Story Elements This presentation is best shown over several days. There are natural breaks after character and setting, conflict, plot, and theme. (My student would never sit through the entire thing in one day—it’s way too much information) For more on teaching students how to understand text, check out Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling or The Forest AND the Trees: Helping Students to Identify Details in Texts and Tests, both by Emily Kissner.

What do all stories have in common? Characters Setting Conflict (problem) Plot (events) Theme More questions? Comments? Contact me through the TeachersPayTeachers site—I’d be happy to talk with you. -Emily

Characters Characters are the people, animals, or objects who make the action happen in a story A story can have many characters, or just a few Can students think of a story that has people as characters? Animals? Objects?

Can you name the characters in these stories? The Three Little Pigs Cinderella Spider-Man Ratatouille The Frog Prince My students actually had trouble naming the characters in some of these stories, so I pulled students to the front of the room to act them out. This helped them to understand how stories have important characters and minor characters.

Setting The setting is the time and place of the story Fourth graders are just beginning to understand that setting refers to the time of the story as well as the place.

Can you find the setting of this scene? Place This picture is of a beach Time It’s hard to tell the time from this picture. We’d need more details to figure that out Note: It’s actually Assateague Island, but there are no details in the photo that would indicate that.

Inferring setting Sometimes the author doesn’t come out and explain the setting. Can you make an inference with the paragraph below? Anna sighed. She hated having to do so many chores. Her mother was always telling her to fetch the water from the well, watch her brothers and sisters, and fetch wood for the fire. “I wish that I could go to school,” she sighed, looking at her bare feet. But with her father in the Union Army, she had to help her mother.

Inferring setting The clues tell us that this happens in the past. Can you guess the exact time period? There is a clue! Anna sighed. She hated having to do so many chores. Her mother was always telling her to fetch the water from the well, watch her brothers and sisters, and fetch wood for the fire. “I wish that I could go to school,” she sighed, looking at her bare feet. But with her father in the Union Army, she had to help her mother. The blue writing shows the details that help to point to the fact that this story is taking place in the past. My students didn’t realize the relevance of the Union Army, even though we live within fifteen minutes of Gettysburg. Sigh. This really makes you realize how important prior knowledge for students as they are coping with dense text with fewer pictures.

What about fairy tales? With fantasy stories, it’s hard to tell a time and place Sometimes you can just say that a story happened in a “fantasy world” or in “fairy tale time”

Review What two story elements have we learned about so far? Character and setting What are the two parts of setting? Time and place This makes a nice stopping point if you are doing this in segments.

Conflict The conflict in a story is the problem Every story has to have a conflict The conflict is what drives the action in the story Students in fourth grade are moving from the elementary term of “problem” and into the more sophisticated idea of “conflict”

Kinds of conflict Stories have different kinds of conflict. It’s not always just two people fighting!

Person versus person In this kind of conflict, two people have different ideas about what should happen Here is a playground. What kind of person versus person conflict could happen here? Students love thinking of different conflicts that could happen here at the playground.

Person versus self In this kind of conflict, the problem is inside the main character Suppose that you were hired to work on this ship and climb up into the rigging. What kind of internal conflict might you have? This is actually a scene from a miniature golf course. However, this helps students to understand that conflict can be internal, within a character, as well as external. This is vital for older readers to recognize.

Person versus environment In this kind of conflict, someone has to battle the environment, usually to survive Suppose you were stranded at this place. What would you need to survive? This picture is of Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. Students enjoyed it when I pulled two of them to the front of the room to pretend to survive in this area.

Think about conflict! Think about a story that you have read lately. What was the conflict? Short stories often have just one conflict. Longer chapter books may have one main conflict, and several less important conflicts

Review The story element that includes the time and place of the story Setting The people or animals who act in a story Characters The problem in a story Conflict Another good stopping point

Plot The events of a story make up the plot In other words, the plot is what happens!

The plot of a story follows a pattern Climax Rising Action Falling Action Exposition Resolution

Plot part: Exposition The exposition is the beginning of the story The author introduces the characters and the setting In my state, students need to be secure with matching plot parts to story events by sixth grade. I like to introduce the idea in fourth grade so that students have some prior knowledge as they move on. This plot diagram, so familiar to me, was completely new and baffling to my students.

Plot part: Rising action Things get more exciting with the rising action This is when the conflict is introduced

Plot part: Climax The climax is the turning point of the story It’s often the most exciting part Nothing will be the same again Movies are a great way to help students understand the climax. Short animated shows, especially superhero shows like “Spiderman” also show a very clear climax in a way that students can understand.

Think about it! The plot of a story looks like a mountain. Why do you think the climax is at the top?

Plot part: Falling action The falling action is the part of the story that happens after the climax In some stories, this is a long part; in other stories, it happens quickly

Plot part: Resolution The resolution is the end of the story Everything is resolved and explained

Think about it! A story that ends at the climax is called a cliffhanger. Why do you think this is so? climax

Theme The theme of a story is the underlying idea. It’s the big message, the big idea. The theme is the point of the story. Without a theme, a story doesn’t make much sense. Students who are just beginning to think abstractly can start to grasp the idea of theme. Once again, making the link to movies or short animated shows can make theme more easily understandable. Mole and the Baby Bird is a picture book that has a beautiful, easy to understand theme. Many of Eve Bunting’s books are also suitable.

Some common themes You’ll often see the same themes pop up again and again. Good will triumph over evil Honesty is the best policy

More themes Friendship is more important than popularity Hold onto dreams, because they might come true Slow and steady wins the race In my classroom, I make a chart that shows these themes, and students write the names of books and movies that show the themes underneath each one. It brings up great discussions about how a movie can have more than one theme, or how the same themes can be expressed in different ways. Hard work will pay off in the end Can you think of stories or movies that show these themes?

Review What is the plot of a story? The events Which part of the plot is the most exciting? The climax What is the main idea or message of a story? The theme

What have you learned about story elements? What have you learned about story elements? Share your ideas with a partner.