Do you love free plot lessons? I know I do! Honestly, teaching plot can be mundane and boring. So, I created a free printout where you can get five free plot mini lessons that bring excitement to your teaching! Students will love this plot lesson plan and gain so much confidence while working with this tough literary skill.
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Importance of Plot
I completely understand when people say teaching plot is boring. Honestly, it is. However, it is like a sandwich that kind of brings all the components together when reading a story. It is essential to understanding a fictional story! Thankfully, these plot mini lessons will bring joy and excitement to your lessons.
Activity 1: Determine Important Components of a Plot
This is a really powerful technique to use! There is so much that comes with creating plot mini lessons. So, students often become confused when identifying plot. To avoid this, start by having students do a brain dump. Yes, students will laugh at this name! However, the technique really works. They will write down anything they can think of, such as author, genre, and characters. Then, students will take this list, partner up, and create a blank t-chart. They will sort out what they think is within the plot and what’s not. For example, the author will go in the not category. This activity is such a great way to ensure students have a clear understanding of what plot consists of.
As students build their understanding, incorporating the Differentiated Plot Task Cards is so helpful!
Activity 2: Story Grammar
Basically, this is taking the plot diagram to a whole new level. Most fictional stories follow the same structure with exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. So, this activity works in all plot mini lessons! You can even check out the Plot Printables to help build an understanding on the plot diagram.
For this activity, you will find some really well-known movies, TV shows, or books. Additionally, you want to find some plots with anomalies, such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, and daydreaming. Really, you want to incorporate anything that will break off from the typical plot diagram because this always impacts their comprehension. Students will then identify the anomaly or what differs from a typical story structure. By doing this, students build comprehension skills and become more comfortable when a story does not follow the typical path.
Activity 3: Events Impacting Plot
The third activity helps students realize how the plot would change if one event of the story changes. So, when working on plot mini lessons, students need to understand how important events of the plot connect to each other. Essentially, they learn the domino effect and how one change can alter the entire plot.
For this activity, you will create a graphic organizer or some type of chart. Honestly, it can be a very simple three-column table. Then, you will take stories that you’ve recently read, Disney movies, or your favorite fairy tales. Or, you can use the Plot Interactive Read Alouds! Basically, you can use any storyline that the majority of students know. You will highlight one event in the story and then talk about how the events in the story shape the plot. This leads to great discussion on how events connect, and a change in one leads to a domino effect.
Teaching plot is essential in reading. Students need to know how stories come together and how literary elements interact with each other. Thankfully, the Plot Comprehension Passages & Questions and the above activities create amazing lessons! Students will love plot mini lessons with so many hands-on lessons.
Be sure to check out the video for more great plot mini lessons! To add even more fantastic resources to your classroom, grab this FREE Ultimate Comprehension Toolkit below. You will have everything you need to master reading comprehension with your students!
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