How to Use Children's Books to Teach Story Elements
You can use children's books to introduce story elements to students of all ages, including high school. Children's books are helpful for learning story elements because many people are familiar with the story lines and they can analyze the elements of the story. In addition, children's books typically have simple plots that can be easier to analyze. You can introduce children's books to teach story elements in a variety of ways, including by turning your lesson into a visual exercise.
Instructions
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Have your students read the book to familiarize themselves with it. When you assign the book, also hand out a list of story element terms to have your students memorize.
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Draw pictures from the story on the poster board to make a story board of the children's book. Don't add words to the story board.
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Divide the students into groups of five. Make this a group assignment so students who are visual learners can communicate with the students who learn in different ways.
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Hand out one part of the story board to each group and have the students analyze the story elements that are shown. Put a group leader in charge of writing down aspects of the story including the setting, exposition, characters, sequence, conflict, climax and resolution.
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Have each group leader stand in front of the classroom. Have the group leaders show the rest of the class which story elements are present in the picture. Have the group leaders use the story boards to add to their presentations of the story elements.
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Tips & Warnings
Have the students work on creating the story board as an art exercise.
Don't think you can only use this exercise with high school students. The lesson works well with middle school children as well.
References
- Photo Credit happy princess image by Cherry-Merry from Fotolia.com
