the events.
Third graders (W.3.3) already use dialogue and time words like next and then. Fourth grade asks for a wider variety of transitions plus concrete words and sensory details, and an ending that follows from the events. Fifth grade (W.5.3) adds pacing and transitions that are whole clauses.
W.4.3 I Can Statements
I can set the scene and introduce my narrator and characters.
I can use dialogue and transitions to move my events along.
I can use sensory details and end with a fitting conclusion.
W.4.3 Worked Example
Same prompt, same true event. One writer lists what happened; the other puts the reader in the water.
Prompt
Write about a time you tried something for the first time. It can be real or imagined. Use dialogue, details for at least three senses, and transitions that move the reader from one event to the next.
Not YetI went snorkeling with my aunt. I saw a lot of fish and it was fun. Then we went home.The events are in order, but no one speaks, “a lot of fish” and “fun” give a reader nothing to see or feel, “then” is the only transition, and the ending just stops.
Meets the StandardThe first time I put my face in the ocean, the snorkel mask squeezed my cheeks and everything tasted like salt. “Breathe slow, like you’re fogging up a window,” Aunt Pilar said, floating beside me. For a minute, all I heard was my own breathing, loud and hollow inside the tube. Then, just past the sea grass, a blue-green parrotfish crunched on a rock, and I could actually hear it scraping! Later, back on the warm sand, my fingers were wrinkly and I was already asking, “Can we go again tomorrow?”Sentence one sets the scene and introduces the narrator, Aunt Pilar’s line shows a character helping, and the transitions (for a minute, then, later) carry the events. The details reach touch, taste, sound and sight, and the ending grows from the trip: the narrator wants to go back.
Moves to Use
Open inside the scene, with a detail the reader can feel.Let a character speak, and show how the narrator responds.Use a different transition each time the story moves forward.Swap general words like fun for concrete ones like crunched.End with a moment that follows from what happened.
Common Mistakes with W.4.3
Telling the feeling instead of showing it
“It was scary and then it was fun.”
Try this: Ask “What did you see, hear or feel right then?” and have students replace each feeling word with one concrete detail.
Then, then, then
Every sentence after the first one starts with “Then”
Try this: Post a transition bank (a moment later, after lunch, that night, just then) and have students change at least three of their thens.
An ending from nowhere
“Then we went home. The end.”
Try this: Have students reread their last event and write an ending that shows how the narrator feels or what changed because of it.
Story Starter GeneratorFree ToolA fresh opening line for grades 3 to 5. Students continue the story, adding one line of dialogue and a detail for three senses.Story3-5Dialogue
Which senses does the strong response use? Give one detail for each.
Touch, the mask squeezing the narrator’s cheeks; taste, everything tasting like salt; sound, the loud breathing and the parrotfish crunching; sight, the blue-green parrotfish.
Which transitions move the strong story from event to event?
“For a minute,” “Then, just past the sea grass,” and “Later, back on the warm sand.”
How does the ending of the strong response follow from the events?
After a swim full of new sights and sounds, the narrator asks to go again tomorrow, which shows the first time was worth it.