Story Elements

Story elements are one of my favorite things to teach. In my opinion, they are extremely critical for helping students become skilled readers of fiction. Most story elements can be found in quality fiction books, but you have to be careful when teaching problem, solution, and theme. Some books do not have clear problems, solutions, and/or themes. When teaching story elements, I often begin with fables, folktales, and fairy tales. These books usually have clear, distinct story elements.

As usual, I began with an anchor chart. We talked about the different story elements, and I emphasized that these elements are found in fictional stories. It is always good to be explicit. Usually, I find that students struggle the most with finding the theme. They always want to speak in terms of the specific situation or characters. I am constantly reminding students that the theme is general, such as "Be nice to others." Not..."The crow needs to be nice to the hen." It usually helps to brainstorm a list of themes that students can refer back to. It really helps drive home the point.

For the modeling portion of the lesson, I read aloud An Angel For Solomon Singer. I had never read this book before planning for this lesson. It was a HUGE hit. The kids were completely captivated. It is a beautiful story about a man who misses his home once he moves to New York City. He finally finds a place he can call home when he meets a man named Angel at a local diner. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has never read it before.

I modeled how to identify the story elements for this book with a story map. Students filled out these elements as I went over them.

For the guided practice portion of the lesson, we read The Widow's Broom. (It also happened to be Halloween!) Together, we filled out the story map. 

Then, for the independent practice, I pulled a variety of texts at my students' reading levels. See what I mean about picking folktales and fables? These stories worked out perfectly for identifying story elements! During this portion of the lesson, my students completed the story maps independently.

If you would like a free copy of the story map, click here!

What are some of your favorite books for teaching story elements?

Foldable Box Book Project

As a fun end of year activity, my fifth graders and I made a foldable box book project! On the bottom part of the box, students record information about the book they read. The box isn't as difficult to make as it seems at first, and the students really love the activity!

For the project, you will need two large pieces of construction paper. You will need a 12" x 12" piece of paper for the lid, and an 11.5" x 11.5" paper for the bottom.

Directions for Lid: (12”x 12”)

• Step 1: Draw a point in the center of the square paper.

• Step 2: Fold each corner to the point you drew in the middle. Make sure each fold is creased clearly.

• Step 3: After your folding, you will have four lines from your creases. Fold each corner to the opposite crease line.  

• Step 4: Now your paper will have many creases. Fold each corner to the nearest crease. It will make a very small triangle in each corner.

• Step 5: Pick two opposite sides. On each side you will make two cuts. The cuts should be two of the creased sections long.

• Step 6: On the sides you did not cut, fold the two triangles in, and then fold over one more square section on each side.

• Step 7: Fold in the triangle tip of both of the other sides.

• Step 8: Once you have folded in the triangle tip, fold over the rectangle you just made all the way to the top of the lid. Do this for both sides.

• Step 9: Tuck the flaps of the other sides under the sides you just folded. This will make a box.

• Step 10: Press all of your creases firmly to hold the shape. This may take several firm presses.

Directions for Bottom: (11.5”x 11.5”)

• Step 1: Fold your construction paper into thirds. Open the paper up and fold the paper into thirds the other direction. Open the paper up.

• Step 2: Cut the pattern below into your construction paper. 

• Step 3: Fold up the flaps to make the box.

• Step 4: Put the lid on to hold the box in place. 

How to Fill Out the Bottom: 
Once you have folded the entire box, the bottom will have nine individual boxes created by the fold lines. The students will fill out the nine boxes according to these guidelines: (or you  can pick your own!)

• Box 1: Title and Author
• Box 2: At Least 3 Predictions
• Box 3: List of Main Characters
• Box 4: Setting
• Box 5: List of 8 Key Vocabulary Words Chosen from the Story with Definitions
• Box 6: 2 of Favorite Quotes from Story
• Box 7: Theme of Story
• Box 8: 3-5 Sentence Summary
• Box 9: Describe Your Favorite Part of the Book and Explain Why it is Your Favorite Part

*Complete boxes 1 and 2 before reading the book. Complete boxes 3-9 after reading the book.

If you would like printable directions for the box, click here! Do you have any fun book projects you do with your students?

The Power of Choice

Many of you may already be on summer break, and if not, hopefully you are getting close! While we enjoy the time to rest and rejuvenate over the summer, many of us worry about our students and the well-known "summer slide."

We often worry whether our students will continue developing academically over the summer. We know that often times our students actually regress. Many of our students do not continue their learning over the summer due to a lack of resources. Richard Allington recently conducted a study on the power of using self-selected summer reading books to combat the "summer slide." His research is fascinating, and if you have not read about it, you can find out more here. He believes that students are much more involved in reading, and  as a result benefit more, when they are able to choose their books.

Allington actually found that providing students with self-selected books for the summer was equally, if not more, effective than costly summer school programs! This article really got me thinking. I need to incorporate more choice in my reading groups. As a result, I took my fourth grade intervention group to the teacher resource room. You should have seen the look on their faces! You would have thought they had won the lottery. Their little faces lit up when they saw the stacks of tubs filled with books.

I wasn't overly surprised when most of my students picked Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Who doesn't love that story?! Another one of my students really loves history. As a result, I directed him towards the Social Studies section. He is particularly interested in the Civil War. 

After a great deal of searching, he finally settled on Abe Lincoln's Hat. When students finished reading their self-selected books, I had them complete a graphic organizer identifying the story elements. Next, students wrote a summary of their book.

My students really put a lot of thought and effort into their graphic organizers and summaries. I was very impressed and extremely proud of them. I think choosing their own books helped motivated them.

 

If you would like your own copies of the graphic organizers, click here or on the images above. There is a version for fiction and nonfiction. How do you incorporate choice into your reading program?

Stone Soup!

My third graders and I had a little fun studying the classic folktale Stone Soup. We read a few different versions, including a reader's theater version. They really enjoyed the stories, but couldn't believe anyone would fall for that trick!

To begin, we read a short story version of Stone Soup. After students read the story independently, we completed a story map. Now, this was not any ordinary story map! It was organized to look like a recipe card. With the internet, I was actually quite surprised that my students recognized the graphic organizer as a recipe card. Then again, they mostly mentioned that their grandmothers used them! 

On one side of the graphic organizer we identified the characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme. Then on the other side, we sequenced the important events. If you would like a copy of the graphic organizer click here, or on the image above.

Next, I read aloud Cactus Soup. This story is very similar to Stone Soup, except that it takes place in Mexico and involves a cactus instead of a stone. My students all agreed that a stone was safer to use than a cactus. They thought someone was going to get poked by the needle when they took a sip!

After reading both stories, we completed a venn diagram in our reader's notebooks comparing and contrasting the two folktales. I think the stories had just the right amount of similarities and differences to make a good comparison.

Next, the students practiced a reader's theater version of Stone Soup. I chose this particular version of the story because it only had two characters, and it was most similar to the first version we read. Also, I wanted students to practice in partners and then perform for the entire group. While students were performing, I recorded their voices on the iPad. The next day we listed to everyone's performances. The students were really excited, but got very embarrassed listening to their own voices. All in all, we had a lot of fun with Stone Soup!

What stories do you like to read multiple versions of?