Graphic Organizer
Conflict Map
Grades
3 - 12
Printout Type
Graphic Organizer
About this printout
Ask students to remember a story with no problem or conflict. That would be difficult to do! With this printout, students learn to examine the critical plot element of conflict.
Teaching with this printout
Ask students to retell the plot of some familiar stories, fairy tales, or movies. Can students identify the conflict in each one? What would the story be like if there were no conflict?
Use the printouts to have students examine the conflict in any text you are reading or viewing. They will answer these questions: What is the conflict? Why does this conflict occur? What are some ways the conflict could be resolved?
- Project an overhead of the Conflict Map and ask students to recall some details about the conflict a main character faces.
- Write their responses in the boxes. Model the process of thinking inferentially for the question of "why," and predicting for the question pertaining to potential resolutions.
- Have students write a paragraph summarizing the key elements of a text's conflict using the graphic organizer for reference.
More ideas to try
- Students can use the Conflict Map to generate conflicts for stories they are writing themselves.
- The Conflict Map may help students think through resolutions for real-life conflict, as well as literary conflict. The class could complete a Conflict Map based on a current or historical event and work together to provide possible solutions. You might also offer the process on this map to individuals who are working through a personal or peer conflict.