Plot
Background Information & Activities

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Reading is an exciting experience for children and people of all ages and we recommend providing a print-rich environment for your children. As you read together, it is important to model active reading skills and help your children to identify fundamental story elements such as character, setting, and plot to increase and strengthen comprehension. Plot is simply what happens in a story, or all the events that the author arranges to tell a story. In almost every story, the main character or characters face a conflict, or problem, and try to find a solution, or an answer.

Review with your children that a character is anyone in a story. The main characters are the most important characters in the story. The setting is the time and place of a story. Settings can change throughout a story. You may wish to screen the Character or Setting movies for review. All the events that happen in a story make up the plot. Choose a book or story together and identify the characters and setting. Then discuss what happens in the plot.

A conflict is the overarching problem the characters face in a story. In some stories, characters struggle against nature. For example, in one story, a protagonist might try to climb the highest mountain or cross the hottest desert. Characters can also struggle against machines. For example, they might battle a malfunctioning computer or try to fix a car. Some characters struggle against other characters, as in classic comic books where heroes and anti-heroes battle. Other conflicts might arise between a character and society, such as when a character battles poverty or racism. Some conflicts, however, are fought within the characters on an emotional level. Internal conflicts can include a character who tries to overcome a fear or cope with a loss of a pet or family member. Conflicts can involve emotions, loyalties, desires, or the conscience. Encourage your children to think about stories, characters, and the conflicts they encounter. You may also want to discuss conflicts your children have struggled with or overcome in their own lives.

The solution is an answer to a problem or how the conflict is solved. Throughout a story, characters might find different solutions to a problem, successfully or unsuccessfully. Suspense happens when the reader is not sure what will happen next. It is important for your children to understand that stories may not end happily and not all problems the characters face will be solved. Sometimes at the conclusion of stories, new problems arise. You may wish to identify stories and book that end this way. A book in a series might end with a problem that will then lead into the next book.

Stories and plotlines differ, but the classic parts of a story include the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The introduction presents the characters and the setting, and the rising action brings in the conflict, which then escalates into the climax, or the point in the story where the conflict appears to be at the highest point. The falling action involves the characters getting closer to solving the conflict and managing the effects from the climax, and the resolution is when the conflict is solved. While your children are not responsible for knowing all these elements of a story, they should understand that throughout a story, characters can struggle with conflicts, and as a result, grow and change or stay the same. Often characters learn something about themselves or about others.

Stories can be confusing, especially when there are many characters, plotlines, and conflicts, but there are many ways readers can follow the events in a story. The easiest way is to create a graphic organizer. Charts, lists, and story maps are helpful ways to keep track of events in the story. Drawing pictures or taking notes while reading are also useful strategies. Good readers think, take notes, and ask questions while they read. Every child can find his or her own way of reading and understanding, so encourage your children to find their own strategies of following plots as they read.

Plot Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Plot Family Activities – Click Here!

Plot Teacher Activities

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Personal History

Ask a person from the community to come in for an interview. This person can be a public servant, such as a firefighter, police officer, doctor, or bus driver, or she or he can be an elderly person, store owner, artist, or chef. Before the interview, brainstorm questions for your students to ask the person. Try to come up with questions that might elicit tales of overcoming challenges. (Where and when did this person grow up?) What is the most important event that has happened in his or her life? What were the happiest and saddest moments? Moderate the interview and then have students make a timeline showing major conflicts in the person’s life. Then use the timeline to write a biography of the person. You can also focus on one event of the person's life and write a story about it, paying close attention to the plot and order of events.

To extend the activity, have students pick a family member or friend and ask similar questions. Then have students write a timeline and/or story about the person using real events.

Book Jacket

Have students look at different books in the classroom. Focus their attention to the back of the books or the book jackets, which often feature synopses of the book’s plot. Then have students pick a book or a story and create a new book jacket or cover. Students can decorate the cover and write a short synopsis of the plot on the back. Students may also wish to draw pictures of the person for the author’s photo. Display all the books in the classroom just as in a bookstore.

Climb Every (Story) Mountain

Discuss different stories with your students. If needed, read a few short books together and discuss the plots. What happened in each story? Explain that the events in a story often build to a very exciting event, called the climax. Identify the climaxes in different stories. Then have students choose a book and describe the plot verbally or by writing short sentences. Have students draw or print out pictures of mountains, such as Mount Everest, from the Internet. They can also copy pictures of different mountains from a book. Have each student create a story mountain for their story using the picture. You may also wish to print out the Talk About It and modify it to suit your class. After students have completed their story mountains, attach them in a line or in several rows to create a story mountain range. Display the range so students can see each other’s work.

Plot Family Activities

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Ready, Set, Sequence

Have your child pick a well-known story, such as a nursery rhyme, fairy tale, or fable. Then have him or her write five sentences on five separate pieces of paper that describe what happens in the story. Your child can also draw pictures to illustrate their sentences. Younger children may wish to draw pictures and write a few words or short phrases. Then have your child mix up their papers and challenge you to put them in order. After you are done sequencing the plot, you can switch roles.

Plot Line

If possible, take sidewalk chalk and draw a long line on your driveway or neighborhood sidewalk. Together with your child, come up with a story. You may wish to adapt a fairy tale and tell it from a different point of view, or tell a memorable event from the past year. Then take a walk along the line and write down each major event in the story. Remember to identify the characters, setting, and main conflict in the story on your line. You can share the plot line with other community members or relatives.