High School Narrative & Story Writing IEP Goals
Updated: March 18, 2026. Reviewer: Dr. Rose Sebastian, Ed.D.
Free, Ready-to-Use High School Story & Narrative Writing IEP Goals
For many students, the focus in writing in high school is on expository writing. That is because, across subjects, students are asked to write essays, reports, and complete paragraphs. But, just like narrative reading comprehension remains important, so too can narrative writing. College essays are, at their hearts, stories– and reading and writing stories can help students build their empathy and understanding of others, as well as their ability to tell complete stories about events that happen in their lives. We have narrative writing goals for elementary school and middle school if you need easier goals. We also have guides on how to read and evaluate IEP goals and state specific IEP guides too.
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3
- The most basic, but student time consuming, way to assess for this goal is to give the student a narrative writing prompt, ask for a story, and see what happens. Some of the prompts on this site are pretty fun– and these are pretty decent too.
- You can also use student writing samples for this goal. Try to get copies or Google versions of the raw form of the narrative so you can see what the student can do without teacher support. If it isn’t clear how much help they got, give them one of those prompts and ask the to just write the first two paragraphs of the story. That will give you a sense of what their narrative writing looks like without support and you can use that to compare to the writing sample.
Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!
In class, Luisa is able to write longer stories with significant teacher prompting and support. The stories, however, are heavily descriptive, with no dialogue, clear conflicts, or literary devices that build read interest.
For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!
- Given a writing prompt, word processor, and planning time, X will write narratives of at least one full, double-spaced, page to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences, including a beginning, middle, and end to the story on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3
- Change the amount the student needs to write.
- For example, make it 300 words, 30 sentences, a full page, or make it shorter.
- As an FYI, this goal is 61 words.
- Change what you want to see in the story.
- For example, you can specify after effective technique “including correctly used quotations to indicate dialogue.”
- You could also specify the event sequences, “sequences that specify the conflicts and how they are resolved.”
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3
- The most basic, but student time consuming, way to assess for this goal is to give the student a narrative writing prompt, ask for a story, and see what happens. Some of the prompts on this site are pretty fun– and these are pretty decent too.
- You can also use student writing samples for this goal. Try to get copies or Google versions of the raw form of the narrative so you can see what the student can do without teacher support. If it isn’t clear how much help they got, give them one of those prompts and ask the to just write the first two paragraphs of the story. That will give you a sense of what their narrative writing looks like without support and you can use that to compare to the writing sample.
Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!
Given a writing prompt, Chad can write a brief story with clear characters, a problem/resolution, and basic event sequencing. The stories are very brief, typically only one to two paragraphs, and are very simple, without dialogue or descriptive details.
For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!
- Given a writing prompt, word processor, and planning time, X will write narratives of at least one full, double-spaced, page to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences, including a beginning, middle, and end to the story on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3
- Change the amount the student needs to write.
- For example, make it 300 words, 30 sentences, a full page, or make it shorter.
- As an FYI, this goal is 61 words.
- Change what you want to see in the story.
- For example, you can specify after effective technique “including correctly used quotations to indicate dialogue.”
- You could also specify the event sequences, “sequences that specify the conflicts and how they are resolved.”
