Plot, Characters and Story Elements in Reading Strategy: Learn All About It

Understand Plot, Characters and Story Elements in Reading Strategy

Kids need to know about plot, characters and story elements in reading strategy. It will ensure that they develop a better understanding of the story. You need to develop strategies for teaching story structure to your kids.

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The Essential Elements of a Story

The essential elements of a story are as follows:

Theme: Among the story elements in reading, the theme revolves around the message of the story. A good story does not have to explicitly explain the story's theme. A great author explores the theme of the story simply by telling it. While writing a story, you need to leave it to your readers to find the theme. You will want your readers to remember the theme of your story for a long time. Therefore, weave it subtly within your narrative and enhance the reading experience.
Plot: The plot revolves around the sequential events in a story. Plotting in a reading strategy that encourages readers to finish reading a novel. The plot of your story will have an opener. After that, an incident will take place and change everything. The story will also revolve around some situations that create drama or tension. The plot will reach a climax with a conclusion in the end.
Characters: Among the essential elements of a story, there are several types of characters. Your story should have a protagonist or main character. If you want to make your character interesting, don't shy away from giving them a few flaws. The protagonist should have heroic qualities, but the character will fall flat without some redeemable flaws. Your story should also have an antagonist or villain. Create the antagonist with as much care as the protagonist. The antagonist of your story should be a worthy foe to the protagonist. You also need to add several other characters to the story to make the plot more interesting.
Setting: The setting of a story revolves around the time, era and location. But the setting is also about describing how things in your story look, feel, sound, smell and taste. Beginning writers often feel obligated to start their story by telling the setting. You need to describe the story's backdrop but not use vivid details. You can subtly layer the environment inside the story so that readers find out about it while concentrating on an action.
Point of view: The point of view of your story can be decided by deciding from whose voice you will write the story. You are required to tell one scene of a story from the perspective of one particular character. But you can also use only perspective in one chapter or even in the entire novel. Point of view is one of the essential elements of a story that can be quite complicated.
Conflict: Conflict is the story element in reading that can be found in fiction as well as non-fiction. Every reader wants some kind of a conflict in a story and is eager to know what can result from that conflict. When everything in your story goes well, your readers will begin losing interest. You need to introduce some kind of dramatic tension to make readers turn the page.
Resolution: While writing a story, everyone keeps thinking about the ending. If you are sure about how your story is going to end, every scene and character will be influenced by it. But the ending of your story might change as the story evolves and the characters encounter new experiences through a conflict. The protagonist of your story should take centre stage towards the story's ending. Sometimes it becomes difficult for a writer to give proper closure to their story. If that happens, you should not rush. You can take as much time as you want before you can come up with a perfect ending. Your readers deserve a good ending for spending so much time reading your story.

Strategies for Teaching Story Structure

The various strategies for teaching story structure to your kids are as follows:

Begin at a young age: Kids need to learn about the essential elements in a story from a young age. You need to start by making kids understand that every story has a beginning, middle and end. When they begin getting the hang of it, you should introduce the other story elements in reading.
Focus on the SWBST strategy: The essential element in a story can be understood with the "Somebody Wanted But So Then" strategy. It can help students summarise a story by detecting and describing key elements. The strategy revolves around questions like who is the protagonist, what to do they want and what is the conflict. It also answers questions like how the problem gets solved and what the outcome is.
Make a storyboard: Using a storyboard is one of the best strategies for teaching story structure to children. You need to list the story elements on a page. Keep an empty box beside each element. Make your kids read parts from the story that helps in describing a particular story element.
Use cards: If you want to teach the story elements in reading to your child, you can use cards. You can write different aspects of a story on multiple cards. Make student A pick up a card, but they should not see what's written on the card. Student B should see what's written on the card and try explaining that to the one who picked up the card. Student B can read any portion of a text that helps describe the elements in a story to the other person. If student A cannot understand what's on the card, you can make student C read a part of the story to make student A understand.
Use a story graph: One of the best strategies for teaching story structure to older children is to use a story graph. The graph can be used to describe the story arc with elements like exposition, conflict, rising action, falling action and resolution. Write the desired aspects of a story along the x-axis. The y-axis can be used to denote your excitement level.
Create story maps: A story map can also help make students understand the essential elements of a story. It revolves around making kids describe different story elements from a particular text. You can also encourage kids to work in groups while creating a story map.

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FAQs:

How to identify the story elements in reading?

You can identify the story elements in reading when you know in detail about them. Knowing how a specific element in a story can be used makes it easy for you to identify it. ^[a]

How to identify characters in reading strategy?

You can identify characters in reading strategy by focusing on their personality traits. You can analyse the choices they have made to identify a character. You can find different types of characters in a story. For instance, the story you are reading might have a static character which means their traits haven't changed throughout the story. ^[b]

What are some tips for plotting in reading strategy?

If you want to improve plotting i^[c]n reading strategy, you can introduce new problems in the story. Adding secondary characters can also bring tensions and enhance the plotting of a story. Making characters deal with a complicated past or a complicated situation in the present can also improve plotting.

How to explore story elements in reading?

You can explore story elements in reading with the help of novels or short stories. You can also encourage your students to create a collaborative story so that the elements can be explored. Heaving a movie discussion is also great for exploring story elements.

What is the importance of story elements in reading?

When students are able to understand story elements in reading, they can interpret a literary work better. They can focus on discussing key details of a story and understand the author's message. The story elements in reading also help students better understand a particular genre of work.

What is the importance of plotting in reading strategy?

Plotting in reading strategy is important because it helps readers draw connections between the story's events. When kids are able to understand the concept of the plot, they also become better at developing their story. Plotting in reading strategy ensures that a story has memorable moments that resonate with people.

How many essential elements of a story are there?

Primarily, there are four essential elements of a story: theme, plot, characters, and setting. Conflict, resolution and point of view are also some other essential elements of a story.