The ability to identify the elements of a story (plot, characters, setting, and theme) aids in reading comprehension, leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of stories, and helps students learn to write stories of their own. Use these strategies such as graphic organizers, index cards, or cooperative groups to teach students the process of Identifying the elements of a story.
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Story Elements
What Is It?
Commonly identified elements of a story include plot, character, setting, and theme. The plot usually revolves around a problem or conflict that is presented at the beginning of the story and resolved at the end. The ability to identify the elements of a story aids in comprehension, leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of stories, and helps students learn to write stories of their own.
A graphic organizer, such as a story map, can help students visually organize a story's elements, increasing their ability to retell, summarize, and comprehend the story.
Why Is It Important?
Discerning the way reading material is organized is important to comprehension. According to Dickson, et al. (1998), teaching narrative text organization, using characters, a setting, problems, solutions to the problems, and so on, gives students a frame of reference for processing and storing information. Irvin (1998) identifies "awareness of text structures" as an important metacognitive skill.
How Can You Make It Happen?
Begin talking with students about story elements as early as preschool, and continue through middle and high school. The experiences and background of the students should determine the depth of the discussion and the detail of the graphic organizer that you use, should you choose to use one. Organizers can be quite sophisticated. Some story elements for older students can include: plot, conflict, resolution, theme, atmosphere, rising action, climax, and turning point.
For emergent readers, introduce the elements of a story that students are familiar with, such as a favorite fairy tale, and define each element.
Characters: Who is in the story?Setting/Place: Where does the story take place?
Time: When does the story happen?
Problem: What is it that one or more characters wants to do or wants to happen by the end of the story?
Events: What happens in the story that helps the characters solve the problem?
Tell students that all stories have the same elements, and identifying these elements can help to increase their understanding of the story. For students new to this strategy, choose stories with clear problems and solutions. As students' comprehension increases, introduce more complex stories to promote critical-thinking skills.
For emergent readers, read the text aloud to them, stopping at key points to discuss the information and ask and answer questions. Complete the graphic organizer as a collaborative classroom activity by thinking aloud to help students identify each element.
Once students are familiar with the process, either read the text aloud to them, or have them read on their own. Ask guiding questions related to story elements in addition to specific content questions.
Who are the main characters in the story? How would you describe them? What is the setting of the story (where and when does it take place)?
What is the central problem of the story? How is it solved?
How does the author want us to feel after reading the story?
Students may complete the graphic organizer in groups, independently, or as a class. The graphic organizer can be used to make predictions or as a discussion tool.
As students become more competent with identifying story elements, increase the sophistication of the graphic organizer or add components such as the theme or resolution.
FAQs
Knowing the five elements of a story are essential to reading and writing stories. Have your students practice finding these elements and discussing how they can influence one another with this lesson plan. Students will become fluent with the five elements of a story: plot, character, conflict, theme and setting.
How will you identify the elements of the story? ›
The basic bones of a story are setting, character, plot, conflict, and theme. These elements work together to create the basic structure of a story. Without any one of these components, a story will fall flat, and changing any one of these elements can dramatically affect a story's structure and impact.
What are the elements of story writing lesson plan? ›
Key Vocabulary
- setting.
- plot.
- conflict.
- theme.
- characters.
There are five key elements to every story: plot, setting, characters, point of view, and conflict. Whether your students realize it or not, they naturally include all these elements when they're telling a story to their families or their best fr.
How do you identify the lesson of a story? ›
A story's message, or theme, is what the author wants to teach you through his or her writing. Some stories have a specific kind of message called a moral, or a life lesson. You can find the message of a story by looking at the characters' actions and focusing on what is repeated throughout the story.
What is the example of elements of the story? ›
There are eight elements of a story: theme, plot, characters, setting, conflict, point-of-view, tone and style.
Why is it important to identify story elements? ›
Commonly identified elements of a story include plot, character, setting, and theme. The ability to identify the elements of a story aids in comprehension, leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of stories, and helps students learn to write stories of their own.
How can we determine and identify the elements? ›
Correct answer:
There are two properties that can be used to identify an element: the atomic number or the number of protons in an atom. The number of neutrons and number of electrons are frequently equal to the number of protons, but can vary depending on the atom in question.
What is a story element? ›
From the setting and characters to the plot, conflict, theme, point-of-view, tone, and style, each element plays a critical role in crafting a compelling story. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned writer, mastering these story elements will help you create stories that captivate and resonate with your readers.
How to identify main events in a story? ›
Find the event that happens first in the story. Locate the main events. Use this test: if this event didn't happen, would the story be very different? If so, then it's probably a main event.
Character is perhaps the most important element of fiction, as things must happen to someone or something in order for a story to progress. Not only is this crucial for story development, but as human beings, we read stories and enjoy stories because we can see ourselves in them, often through the characters.
How do you analyze story elements? ›
When analyzing a novel or short story, you'll need to consider elements such as the context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and themes. Remember that a literary analysis isn't merely a summary or review, but rather an interpretation of the work and an argument about it based on the text.
What are the 5 basic elements of a short story identify and briefly explain? ›
They are true masters at combining the five key elements that go into every great short story: character, setting, conflict, plot and theme. The ELLSA web-site uses one of these five key elements as the focus of each of the five on-line lessons in the Classics of American Literature section.
What are the 7 main story elements explain them briefly? ›
It may seem like your favorite story comes together with magic, but there are seven key elements of a story that you'll find in any great one: plot, character, setting, conflict, theme, point of view, and tone.
What is the purpose of teaching story elements? ›
Being familiar with the various elements that combine in good storytelling also helps students in their writing. It helps students to organise their thoughts and competently weave together the various threads of their own stories. No small feat for an experienced writer, let alone a novice!
What is story elements lesson kindergarten? ›
There are 5 story elements; characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. When teaching kindergarten we have found it is better to use beginning, middle and ending of a story instead of plot. We also use problem and solution instead of conflict and resolution.
