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Here are some different ways to aid in teaching the elements of a story. There is also access to worksheets.

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

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You need look no further than the Common Core State Standards to see that understanding story elements and identifying them while reading is an important literary skill for children of all ages. Unfortunately, the concept of story elements can be hard for children to grasp because of its abstract nature. After all, children - especially early on - are very concrete thinkers and use their five senses to interpret the world around them.

If you're looking for ways of teaching story elements - ways that engage the five senses - read on. Below are four fun, interactive ways to do just that - costumes optional, but encouraged!

1. Cub reporter - We've all heard the news reporter's creed, haven't we? When going after a hot news story, every reporter knows that if she wants her story to be complete, she has to find the answer to four simple questions: Who? What? When? and Where? These questions tie in nicely with the concept of story elements. Who relates to the characters in a story. What translates to the story's plot. When and where are both part of the setting. Have your cub reporter pretend to interview the author of a story she's just read. Equip her with the tools of the trade, things like a pencil, a notepad, a tape recorder, even a press badge. Then let her ask her imaginary author each question and jot the information down in preparation for writing a news article. When she's finished taking down her notes, discuss each of the answers she came up with, and how they relate to the different elements in the story she's just read.

2. Junior detective - Kids love mystery stories. And, the best way to set the mood for this activity is to start with a mystery tale. There are plenty of them out there to pick from. Think Harriet the Spy, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, or the whole Encyclopedia Brown series. Once the story is read, discuss just what the sleuth had to do to solve the mystery or the crime. What was Harriet looking for? What did Encyclopedia need to uncover? The answers should be quite similar to what our cub reporter needed to know. Who committed the crime? Where was the crime committed? What actually happened? You get the idea. Now tell your young reader that she gets to be a story-reading detective. Give her the things she needs to really get into the role. These can include a magnifying glass, a sleuthing hat like the one worn by Sherlock Holmes and a "case book" for writing down her "clues." Once she's equipped, she can go on an imaginary crime hunt, using the details from the story she's just read to answer the questions that all good crime hunters must answer: Where was the crime committed? What was stolen? When did it happen? And, most important of all, Who done-it? Again, at the end of the activity, let her know that her work as a gumshoe has unraveled more than just the solution to a mystery; it has revealed the story elements in the story she read at the same time.

3. Budding author - Story elements are often presented to elementary-aged children as the tools they need to dig deeper into the meaning of the stories they are reading. This is true. And a really good reason for kids to develop a concrete grasp of these abstract concepts. But, there's another good reason to understand story elements: Understanding them makes us into better writers. You can start this activity by setting your child up as a novelist. Let her have a desk, a dictionary, a laptop (or typewriter?). Then let her know that instead of reading a story, she is going to write one. Start her off with a list of the story elements that must be present in a story: plot, setting, characters, and theme. Encourage her to outline her story using each of these elements as a guide. Once she has decided who her characters will be and what the setting will be like, for example, she can use her ideas to flesh out the story. Don't forget to go over it with her afterwards. If any of the key elements are missing, point out what they are and how they might have made her story stronger.

4. Hollywood film star - This one works well with almost any story a child has read. After all, to do their jobs right, actors and actresses need to understand their roles. Have you heard the phrase, "What is my motivation?" It usually refers to an actor trying to understand his character better. Once your young film star has picked a book - and the appropriate costume for her character - discuss how she can better understand "her motivation." She should answer questions such as Who is my character? What is the setting my character lives in? and Why does my character do what she does? When she has answered these questions about the story she's read, she will have a firm grasp on that story's major elements, as well. Her reward? How about letting her act out the story while you play the role of appreciative audience member?

Looking for more resources? K12reader offers thousands of worksheets around different reading topics. Here are some worksheets on story elements you might like to use in your classroom or at home:

Looking for more? Check out all of our Story Elements Activities. Want more reading skills practice for your student? Visit ReadingVine.com and their printable Story Elements Reading Passages.

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Four Unique, Interactive Ways to Teach Story Elements

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You need look no further than the Common Core State Standards to see that understanding story elements and identifying them while reading is an important literary skill for children of all ages. Unfortunately, the concept of story elements can be hard for children to grasp because of its abstract nature.

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This lesson plans gives some ideas about elements that go below the surface, which is a teacher's dream! We could remain simple and dive into more detail as we go along.

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

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Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan

Grades

3 - 5

Lesson Plan Type

Standard Lesson

Estimated Time

Five 45-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Use prior knowledge and the authors' text to construct meaning

Demonstrate understanding of story elements through the successful completion of each session's activity

Identify the characters, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end of different stories

Apply what they learned to create a character map, setting illustration, problem/solution graphic organizer, events graphic organizer, and story map

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The rest of the class will engage in independent reading time. They may simply spend the entire time reading independently, or they may read and then complete the daily activity again with a book (or chapter of a book) based on their independent reading level.

4.

Read aloud Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and stop at the following points to show students the concept of beginning, middle, and end (see Preparation, Step 7):

Stop after "...so he was sent to bed without eating anything." Explain to students that this is the beginning of the story.

Stop after "...so he gave up being king of where the wild things are." Explain to students that this is the middle of the story.

Finish reading the story, and ask students how the story ended.

EXTENSIONS

Complete the lesson activities with more complex narrative picture books. Modify the graphic organizers to be used with multidimensional text. Guiding Readers and Writers: Teaching Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy (Grades 3-6) by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell (Heinemann, 2001) has an extraordinary list of picture books in the appendix to be used with upper-grade students.

Collaborate with a kindergarten or first-grade class, and teach your students to be teachers. Pair older students with younger students and have each older student read an appropriate book with a specific focus-character, setting, etc.-to a younger student. They can then work together to draw a picture of the specific focus.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Observe student participation in whole-group session conversations. Provide immediate feedback by conversing with students.

During Sessions 1 through 4, circulate around the room as students work on the end-of-session activities. Work with individual students and small groups as needed. Make anecdotal notes to record specific additional teaching.

Review each student's independently completed activity from his or her use of Storyline Online. Use the Conference Guide Form to offer feedback during 3- to 5-minute conferences with each student on the day following the completion of the activity. Address the students' understanding of the concept and the importance of applying the knowledge in independent reading.

Review students' story maps and copies of the Self Evaluation Rubric for Story from Session 5 to determine if they accurately evaluated their work. Provide feedback by making comments on the rubrics before returning them to students. Schedule individual conferences if necessary.

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Music videos... just when you though story elements couldn't get any more fun.

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WatchKnowLearn - Free K-12 educational videos

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Free K-12 educational videos ... organized. Tens of thousands of excellent, educational videos in a huge, intuitive directory. Organized, reviewed, rated, and described by teachers. Ideal as a supplement to a curriculum or for independent study. Designed for teachers, students, parents, homeschoolers, educators ... and all life-long learners!

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Check out the story sticks, story cubes and the puzzle pieces!

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Hi there! I hope the beginning of your year has been a smashing success and that you are getting into the groove of things. Today I'm sharing some of my favorite activities for teaching story elements, particularly in grades 3+! It's one of the first concepts we cover in reading since it's key that they understand story elements in order to move on to more complex topics like main idea and theme!

Every year, we start by watching movie trailers on Youtube. I pick movie trailers that I know 99% of the kids will be familiar with (Shrek, Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, etc.) since the trailers don't show the solution and we will need to know it to talk about it! We talk about each of the story elements in the movies. They LOVE this!

Then, we move on to our anchor chart and interactive notebook entry so that we have some good notes to reference and we can anchor our learning.

I decided to use a puzzle comparison to talk about story elements. Every story has just about every single one of these elements, so it's important to remember every piece of the puzzle!

Like always, they create a similar journal entry. On the templates, I have included one without definitions so that you can make them your own or if you prefer to have kids write the definitions, they can do that.

Then, we use another story that almost all students are familiar with, The Three Little Pigs, and we brainstorm the story elements and put them into our puzzle. Most of the time, we don't even read the story, we just complete the puzzle based off of memory. They love this, and it's a great way to get started. They are solidifying the concepts before they have read anything!

But of course, we are doing all of this with the purpose of preparing them to apply it when they are reading, so we move on to very BRIEF passages to review story elements in texts. We play a game of SCOOT with my multiple choice Story Elements Task Cards so that they can get in a lot of practice identifying the different story elements in a short amount of time. Since they are multiple choice, they are perfect for a game of whole-class SCOOT.

Next, it's on to our Story Elements Match Up! I have two different versions of this, one that includes basic one liners for the problem and solution and the other that is more of a paragraph describing the problem and the solution. They use fun fairytale and pop culture themes. You can use both sets to differentiate or you can use both sets with all students to scaffold!

After all of this work, they usually are starting to cruise! Once they have a solid grasp of the concept, I give them one of the extended Story Elements Task Cards to do on the left side of their notebook. There are two versions of this, so for the kids who truly understand it, I give them the version shown below. For students who need a bit of extra help, I give them a simpler version with basic identifying questions about each story element.

I usually have them complete several more of these cards as homework, in centers, as morning work, etc. They are great for review throughout the year as well. You can throw one on the document camera and complete it as a whole class, too!

At any given time during our units, we are always working on a novel. During our story elements unit, one of the culminating assignments I have them complete is a story elements tree map from Thinking Maps. Here's an example of one of the tree maps my students made.

The last activity we do is the culmination of all of our learning and helps the students apply what they have learned to actual literature! This is my favorite way to encourage thinking about texts, and it requires students to really think critically about story elements, much like the task cards above do, BUT they use their own books! Most years, I make the kids their own individual reading response task cards (You can read more about that HERE) so that they have a set with them all the time, but you can use these cards in a variety of ways. Each card focuses on different story elements and asks students to think critically about it and how it relates to their book. This is a GREAT time to get huge stacks of picture books and have students start reading and writing about what they are reading! I highly recommend it, and these task cards provide excellent summative assessments, too. :)

FINALLY, before I leave you with MANY more Story Elements activities from around the World Wide Web, I want to share with you a book project for Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I fell in love with this book, and I absolutely can't WAIT to have my students read it and complete this yearbook project! I'd love to hear feedback about it and see final pictures. I'll post pictures of ours soon, but I know a lot of teachers teach this as one of their first books, so I wanted to offer it up now if it might help others!

Wonder is also a fantastic book to use to story map the story elements since there is a pretty clear overarching problem and solution as well as several main events. This project also lends itself well to identifying the story elements within the writing that the kids will do.

And now, here are even MORE awesome activities for teaching Story Elements! Click each image to read more.

LOVE this Story Elements Box! What a great idea.

These Story Cubes would be a great culminating activity for story elements!

Story Sticks are the best! You could use regular popsicle sticks to make it a game, where students have to figure out if each stick is a problem, solution, setting, etc.

Here is a fantastic lesson for when you are ready to dig a little bit deeper into plot structure!

Here's another take on the story elements cube-- but it's a story elements kite!

How fun is this Follow the Yellow Brick Road Story Telling Map? Excellent to get kids up and moving!

What a FABULOUS idea for an anchor chart to keep up and keep reusing all year long! You can use sticky notes to change it for each story.

Here's another stellar Story Elements Anchor Chart that shows connections between settings and characters. Her entire blog post about story elements is great, too!

It's the perfect time of year for these Plot Pumpkins! Lovely!

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Teaching Story Elements & A WONDER Freebie!

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Hi there! I hope the beginning of your year has been a smashing success and that you are getting into the groove of things. Today I'm sharing some of my favorite activities for teaching story elements, particularly in grades 3+!

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We could use an activity like this to approach story elements from the other direction- we could practice incorporating them and using them to write stories.

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This FREE resource is perfect for any classroom looking for a little (fun!) writing inspiration. With this writing activity, students will love rolling a dice to mix-and-match story elements and will enjoy creating the perfect story starter. Use it in a literacy center, a writing group, or

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Lots of useful worksheets!

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

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Every story has basic components: characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict. These elements answer the basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? By understanding each of these components, students are better able to analyze and appreciate the author's work. You'll find our story elements worksheets listed below. Click on the title to view, download, or print the PDF. You may use them for free at home or in class. Be sure to check out all of our reading worksheets. If you're looking for more activities, check out www.readingvine.com's story elements reading passages.

Sorry, no worksheets matched your criteria.

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Story Elements Worksheets | Reading Skills

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Every story has basic components: characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict. These elements answer the basic questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? By understanding each of these components, students are better able to analyze and appreciate the author's work. You'll find our story elements worksheets listed below.

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Kahoot can nearly always be useful in the classroom, in this case for reviewing

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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A board game would be an exciting way to encourage learning.

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Story Elements Board Game contains 30 game cards and a game board to help students practice identifying the story element (character, setting, problem, solution, or theme) being described in a piece of text. This story elements game works great as a pair/group activity, or for use in literacy centers.

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Songs make information easier to memorize and never fail to make the elements of a story fun

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Parts of a Story Song - Little Songs For Language Arts

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TeacherTube offers appropriate videos. This one addresses some elements and does it in a fun, animated way.

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This is a video about the elements of a story (e.g. plot, character, conflict, theme, setting).

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This is a more creative- looking G.O. It also gives hints to the students about what each of the elements are.

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This is a simple, 2 page graphic organizer that I created to summarize the basic story elements of a fictional story. Enjoy!

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Students could use the graphic organizer to help them as they read a story. They could even illustrate the elements.

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Graphic Organizer: Story Map | Scholastic

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Use this simple outline to help students identify key elements that make up a story: characters, setting, problem, and solution. Add to the map or change the labels to fi

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There are interactive stories and such and we can let them use a graphic organizer to identify as they watch.

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This is a simple, but engaging site for students; it will allow them to practice identifying elements of a story.