How to Teach Plot: Part 1

Read to the end for a freebie! Get another freebie in Plot: Part 2.

One of my favorite things to teach in fiction is plot. There is something about breaking down events in a story, movie, or TV show that make me feel I have a better understanding of not only what I've seen, but what the author's mindset was when they created the story, movie, or TV show.

Scaffolding

With any concept, it's important to go to the most basic part of an idea and build up from there. As teachers, this allows students to build enough background knowledge for the future. That being said, here is how I teach plot.

Teaching Plot

Before I say the word "plot" I explain what fiction is. Fiction is a text that is not real. Common features of fiction include chapters, chapter headings, images, and a title. It's important to identify these features, because they show you how fiction is unlike other genres of text. I then showcase a fiction book that has all of these text features. Be sure to mention that fiction does share some traits with other genres, like a table of contents or dictionary.

Plot

Plot is the series of events that make up a story and is found in fiction texts. If a text is not 100% real, it's likely it has the elements of plot. They are what makes a story interesting. The parts of plot are called the elements of plot. The elements of plot include: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. You can look in nearly every movie, TV show, or book and find the elements of plot.

The elements of plot can be arranged using a plot mountain. Look a the example below.

To help cement the idea that the elements of plot can be found nearly everywhere in fiction, I have students brainstorm movies, books, and TV shows that they know very well. I usually have them write them down in their notebook or have them share out as a class. I ask them to remember the movie, book, or TV show they selected.

From there, we practice. I provide two examples of plot in two popular movies. For this lesson, let's use "The Lion King" and "Toy Story." I read both of summaries and tell students that the elements of plot are in both summaries but it's there job to find them. I then have them work on identifying the elements of plot in each summary.

When students are done with their assignment, we share out what we learned and identified. When we're done, I make a point to point out that while we had two different movies filled with different kinds of events, they both had the elements of plot.

Now, students get a chance to use the movie, TV show, or book they selected earlier in the lesson. Using what they selected, they complete a worksheet independently where they arrange the elements of plot on a mountain, as well as identify the setting, characters, and why the setting is important to the plot.

& you have JUST taught plot! Download a copy of this worksheet below.

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