Lesson 2- Riding Plot Diagrams

Eastern Connecticut State University Lesson Plan Format

Second Grade - Ashford School

Content Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.5  Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. 

Prior Knowledge/Connections:  

• Students in this class have previously read variations of The Gingerbread Man as read alouds. These books include The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray, The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst, The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst, The Gingerbread Bear by Robert Dennis, and The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka. They also read The Gingerbread Man 1976 Little Golden Book illustrated by Elfrieda.
• Students have been introduced to plot structure before.  Most are familiar with vocabulary terms such as exposition, climax, and resolution and use these terms instead of beginning, middle, and end.

Student Learning Objective(s):

• Students will correctly identify events from gingerbread stories as part of the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, or resolution.  Students will correctly locate these events on an interactive plot diagram.

Vocabulary:

• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

Essential Questions:

• Why is the order of story events important?
• What causes events in a story to happen?

Assessment:

• Students will be assessed through the completion of their Read Write Think plot diagram.

 

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/plot-diagram-30040.html?tab=2#tabs

Materials/Resources:

• Gingerbread Man Texts

Technological resources:

• Computers with Internet Access
• SmartBoard

Learning Activities-
Initiation:

Show the following video on the Smartboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaKuVLtTFLA

 

Lesson Procedures:

• Ask students to discuss their initial reaction to the rollercoaster simulator.  What did they notice during the ride?  How did they feel?
• Explain to the students that story plot structures are often very similar to rollercoasters.  For example, the ride starts off slowly (exposition) and travels uphill (rising action) until it reaches a peak (the climax) and then descends (falling action) and eventually stops (conclusion).
• Tell the students that they will be exploring the plot structure of one of the Gingerbread Man texts today. 
• Model the activity the students will be completing:  If necessary, reread one of the Gingerbread Man texts as a class.  Pull up the plot structure page from readwritethink.org.  Show the students how they are able to label and describe different events from the story and place them on the correct location of the plot diagram.  Work together to come up with examples of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution from the story.  Enter the examples onto the electronic plot diagram. 
• Assign each of the students a Gingerbread Man text.  Have the students complete their own plot structure diagram on readwritethink.org.  Walk around the room and assist students as needed.

Closure:

• Hold a discussion about trends in the plot structure diagrams.  Were there similarities among everyone's climax?  How did the exposition affect the climax?  How did the climax affect the resolution?  How would the story have been different if parts of the rising or falling action were not included?

Intervention:

• Allow students who are not familiar with the terms exposition, climax, and resolution to use a plot structure diagram with beginning, middle, and end labels.  Have students focus on mastering these three main points before requiring them to complete rising and falling action.

Enrichment:

• Students who are masters at the plot diagram structure can focus more of their attention on drawing relationships between different events.  Have the students identify examples of cause and effect within their completed plot diagram.