Plot Extensions

Grades 3-4
Grades 5-7

Extension Activities

Plot • Activities

Students might focus on plot by doing any of the following activities.

• Plot Line Graph. Have the students make a numbered list of the plot events. Then give each event an excitement rating from 1 to 5 (or 1 to 10). The results can be graphed. An excitement rating for “Ohio Odyssey” might look something like the following example:

• Make a cartoon strip of the main events in a story.
• Paint or draw scenes that provide clues to a story’s plot.
• Create an illustrated picture map of a selection’s main events.
• Create a timeline of the events of a selection.
• Create a storyboard of the main events of a selection.
• Create a map showing where the main character went during the story.
• Create a PowerPoint presentation of main events. Other applications that create slideshows are Apple computer’s Keynote or the free Open Office presentation application.
• Create a slideshow on paper. Use strips of paper taped end to end to show main events
• After reading a selection, have the students explain why different events occur at different times during the story.
• Predict the next event (or next several events) that will take place following the author’s stopping point for the story.
  

Other Online Resources   

“Plot Diagram,” an online interactive tool: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/plot-diagram/

“The Story Man Game:” http://www.storytreeonline.com/StoryMan.html

“Elements of Fiction: Plot”

• http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/elements.asp?e=1 
• This site includes a definition of the literary element plot, plot exercises, and examples of how the plot is developed in Nathaniel Hawthorn’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.”

Plot Profile or Plot Line

• http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/plot.htm

Genre Study: The Short Story: Plot Line

• A sample diagram is displayed and a link to an interactive “Jack and the Beanstalk” plot activity.
• http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/course/course1/unit/shortstory.shtml

Manning, MaryAnn. “Plot.” Teaching PreK-8. April 2001.

• http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3666/is_200104/ai_n8949682

Dr. MaryAnn Manning is a professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Department of Curriculum and Instruction and a contributor to Teaching PreK-8 magazine.