Ways kids can write narratives that aren’t essays:

-create a playlist of songs around a certain time or event, write short snippets of text to connect them
-screenshot texts and tie them together; intersperse video clips
-storyboard of notes in their phone from a time period

-create instagram stories with songs and use the text boxes to organize and tell a story
-rate the things they bought during quarantine (or whenever)
-design a graphic to look like a restaurant menu; the descriptions of the dishes reveal the meaning or significance of the food

-build a virtual bookshelf of books that have been meaningful in their life and write short memories for each. (If you teach them Rudine Sims Bishop’s Windows and Mirrors theory, have kids inventory books that way)
-connect a time’s to do lists, shopping lists, planner pages

The saved detritus of our lives are sometimes the most truthful and surprising storytellers. The arc of my own life can be traced across the saved lists & phone notes, workouts I logged, receipts, notebooks with jottings & work ideas. See what stories kids can create from these.