LC 1: Explain How Story Elements Contribute to the Development of the
Theme of a Story Read
ENGLISH 10 WORKSHEET
Name:_______________________________________ Score: _________________
Grade & Section: _______________Teacher: _________________Date Submitted: _________
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
1. Analyze news story based on its elements and
structure; and
2. Trace out essential information from news story
using graphical tool.
Learning Inputs:
Story contains parts. The way that these
parts are arranged creates the structure of the
story. The structure, called PLOT, shapes
expectations of readers and how an author
unfolds event in the story. When readers analyse
the structure of a story, they look at the story as a
mechanic might look at a car engine: readers
identify the parts and see how they are working.
Though not every story follows a predictable
pattern, most do. (Source:
https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-
reading-worksheets/story-structure/)
Story Structure or PLOT Diagram
Source: Teacher's Lounge:
Summarizing Short Stories: Story
Elements and Conflict.
Learning Opportunity 1
Direction: Read the story below. Fill out the organizer
below with 10 action lines in the story.
Story #1
The Breakaway As far as Justin knew,
there was only one way out of his neighborhood:
basketball. So he ran with the ball like the hounds
were chasing him. He could drop any of the older
guys at the court in a blaze of crossovers,
fadeaways, and finger rolls, and the younger guys
didn’t stand a chance. Justin saw his way out and
he ran for it. But the world has a funny way of
changing right when you think you’ve got things
figured out, and that’s just what happened to
Justin.
One day when Justin was shooting 1
Justin said, “Nah, Man, I’m just shooting around with my
cousin, I ain’t trying to get all sweaty right now.” But the
big guy was insistent, and Justin’s cousin was bugging,
“C’mon, Justin, drop this guy.” So Justin figured that he’d
just do what everyone wanted and play.
Justin was running all over the big guy and
making his shots while he did it. But just as the outcome
of the game seemed certain, the big guy shoved Justin as
he went for a lay up. Justin went flying in just such a way
that he managed to tear up his right knee. The doctor
said Justin might never play again, and if he did play, he
wouldn’t play the same. Justin was devastated.
The first six weeks, Justin just laid in bed with his
leg in a long cast feeling like a broomstick. He watched
three reruns of The Simpsons every day and ate potato
chips until the bag was empty, and then he’d dig the salt
and grease out of the corner with his index finger. Justin
blew up like a balloon as watched his once bright future
fadeway. Right when he reached the bottom of the pit of
despair, Justin’s sister, Kiki came home from the
university.
She came in the house like a whirl of sunshine,
bringing exciting tales of a far away land called college.
Justin was amazed and intrigued by the dorm room
dramas and campus craziness that Kiki told, but he could
hardly believe any of it. It was as if she were telling him
about some fantasy land high above the clouds. Justin
gazed off dreamily as she spoke. “Justin!” She interrupted
his day dream. “Let me see your progress report.” Justin
was ashamed. His grades had really slumped since his
injury. “Oh no, this won’t do, J,” she said.
“We’re going to have to get these up.” Well,
Justin was a pretty stubborn guy, but his older sister had
a way of getting him to do things that nobody else could.
So, while she was home on break, they studied together,
and they talked, and they worked, and Justin felt better
than he ever had before.
After spending those weeks with his sister, Justin
realized that he didn’t want to feel bad for himself any
more, and he didn’t want to quit. Basketball used to be
his thing, and he was good at it, but now there was only
school, so he had to get good at that. Justin passed
through all his classes like a half-court trap. By the time
he got to senior year in high school, his GPA was
hovering in the slam-dunk position. The last thing that
Justin had to do to get into the college of his choice was
score well on the ACT. Well wouldn’t you know it? Using
the study skills Justin had acquired from his sister, Justin
scored a 24 on the ACT. That’s not the highest score a
person can get, but it was high enough for Justin. Now he
had his academic game together.
Though the recruiters never came to Justin’s
door, every university that he applied to accepted him;
and when the fall came, Justin had his choice in colleges.
Though he’d miss his family, Justin decided to enroll in
the sunniest university in Hawaii, and nobody could say
that Justin made a bad choice.
Action Write down 10 actions Narrate the each action in After seven long years, today is the day that scientists
Lines from the story which will your own words and predict the sun will make its brief appearance; indeed,
tell the whole story. express them simple the rain seems to be slowing. One child, Margot, stands
sentence apart. Unlike most of the children, Margot lived on Earth
until five years ago, so while they all speculate about
what the sun is like, Margot can actually remember quite
#1 well. Margot has not taken well to her new home on
Venus: she is frail, quiet, and pale, as if “the rain had
washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her
mouth and the yellow from her hair.” Lately, she has
begun to panic at the touch of water.
#2
As the two-hour summer approaches, the
schoolchildren read and write short stories about the
sun. Margot finds herself the object of teasing
when William, a boy in her class, tries to antagonize her
#3 by claiming she didn’t write the poem she shared with
the class. This is typical torment for Margot: the other
children tend to tease her or avoid her, because they
envy her childhood on Earth and the fact that her
parents may even spend thousands of dollars to move
#4 her back there. To some extent, Margot seems to have
brought this isolation upon herself, because she refuses
to participate in games or songs unless they relate to
the sun. For Margot, life on Venus is all but unbearable
and the sun is all-important, and she makes no secret of
#5 these feelings.
On the day the sun is set to appear, these tensions
are close to a boiling point. While their teacher is briefly
out of the room, William pushes and taunts Margot, but
she doesn’t respond, continuing to stare out the
#6 classroom window. Angered, William tells Margot that
the sun won’t come out after all. She’s unsure whether
to believe him, but clearly alarmed. Soon, the other
children join William in taunting Margot about the sun,
the thing she most cares about. William leads the other
#7 children in grabbing Margot and pushing her into a
closet. She struggles and cries, but they lock the door,
My Story Lines smile at one another, and return to the classroom. They
seem to forget about the incident immediately.
1 Just as the children return to the classroom, the rain
#8
slows even more and, finally, stops. They crowd eagerly
by the classroom door. In the sudden roaring silence
2
and stillness, the sun comes out, flooding the sky and
jungle with radiant light. The jungle is revealed as a
#9
3 tumultuous tangle of “flesh-like weed,” resembling a
“nest of octopi” bleached a sickly ash grey by years of
4 relative darkness.
The children rush outside and peel off their jackets,
5 reveling in the warmth of the sun. It is far better than
#10 they even imagined it would be. They run, laugh, and
yell, staring at the sun and trying to savor every joyful
moment. But all too soon, a girl begins to wail—she has
caught a single raindrop in her palm. Immediately
Learning Opportunity 2 sobered, the children walk and then run back to the
underground classroom as the sky darkens and the
Directions: Examine your 10 story action lines. Cross out torrential rain recommences. It seems somehow louder
items which are not necessary. Then, retain 5 action lines and more painful than before, and the seven year
which constitute the whole story. distance between the present and the next glimpse of
sunshine seems incomprehensibly long.
Just as these somber feelings overtake the children,
they suddenly remember Margot, still locked in the
closet. They glance at each other, guilty and chastened.
Slowly, against the backdrop of the terrible rain, they
walk to the now-silent closet. They let Margot out.

2
 Reference

Ereadingworksheets.com. Retrieved June 10, 2020 from

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-
reading-worksheets/story-structure/

Teacher's Lounge: Summarizing Short Stories: Story

Elements and Conflict. Retrieved from
pinterest.ph/pin/249105423112306183/?
nic_v1=1alQMALLNV7EPwY9fp2cLZvJQjAAOzN
7QZSQoHKeDB2hUvclzsU8bke
%2BY1jqHZbGKG

Litcharts. Retrieved June 10, 2020 from

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/all-summer-in-a-
day/summary

Summary
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News is important for a num-
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ber of reasons within a society.
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Mainly to inform the public a-
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bout events which are around
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them and may affect them. 
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