Pre-writing (3-5)
Story Pyramids
Subject:
Language Arts; Writing
Writing Process Stage:
Pre-writing
Grades:
3-5
Concept:
Students learn how to use story pyramids to begin scaffolding their story ideas.
Teacher Background:
This lesson reintroduces older students to the basic elements of a story, while taking it a step further. Similar to a story map, a story pyramid asks for more specifics, more of an outline. Students will have to think of plotlines and sub plotlines. They will have to begin thinking about protagonists, antagonists, and minor characters. The story pyramid replaces the traditional outline as it emphasizes the building dramatic nature of narrative stories.
Materials:
- Landscape pictures (from a book or magazine)
- Scene picture (from a book or a magazine)
- Story pyramid template
Anticipatory Set:
From a magazine or a book, choose a picture of a sweeping landscape. Ask a student to describe it in one word. Next, ask who can describe it using two words. Continue in this manner until someone has described it using five words (can be a list of words, a phrase, or a complete sentence.) Next, choose another picture of a landscape and try the exercise again. You also can try this with a picture or a photo of a person, and ask for a description of the character (physical or personality traits).
Directed Instruction:
- Explain that stories, in nature, grow in terms of dramatic effect. Authors use drama, suspense, intrigue, and action to draw readers into the plots.
- As more sophisticated writers begin to develop stories, they can use a story pyramid to outline their ideas.
- Choose a story your class is familiar with (a fairytale, a popular picture book, etc.)
- Together, using its plot, guide students through filling out a story pyramid:
- Line 1: one word - name of main character
- Line 2: two words - description of main character
- Line 3: three words - description of setting
- Line 4: four words - state the problem
- Line 5: five words - describe one event/one conflict
- Line 6: six words - describe second event/second conflict
- Line 7: seven words - describe third event/third conflict
- Line 8: eight words - describe the solution/resolution
- Describe how writers often use a story pyramid to begin thinking about a story. Story pyramids are a form of pre-writing.
Group Practice:
- Give small groups an image from a magazine.
- Ask them to brainstorm together about using the picture as a catalyst for a story. What is going on? Who is in the story?
- Using a story pyramid, have them fill out the eight lines of information (ask each student to fill out his own copy).
Independent Practice:
If time permits, have the students independently write a short story based upon their group practice story pyramids. You can let them know that they can change parts of the story pyramid first if they’d like. The story pyramid should act as framework for their stories.
Wrap-Up:
If time permits, have students share how they took the story pyramids and developed them into actual short stories. Ask students to read their individual stories. Discuss how the same story pyramids became quite unique stories (this aspect of story writing touches on “author’s voice”).
Differentiation:
- Story pyramids can be simplified:
- Line 1: one word - name of main character
- Line 2: two words - description of main character
- Line 3: three words - description of setting
- Line 4: four words - state the problem
- Line 5: five words - describe the solution
- Story pyramids also can be expanded upon – add another line for the antagonist; add more lines for additional conflicts; add another line for the climatic moment.
- Students can design their own story pyramids by delineating what each line should state.
The Five Ws
Activity Sheets
Subject:
Language Arts; Writing
Writing Process Stage:
Pre-writing
Grades:
3-5
Concept:
Students learn how to focus on the five Ws in order to begin crafting a creative story.
Teacher Background:
Crucial (and usually required by standards) for any writer, the Five Ws should be easily identifiable in any story. By thinking about them beforehand in the pre-writing stage, drafting becomes much more productive. Who, What, Where, When, Why (and sometimes How) should become a mantra in any Writers Workshop.
Materials:
- Magazine or newspaper articles
- Highlighters
- Five Ws template
- Scissors
Anticipatory Set:
Find a juicy yet short magazine or newspaper article. Read it aloud. Ask students to take a moment and use highlighters to mark the important information in the article. Ask students to choose another color highlighter or a pen, and model which parts you would have marked. Discuss why you would have chosen these parts (This is who the article is about… Here is the date and time of the incident… This part describes where…).
Directed Instruction:
- All journalists know that they have to address “the five Ws” when writing an article or a story.
- Who - who is involved
- What - what happened
- Where - where it happened (place)
- When - when it happened (time)
- Why - why it happened (if known)
- See if the kids can recite the mantra quickly – Who, What, When, Where, Why.
- Authors also must use the five Ws when creating a story, especially if the plot is filled with mystery or suspense. Explain that these story elements can be quite detailed. For instance, the “who” portion can describe the protagonist, the antagonist, and any ancillary characters. The “when” can delineate the small as well as the big picture - what time of day did the event occur on, but also what time period overall (past, present, future)?
- Emphasize that journalists and authors notice the big as well as the small details. For instance, the “where” portion may describe the town in which the story takes place, but it also can detail the room(s) in which the climatic moment occurs.
Group Practice:
- Choose another magazine/newspaper article or story.
- In small groups, have students read the article.
- Ask them to create a vertical foldable (fold along the solid line and cut flaps along the dotted lines) and then fill out the foldable with the facts: who, what, where, when, why. Ask them to bullet point as many details as they can about each aspect of the article. (see below)
Independent Practice
(this activity will take some preplanning):
As the kids are working on the group practice, you will have a staged incident occur. With another person (kid or adult), plan a big interruption. Depending on the age/sensitivity of your students, this person could run in the door screaming about aliens invading, somebody could burst into the room singing and dancing, someone could run in, make a mess, and run out… any strange and unusual interruption would work. Wait a moment for your students to react, then grab their attention, hand out a new foldable, and ask them to fill in the elements based upon what has just happened.
Wrap-Up:
Have students share out what they wrote in their foldables. Applaud those that list the small and the big details.
Differentiation:
- If time permits or at a later time, have students write newspaper-like articles or fiction stories based upon their foldables.
Plot Diagrams
Activity Sheets
Subject:
Language Arts; Writing
Writing Process Stage:
Pre-writing
Grades:
3-5
Concept:
Students learn how to create plot diagrams to add the elements of drama and/or suspense to their creative stories.
Teacher Background:
Imagine having to plot your course… of a story that is. Using a simple line illustration of a hill, students will come to understand the growing nature of a story’s plotline, it’s climatic point, and its quick resolution. Students will “see” that their conflicts must continue to build and build, guaranteeing that the story won’t flat line (be boring!).
Materials:
- Plot diagram template
- Story choice (i.e., The Golden Arm)
Anticipatory Set:
Choose a scary story to read aloud. An easy one to access on the Internet is the classic “The Golden Arm.” Ask students why the story works. What is it that keeps their interest? Explain that the author uses suspense to “grow” the story. The drama mounts, bit by bit. Toward the end, there is a big “wow,” the climax, before it ends, the resolution.
Directed Instruction:
- Using the story from above, explain how it is possible to actually “draw” the action of a good story.
- With a simple line drawing, show how drama grows upward coming to a peak (the climax) and then slows down quite quickly to the resolution:
- Illustrate how a story any other way would be boring -
Little action:
Climax too early:
No action:
- Revisit the line drawing from step 2, and again emphasize how the story would begin, grow event-by-event or conflict-by-conflict until it reaches the climatic moment, and then ties up in the resolution.
Group Practice:
- Read the story, Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg.
- In small groups, have the students fill out the provided plot diagram with all the dramatic moments from the story (lots of man versus nature conflicts).
- Review the diagrams together to make sure they identified the events in the proper sequence and that they identified the climatic moment correctly.
- Emphasize that the students can use these plot diagrams to map out their own story ideas.
Wrap-Up:
Have students compare their plot diagrams to each other. Did they note the same conflicts? Did they write them down in the same sequence? Did they identify the same climatic moment?
Extension Activity:
Using another plot diagram, have students outline their ideas for a continuation of Jumanji. If other kids were to find the board game, what adventures would they have? Have your students fill out a set amount of events/conflicts, a climax, and the resolution.
Differentiation:
- Do not prescribe a set amount of events/conflicts on the plot diagram.