The PRIMALS Compendium of Teaching Resources

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Literacy Compendium Kit

E N G L I S H L E S S O N P LANS F I L I P I N O L E S S O N P LANS L ITE RAC Y STRATEGIES

Literature Study

Teaching Story G rammar

Literary texts, such as, stories, This guide describes
poems, a n d dr am a s are a ut he n t i c strategies for teaching
m ater ial of t e n r ic h in multiple layers story grammar, or
o f meaning. Literature expands the structure of
la nguag e awareness, encourages narratives.
interaction, a n d c a n b e effectively
m ined f or discussions a n d sha r ing
feelings o r opinions. Literature
is m ot ivating a n d is of t en more
interesting t h a n t h e texts f o u n d in
coursebooks. Also, by examining
values in literary texts, teachers
en cour age learners t o develop
values a n d at t i t ud es t h a t relate t o
t he world out side t he classroom.

Table o f Contents:

Background/Research Base 2
LIT ERAT URE S T U D Y

Purpose/Benefits 3
Description/Procedure 3
How Teachers Can Make
t h e Strategy Work 7
Applications Across
t he Cur riculum 7
 Literature Study

Teaching Story Gra m ma r

Background / Research Base

A major aim of language art s inst ructi on is f o r

students t o independently read a n d c o mp r e he n d
various types of text, b o t h literary a n d informational,
in increasing levels of compexity as they move u p
t he grades. This includes students’ ability t o analyze
a n d u nd er s t an d t he interrelationships of ideas
within the text as well as t he s ub o r d i n a t i on of ideas
within it.

General text structure used in Studies on teaching story

narration and exposition tend to
be different. Exposition relies
upon
superordinate and subordinate topics,
major and minor ideas, and patterns
of argument or inference. Narration
refers to texts written to involve the
reader in a series of images, events,
dialogue, or their combination, in
order to entertain the readers and
get them to imagine. Such texts rely
upon story grammar and
metaphor patterns to organize and
relate meaning (Hermosa, 2002).
grammar as a reading
comprehension strategy for
students state that story grammar
treatments improve the reading
comprehension skills of students,
even those children with learning
disabilities. They also state that
modeling strategies and graphic
organizers (e.g., story mapping)
are both effective when teaching
story grammar and reading
comprehension strategies
(Shannon, 2019).

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Purpose / Benefits
Studying the story elements and
structure of fiction is an important
way to deepen students’ reading
comprehension because it helps
them understand what is important.
It also spills over into helping them
write their own fictional stories.
Using story grammar helps learners
divide the story into meaningful
segments by using a set of
comprehension questions that can
be discussed by the whole class.
These questions help them to focus
on relevant elements of the story
without being overwhelmed by all of
it at once.
Description / Procedure
Elements of story grammar
What do most well-developed
stories have in common? Story
grammar specifies the basic parts
of a story and how these parts tie
together to form a well-constructed
story. Individual story grammars
may differ in their level of
specificity but most researchers
agree that
a story’s structure usually centers
around a setting, characters,
plot, and theme (Hermosa,
A simple story has a single episode.
2002).
More complex stories may have
two or more episodes, as well as
different settings. However, even a
single-episode story is defined by
a causal chain of events or
elements.
A well-written episode should
include the following shown in Table
1 (Vacca & Vacca, 1986; K-5
Learning (2014). This type of text
structure is understandble to
children ages six to nine.
L it e r a t u r e S tudy |
TABLE 1
S tructure of Narratives: Elements & Guiding Questions
(K-5 Learning, 2014)
Setting Contains the names a n d information
a b o u t t he character(s), the location of the
story, a n d the time the events oc c ur
Setting:
•Where d i d the story happen?
Characters:
• Who was the story about?
• Who were the people in the
story?
• Who was the most i mp o r t a n t person
in the story?
Initiating Event The event t h a t occurs involving the main
character(s), which results in a problem
f or the main character(s) t o solve o r a
goal t o reach
• What event (problem) occurred
involving the main character(s)?
Internal The reaction/response of the main
Response character(s) t o the initiating event
What was the reaction of the main
character?
Attempt The act ion the main character(s) do, as a
result of the initiating event (problem o r
goal)
• What d i d t he characters do, in
response?
Consequences The impa ct of the character’s at t empt
(resolution)
• What was t he i mpa c t of the
character’s attempt, the resolution?
• How d i d the characters solve the
problem?
Formal Ending The ending of the story
Theme The lesson learned from the story o r the
insight indicated by the story
• What is the main p o i n t of the
story?
• What lesson could we learn f rom the
story?
The terms used in the preceding
table may confuse teachers when
they discuss the elements of
fiction, especially in higher
grades. To avoid confusion of
terms referring to elements of
fiction as listed by (Becky,2019),
refer to the notes for each
element below:
T eac hing C h ar ac t e r iz at io n T h r o u g h G r a p h i c O r g a n iz e rs 3
 1. Characters: Main characters to chart the structure of tragedy but
and supporting characters is now commonly used to talk
(subsumed under Setting in about the plot structure of just
Table 1.) about any piece of prose (Shmoop,
2. Setting: When and where the story 2019). (See the guide for Freytag’s
takes place Pyramid elsewhere in this
Compendium).
3.Problem or Conflict: Usually
introduced in the initiating event; How to Teach Story Grammar
can be external or internal
The following steps described
4. Plot or Text Structure: The rise
and fall of action. In Table 1, by Shannon (2019), lays out the
plot elements include the procedures for teaching story
initiating event, the attempt, grammar that teachers can
and the consequence or adopt or adapt depending on the
resolution. level of their students’ familiarity
with the elements and text
5. Point of View: Either 1st person
structure of fiction. Note that
(a character, usually the main
character, tells the story; use of “I” you don’t need to follow these
and “me”; 3rd person (narrator tells steps for every
the story, use of “she/he” , “her/ student/class in the same way. You
him”) can bounce around a little bit as
needed.
6. Theme: More than the topic of the
story, the “message” is what the
STEP ONE: Familiarization
author is trying to send through the
Foruse of the
a more story.
comprehensive description of During step one, I do a ton of
the elements of fiction, g o t o Read- familiarization of story grammar
Write- Think a t parts. I read fun (and low level) books
http://www.readwritethink.org/
an d model finding story g rammar
files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/
overview/. parts. When I first start, I say a lot of
things like, “Wow! That page told us a
In high school, teachers introduce the lot! We know some of the characters
classic Freytag’s Pyramid to show an d the setting. Billy and his g rand p a
the elements of fiction. This diagram are people so we know they are
characters.” I point out posters
was developed by Gustave Freytag in
an d other visuals during this step. I
1863 don’t expect a ton of output from my
students here, I’m just doing a ton of
FREYTAG'S PYRAMID modeling, self-talk, and providing lots
Climax: of examples.
The most suspenseful p a r t of
th e plot. The t u rni ng p o i n t for
STEP TWO: Sorting
the protagonist's cha racter

Once students demonstrate some

Rising Action: Falling Action:
Three major Three events (or foundational understanding of story
events t h a t a d d less) t h a t unravel
the conflict between
grammar parts, you can work on
suspense o r
tension t o the plot the pr ot a go nist a n d sorting examples into story grammar
ant agonist t h a t lead
(ciomplications o r
frustrations) th a t t o the resolution categories. Here, also introduce the
lead t o the climax idea that some words are key words
that help them understand story
Resolution: Denouement: grammar. For example, the words
T h e c o n f l i c t is The "tying u p of
resolv ed a n d we loose ends" “decide”, “wanted”, or “thought” are
Exposition: Initial Incident:
Background The very first
discover whether words that show a character’s plan for
the protagonist
information of the conflict t h a t achieves his how to solve their problem.
p l o t t h a t includes occurs in the goal o r n ot
plot characters a n d setting

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STEP THREE: Definitions
Move into nailing down the definitions
for each part. Start by matching
story grammar parts to their
definitions.
You can show each poster and have
students summarize what each p a rt is,
how they can find it, etc.. Discuss how
characters tell the “who” of the story
and the setting tells the “where”. Discuss
how actions in a story are always
verbs (which are things that characters
do).
STEP FOUR: Story
Structure
For younger students, teach the
beginning/middle/end story structure.
For older students (grades 6+), teach
story structure using a plot diagram
because that is what they use in
class. During this step, discuss what
information you often find in each
pa rt of the story. For example, in the
beginning of the story, you can almost
always find the setting, characters, an d
a lift-off (or starting event).
STEP FIVE: Transition
Words
Next, teach transition words. Discuss
how transition words are amazing clues
as to what is happening in the story
and what each sentence is telling the
reader. For example, the word “but”,
often indicates a problem. The word
“finally” likely signals the end of the
story. Sort transition words into where
you’re likely to find them in a story (i.e.,
beginning/ middle/end) and have
students practice writing sentences
with them.
STEP SIX: Identification
Start putting everything together in step
6! During this time, practice by reading
stories upon stories upon stories. Have
the class find story grammar parts in all
of them. Checklists/rubrics and various
graphic organizers are needed during
this step.
STEP SEVEN: Retelling
Once my students are fairly adept at
identifying story grammar parts in
short stories, work on retelling those
stories. Start by retelling a story your
students have heard before, preferably
one they’ve heard several times an d
L it e r a t u r e S tudy |
discussed. During this step, introduce
a self-rating rubric for retelling stories.
You can record the students retelling
a story so you can listen back to it with
the student. Guide them to use the self-
rating rubric to identify which parts the
students included in their stories an d
which parts they left out.
STEP EIGHT:
Writing
Now it’s time to put everything together
and have students use all of their
strategies an d tools to write their
own stories! Use the same graphic
organizers the class used in the
previous steps.
STORY MAPS AND GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
The teaching of story grammar is more
effective through the use of story
maps an d graphic organizers that can
aid students in understanding an d
retelling the stories taken up in class,
as well as in writing their own stories.
Following are examples of fiction
story maps that can help students
organize information from a story.
Sample story map 3 is, obviously,
based on a longer an d more complex
story than the one on which the first
two story maps are based upon.
Characters: Setting:
Who? When an d Where?
Problem: Events to Solve Solution
What's Wrong? Problem
Sample Story M a p 1 (Hermosa, 2002)
T eac hing C h ar ac t e r iz at io n T h r o u g h G r a p h i c O r g a n iz e rs 5
 The Setting
Characters:

Place:

Time:
The Problem

Eve n t 1

Eve n t 2

Eve n t 3

Eve n t 4

The Resolution
Sample Story M a p 2 (Hermosa, 2002)

STORY TITLE

Setting Theme Plot Resolution

A. Goal of main
Major Setting character, o r
B. Intended message
Mi n o r Setting A of a u t h o r Episode A
1. Location
2. Time 1. Starter event
3. Characters (initiating event)
O r variations
4. Ongo ing State 2. Inner response
from the
"ideal (internal response)
"episode 3. Action (attempt)
structure 4. What happens
(outcome)
5. Reaction

Cause o r then o r a n d
Mi n o r Setting B
Episode B
1.
2.
1.
3.
2.
4.
3.
4.

Then o r cause o r a n d
Mi n o r Setting C
Episode C
1.
2. 1.
3. 2.
4. 3.
4.

Sample Story M a p 3 (Hermosa, 2002)

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How Teachers Can Make The
Strategy Work

1. Sometimes, students get caught

up in the small details of the story,
or leave out important information
story information. Or they would
forget the order in which the References
events took place, or have trouble
organizing information to create a
main idea of the story. Becky (2019). Teaching fiction: Story elements
a nd text structure. In This Reading Mamma.
Here is where story maps and Retrieved from https://thisreadingmama.com/
comprehension/text-structure/fiction-text-
graphic organizers would be of structure/
much help. Before reading, these
devices can cue students to
story elements. During reading, Hermosa, N.N. (2002). Psychology of Reading.
Los Banos, Laguna: UP Op en University.
these help students monitor
their comprehension and keep
track of the action in a story. K-5 Learning (2014). Why yo u r child ren need to
use story grammar t o improve their
After reading, they require
reading comprehension. Retrieved from
students https://www.
to reflect on what they read and k5learning.com/blog/why-your-children-need-
make connections between use-story-grammar-improve-their-reading-
comprehension
story elements. (Kissner, 2006).
Kissner, E. (2006). Summarizing, Rephrasing, and
2. Note that not all works of fiction Retelling: Skills for Better Reading, Writing,
include all of these elements. and Test Taking. Heinemann Educational
Sometimes the plot is not organized Books
and packaged so neatly. When
Shannon (2019). Teaching story g ramma r parts
faced with texts such as these, just in narratives. In Speechy Musings. Retrieved
ask students to tell what happened from
first, next, and last; then tellwhat http://speechymusings.com/2017/11/25/
teaching-story-grammar-parts-narratives/
the main idea (theme) of the story
is. To describe the main idea, use Shmoop (2019). Freytag pyramid. In Litera t ure
these phrases: “What is the story Glossary. Retrieved from https://www.shmoop.
all about?” or “If you could tell me com/literature-glossary/freytags-pyramid.html

what the story was about in 2-3

sentences, what would you say?” Vacca, R. & J. Vacca (1986). Content Area
Reading.
Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
Applications Across The Curriculum

This literacy strategy is not usually

used in subjects in the curriculum
other than language arts and literature
subjects/courses.

L it e r a t u r e S tudy | T eac hing C h ar ac t e r iz at io n T h r o u g h G r a p h i c O r g a n iz e rs 7