Identify plot structure and describe main story elements in a literary text.
Main story elements for the purpose of this benchmark are the setting, characters, and sequence of events of a story.
For setting, students will describe where and when the events of the story are happening. The time element of setting will be addressed even when not explicitly indicated in the text.
For character, student’s will describe characters’ traits, feelings, and behaviors.
| Name |
Description |
| Opinion Writing Using Sarah, Plain and Tall | Students will learn about opinion writing using a classic text, Sarah, Plain and Tall. Students will differentiate between fact and opinion and use a graphic organizer to plan an opinion piece about a favorite character. They will also use an editing checklist to peer review their written pieces before writing a final draft to share with the class. |
| A Close Look at A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams | A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams is a delightful story of a family who faces the hardships of life together. The focus of these reading lessons is to identify story structure and discuss how the characters responded to challenges. After students complete several learning centers about the book, they will retell the story through writing using grade-appropriate conventions. |
| Sarah, Plain and Tall--Successful Summarizing and Character Study | Students will be reading the classic story Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. They will discuss the major events of the story and how the characters reacted to these happenings. Students will get a lot of practice summarizing by writing a short summary of each chapter. They will also be tracking the characters' emotions and reactions throughout the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. |
| A Closer Look at Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain | Introduce your primary students to the rhythmic story of the African plains, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. This story is filled with rich vocabulary and rhyming patterns that allow students to interact with context clues and and answer questions about the story elements. |
| Charlie Anderson: Who Cat is This? | During this lesson, the students will become highly involved with the text Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie. The students will identify and describe the story elements with a focus on the character of Elizabeth. Students will write an expository paragraph about how she felt at the end of the story when she learned the truth. |
| Having Fun with Fractured Fairy Tales | Students will be delighted to be introduced to the world of fractured fairy tales. They will compare classic versions of fairy tales with the new versions that author's have created. The students will have their own chance to think about a different point of view when they explore wolf's perspective in The Three Little Pigs. After writing a short Readers' Theatre script, students will perform their creations for the class. |
| What a Pig! Character Traits from The Three Little Pigs | Students will practice identifying character traits from two classic fairy tales. They will then find evidence from the text to support those traits. Students will complete the lessons by choosing a character and a trait to write about in an expository paragraph. |
| Learning about Theme with Brave Irene | Who doesn't love a theme! Students will use the book Brave Irene by William Steig to learn about themes. They will create a story map for the text and look closely at the problem and solution and how the main character changed throughout the story to determine the big idea. Students will demonstrate their understanding by writing about the theme and identifying parts of the story that support that thinking. |
| A Bat Adventure | In this lesson, students will describe how characters in a story respond to events and challenges after reading the story, Stellaluna. Students will answer comprehension questions pertaining to the story and demonstrate an understanding of key details. In addition, students will write an opinion piece in which they will introduce a topic, state an opinion, provide reasons to support their opinion, and end their writing with a closing statement. |
| Once Upon a Time: What Makes an Interesting Setting | There are stories that make you feel like you are there experiencing everything along with the characters. Often times, this is because the writer is describing the setting in vivid detail. These lessons will look at the componants of a setting and give students the opportunity to write the beginning of a story based upon a setting of their choosing. |
| Hamming it up with Plot | Using the classic story, The Three Little Pigs, students will learn will use a plot line graphic organizer to record the action in this story. Students will use this plot line to help them retell the story in writing and record their paragraphs using technology such as Voice Thread. |
| Questions of Character, Setting, and Plot | Students will read texts including characters that face a challenge or major event and describe the characters, setting, plot, and how they responded to the challenge. With a partner, students will read a book about other brave characters and create six comprehension questions that they will type on a computer. These questions will be presented to another partnership who will read the book and answer their classmates’ questions. |
| CinderWHO? | Students will compare and contrast various versions of the Cinderella story through story element charting, partner discussions, carousel brainstorming, and semantic feature analysis. Students will think critically and hold grade-level appropriate dialogue about each story. Students will complete a piece of opinion writing stating which Cinderella story was their favorite and why they liked it. |
| Plot: Retelling a Story with Story Elements | Students will retell a story using story elements. The teacher modeling uses the story Dog Breath: The Horrible Trouble with Hally Tosis by Dav Pilkey. The guided and independent practice activities use the story When Charlie McButton Lost Power by Suzanne Collins. |
| A Closer Look at Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes | In this lesson, students will examine character development based on the events of the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. During multiple readings of the text, students will take a deep dive into text dependent questions and participate in group activity determining how Chrysanthemum felt during different parts of the story. Finally, students will take the perspective of the character, Victoria, to write a letter of apology to Chrysanthemum to say that she was sorry for the way she treated her. |
| Describing a Character's Personality Traits | This is a lesson on characters. Using the story Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes, students will practice describing a character's personality based on the character's thoughts, actions and feelings. |
| I'll Huff, and I'll Puff, and I'll Write My Own Version! | Children love the classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs. In these lessons, students will compare the story elements from the original versions with other fractured fairy tale versions. Students will also be delighted to use their creatively to create their own fractured fairy tale. |
| Once Upon a Time | In this lesson, students will identify and describe story elements and compare and contrast two versions of fairy tale Cinderella. Students will write an expository paragraph describing the similarities and differences of the two texts and provide textual evidence for support. |
| Using Picture Books to Practice Retelling | Did you know that wordless picture books can ignite creativity in your students? These lessons encourage students to tell interesting stories in their own words based on several wordless books. After practicing identifying story elements, students will write creatively to retell one of the stories. |
