Literary Elements
Literary elements are the pieces of the story that help an author make sense, and convey a message to the reader. Teaching each of these and showing how they are connected, will help students to have clearer stories.
Literary Elements
Setting: Where and when does the action take place?
Characters: Who is doing the actions? What do we know about them? (They don't have to be people!)
Problem: What gets in the main character's way?
Solution: How does the main character resolve the problem? Who helps?
Moral: What is the author trying to say about life in this story?
Mentor Texts
Using Mentor Texts is crucial in helping students understand how the literary elements work together. A read aloud (long or excerpted) followed by a group discussion or brainstorm really helps "illustrate" for students how the elements of art and design and literary elements work together to convey a message. It also will give you a reference point in small-group and individual conferences with students.
A collection of ten books by the Caldecott Award-winning author and illustrator, with a brief biography and short essays by colleagues--including Jerry Pinkney and Eric Carle--who have been influenced by his work.
An illustrated picture book autobiography in which award-winning author Yuyi Morales tells her own immigration story
Milo is excited about her class trip to the museum. The docent leads them on a tour, and afterward Milo has time to look around on her own. But something doesn't feel right, and Milo gradually realizes that the people from her community are missing from the museum. When her aunt urges her to find a solution, Milo takes matters into her own hands and opens her own museum
Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the Earth.
A portrait of the performer and civil rights advocate Josephine Baker.
A white child sees a TV news report of a white police officer shooting and killing a black man. 'In our family, we don't see color,' his mother says, but he sees the colors plain enough. An afternoon in the library's history stacks uncover the truth of white supremacy in America. Racism was not his idea and he refuses to defend it.
Self Reflection
Students often do not have a fully-formed idea for a story arc. But they often have everything they need to write one based on their own experiences. What they need is time when they can reflect on something specific that they can later turn into a story. Being targeted in the tasks and prompts that you provide will help students to make the necessary connections when they are mapping out their stories.
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CONNECTING TO MOMENTS IN YOUR LIFE
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Creative Writing Prompts
There are lots of reasons why some students are not comfortable sharing their own experiences, and besides that they also have wonderful imaginations wherein far more interesting things may happen than in their actual lives. So it's good to create moments where students can also imagine and write stories that are not rooted in their own experiences.
Using images as writing prompts is the easiest way to do this. Finding funny, emotional, or action-packed pictures from the internet or mentor texts is a great way to start a brainstorm, class discussion, or journal entry.
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USING YOUR IMAGINATION
Pro Tip! It is not necessary to just use pictures of people! (...Although you totally can...) You can also use images of places as well as mythical beasts, and popular anthropomorphic or supernatural characters from books and movies. |
