What’s in a story?

Students spent the day reading children’s books! In order to help with reading comprehension, the students learned about story elements. Nearly every single story contains the same elements and if students are able to recognize and identify the basic story elements then they will be able to better summarize what the story is about.  What better text to illustrate this concept than children’s books. After creating my lesson plans, I frantically searched the bookshelves at the home in hopes of finding a few decent storybooks, since its not like I can go to the local library to find any. The collection of storybooks that I found were very eclectic, but the students ended up loving them. Our list of story books included: The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson, I Met a Dinosaur by Jan Wahl, Matthew’s Dream by Leo Lionni, The Pokey Little Puppy by Janette Sebring, and Wild Child by Lynn Plourde.

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Such a fun collection of storybooks.

We began class by identifying the parts of a story starting with the tile, the characters, the setting, the conflict, and then the resolution. We discussed how the characters, the setting, the conflict, and the resolution combine to make up the plot of the story. After discussing story elements, I introduced the story, The Gruffalo’s Child to the class. The responsibility of the class as I read was to identify the elements of the story. After I finished reading, the students filled in our story elements chart. Based on the chart, students summarized the story.

This was our class story elements chart for The Gruffalo's Child.

As an elementary teacher, I believe that students are never too old to be read to!

 The class really enjoyed being read The Gruffalo's Child aloud!

Now it was time for the class to practice. Students broke up into four groups. Each group circled up and chose a reader who read the story aloud.

This group of senior boys read aloud The Pokey Little Puppy!

Look how intense this group of boys are as they read I Met a Dinosaur! 

All the groups were so focused!

Then, as a group, students filled out the story elements of their book and each group shared it with the rest of the class. For homework, students got the opportunity to create their own stories!

Chris sharing his groups story elements and summary!

Of course there is homework...