What are Story Elements?

If you are reading this, it’s probably because you are wondering What are story elements? Story elements are the parts of the story that make up the story as a whole. Teaching story elements is one of the first ways that teachers begin to teach reading comprehension skills (understanding the text). 

 

Story elements allow children to be able to understand what they read or what was read to them by identifying different parts of the story.

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In this post, you’ll learn about story elements.

 

What are Story Elements?

 

There are 5 basic story elements including:

• Character
• Setting
• Plot (Beginning, Middle, & End)
• Theme
• Conflict (Problem)

 

In the early years (Preschool through second grade), children will begin learning about the first three I mentioned but as they move on through elementary school they’ll learn about theme and conflict. Let’s now look at what each of these is and how you can teach them.

 

What are Characters?

 

The characters in the story are the people, animals, or things that tell or make up the story. Children will begin to learn about characters in their early years because a lot of times they’ll have a favorite character in the first few years of life. My oldest child’s favorite character around 2 or 3 was Woody and Buzz Lightyear. My youngest child’s first favorite characters were Thomas the Train & Pete the Cat.

 

Toddlers know who their favorite character is, they just may not know the vocabulary word associated with what a character is. According to the Common Core Standards, children in kindergarten must be able to compare and contrast (find similarities and differences) of characters in familiar stories.

 

By the time they are in first grade, children are expected to be able to describe the characters in a story using key details. They are also expected to be able to use illustrations and details from a story to describe characters, settings, or events.

 

Next time you are reading a book with your child you can practice these early literacy skills and vocabulary by using the word character to describe the people and animals throughout the story.

 

What is the Setting?

 

The setting in a story is simply the place and time where a story takes place. Some examples of the setting in a story could be at a school, a forest, or at a house. Children could also describe the setting by saying “in the morning” or “yesterday”.

 

According to the Common Core standards children in first grade are to be able to “describe the characters, settings, and events in a story”. By second grade they need to be able to use the illustrations and the text to understand the setting.

 

What is the Plot?

 

The plot of a story is the beginning, middle, and end of the story. You can teach the plot by having children tell you what happened throughout the story.

 

This can be done in a number of ways including:

• sequencing the story
• retelling the story
• making a list of the story events in order
• using words like first, next, then, after that, last, etc.

 

Children are expected to describe the major events in a story in first grade and by second grade they need to be able to give more detail about the events of the story.

 

How do I teach Story Elements?

 

There are many ways to teach story elements to children. When they are little you can begin to introduce these concepts while reading with your children by using the following vocabulary words such as:

 

• Characters
• Setting
• Plot (Beginning, Middle, End)
• Using time order words (first, next, then, etc.)
• Describing the characters actions and words (the character is kind, shy, or friendly because they _____)
• Talking about the characters feelings (happy, upset, frustrated, etc.)

 

Fairytales

 

Once children get into school, story elements are easily taught using fairytales. Fairytales allow easy concepts to be taught including a clear line of characters, settings, and a plot. These classic stories often come in a variety of different versions making it easy for children to compare (find the similarities) and contrast (find the differences) in the story.

 

Let’s look at some different fairytales and how you can use them to teach story elements. The Three Little Pigs is a classic story that has 4 key characters including the wolf and 3 pigs. The setting is outside or at the pigs’ homes.

 

The plot is easy to describe, in the beginning, the mother pig sends her three pigs into the world. Next, they each build their own home one out of straw, one using sticks, and the last one using bricks. Then the wolf comes to try and blow down their homes. The pigs all went to their brother’s home that used bricks, when the wolf couldn’t find a way to blow down the bricks he went down the chimney. Finally, the pigs built a fire in the fireplace and burnt the wolf’s behind.

 

As children get older they will need to be able to give similarities and differences between different versions of stories. For this, you can use a story like “The Three Little Pigs” and another version of the story, like “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs”.

 

 

 

Songs

 

I love using Jack Hartman in my classroom to help support teaching. Sometimes it takes a different approach for students to learn about a new concept. This Jack Hartman video is great for teaching story elements using a Fairytale like “The Tortoise and the Hare”.

 

 

Graphic Organizers for Story Elements

 

You can check out my new resource on Teachers Pay Teachers for these graphic organizers for story elements to make teaching story elements like character, setting, and plot a breeze! Find the link here to purchase these graphic organizers for story elements.

 

I made sure to offer these resources a place for students to draw and write about the story. They are also offered with and without lines if you have students that aren’t ready to try the writing yet or you want to focus on drawing instead.

 

Children will also need to work on identifying the setting by answering questions about what time day the story took place and what season it took place.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, I hope this offered you some support when teaching story elements with your children. It’s important that as we read to children we can keep these ideas in the back of our minds as things to help support their learning.

 

Please share this with a parent or teacher looking for information or resources on teaching story elements.

 

Love, Ashley E