Middle School Narrative Writing Goals

Browse CCS-aligned IEP goals and objectives for writing stories and narratives-- and see tips on how to modify the goals for your students!

Description & Voice Goals

Paragraph & Essay Goals

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Narrative & Story Goals

Writing Stamina & Fluency Goals

Middle School Narrative Writing Goals

Narrative or story writing is one of the three text types that the Common Core focuses on from kindergarten to twelfth grades. As students move up in the grades, the length and quality of their stories is expected to increase– but the key elements of story writing start all the way back in elementary school! Check out our elementary school, middle school, and high school IEP goals for story writing!
  • Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.3
  • 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!

When given a narrative prompt, Leon will typically write a few sentences and then say that the story is done. To punctuate this, he will often write THE END, all in capitals. In class, the teacher reports that Leon needs significant prompts to add onto his ideas and to build the narrative. 

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, relevant descriptive 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.6.3
  • 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, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3
  • 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!

When given a narrative prompt, Leon will typically write a few sentences and then say that the story is done. To punctuate this, he will often write THE END, all in capitals. In class, the teacher reports that Leon needs significant prompts to add onto his ideas and to build the narrative. 

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, relevant descriptive 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.7.3
  • 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, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.3
  • 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, relevant descriptive 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.8.3
  • 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.”

Need teaching resources or downloadable Present Levels templates and assessments? Check out the store!