Lesson Plan
The Elements of Fiction: Creating a Story Map
Give your students a chance to hone their reading comprehension skills as they learn about the characters, setting, and plot of their favorite fiction books by creating a story map.
Grade:
Subjects:
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Learning Objectives
- Students will be able to explain the key elements of a fictional text.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of key details in a fictional text.
Introduction
(5 minutes)- Gather students to the rug for the start of the lesson.
- Ask students if they know what fiction is and allow a few students to share out. Answers might include things like, "Fiction is about something pretend/imaginary/not realistic."
- Ask students what nonfiction is and allow a few students to share out. Answers might include things like, "Nonfiction is about something real, it is sometimes called informational text, you learn something from it."
- Say, “Today we are going to learn how to understand the different elements of a fictional text through story mapping. We’ll learn how to identify the setting, characters, and plot and share what we know with a friend.”
- Ask students, “Why do you think we might want to identify the different elements of a text?” Answers might include:
- to learn about the characters,
- to keep track of what we read,
- to help us pay attention to what we read, or
- to share a story with others.
Beginning: Complete a fiction vs. nonfiction sort with the students. Using the classroom library, choose a variety of fiction and nonfiction books and put them together in a basket. Call on a few students to come up, choose a book, and decide whether or not it is fiction or nonfiction.
Intermediate: Have students do a think-pair-share to summarize the similarities and differences between nonfiction and fiction in their own words.