Elements of Story Structure

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Elements of Story Structure

• Dr. Peterson
• California University of PA

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Literary Elements

• Plot
• Characters
• Setting
• Point of view
• Theme
• Style

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Plot

• Sequence of events
• Based on the goals of the characters
• Basic divisions of a plot- beginning, middle, and
  end.
• First, next, then, and last
• Introduction, development, and resolution.
• Involves four components
• problem
• roadblocks
• High point
• solution

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Characters

• People

Personified Animals
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Setting

• Four dimensions
• Location
• Weather
• Time period
• Time

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Point of View

• Four POV
• First-person
• e.g., The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
• Omniscient
• e.g., The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
  Doctor De Soto
• Limited omniscient
• e.g., Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella,
  The Ugly Duckling, The Little Red Hen
• Objective
• e.g., Little Red Riding Hood/The Wolfs Tale (by
  Rowland)

Through the eyes of one character using first
person pronoun I
Author takes on a god-like persona.
Told in third person- focus is the main character
or another important character.
Readers learn only what is visible and audible,
without knowing what the character thinks.
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Point of View
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Theme

• Underlying meaning
• Explicit or implicit

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Style

• Literary Devices
• Imagery
• Comparison
• Hyperbole
• Personification
• Symbolism
• Tone

Painting a vivid description of a character or
setting so that a mental image is presented.
Compare one thing to another or view something in
terms of something else.
Overstate or stretch the truth.
Attribute human characteristics to animals.
Use a person, place, or thing to represent
something else.
Choice of words to establish effect.
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Figurative Language and Other Literary Devices

• Similes
• Snow is as cold as ice cream.
• Metaphors
• Jody is a thorn in my side.
• Idioms
• Harry was just pulling my leg.
• Onomatopoeia
• crash, bang
• Personification
• Giving human characteristics to an inanimate
  object or abstract idea.
• The water held him in its icy grasp.
• Hyperbole
• Extreme exaggeration for emphasis.
• Ive told you that a million times.

• Slang
• Jargon
• Invented words
• Dialect
• Imagery and sensory words
• Puns and word play

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Writing Stories

• Writing Retellings of Stories
• Independent or collaborative
• Writing Innovations on Texts
• Use repetitive or refrain style of writing to
  write own stories

• Writing Sequels
• As part of literature focus units
• Writing Genre Stories
• Folktale
• Historical Fiction
• Myth
• Etc.

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Assessing Stories

• Checklists
• Rubrics
• Conferencing
• Portfolios
• Other suggestions?