An updated version of the Story Map, this interactive best suits secondary students in literary study. The tool includes a set of graphic organizers designed to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities, focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution development (shown at left). As with the Story Map, this interactive can be used in multiple contexts, whether they be author studies, genre studies, or thematic units, among others. Students can map out the key literary elements for a variety purposes, including response to literature or as a prewriting activity when composing their own fiction. After completing individual sections or the entire organizer, students have the ability to print out their final versions for feedback and assessment.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/lit-elements/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools (9-12)
Reading The Bully—a novel that should be especially appealing to struggling or reluctant readers—students will better understand the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. Students will use reading strategies such as literary analysis, T-charts, Readers Theatre, and reflective journals to help improve fluency and comprehension.

Book Reviews, Annotation, and Web Technology (6-8)
Integrating technology, research, and the language arts, students work collaboratively on this lesson reviewing books and creating hypertext on the Web. Reading, writing, purpose, and audience are synthesized, resulting in a challenging and creative student project.

Critical Reading: Two Stories, Two Authors, Same Plot? (9-12)
In this lesson, students read two short stories with the same title ("The Luncheon") that have been written by two famous authors. Students compare and analyze both stories to find differences and similarities among the characters and the plot and draw conclusions as literary critics.

Developing Characterization in Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing” (9-12)
Raymond Carver includes several static characters in his short story “A Small, Good Thing.” After reading the story, students analyze the major characters and then create an episode that develops characteristics for the little-known hit-and-run driver who causes Scotty’s death.

Exploring Change through Allegory and Poetry (6-8)
In this lesson, students explore the theme of change through allegory and poetry. Students read an example of literary allegory, review basic literary concepts, complete a literary elements map and plot diagram, create a pictorial allegory, and write a diamante poem related to the theme of change.

Exploring Satire with Shrek (9-12)
The movie Shrek, which satirizes fairy tale traditions, serves as an introduction to the satirical techniques of exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody. Students brainstorm fairy tale characteristics, identify the satirical techniques used to present them in the movie, then create their own satirical versions of fairy tales.

Fairy Tale Autobiographies (6-8)
Students read and analyze fairy tales from several cultural backgrounds, identifying common elements. Choosing common situations and working in small groups, students write original fairy tales, following a process method that includes peer review and encourages using picture books as models.

Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes (9-12)
Using a variety of individual and group activities, students will analyze the complex ways in which authors use characterization to present and explore heroism and the heroic.

Media Literacy: Examining the World of TV Teens (6-8)
In this lesson, students compare how characters are portrayed in different forms of media (i.e., books, television shows, and movies) and analyze characters, motivations, problems, and solutions from a television series of their choosing. They then propose a new television series that more realistically portrays teenagers today.

Novel News: Broadcast Coverage of Character, Conflict, Resolution, and Setting (9-12)
This twist on readers theater invites students to prepare original news programs based on incidents in a recent reading. Along the way, students explore standard literary elements of character, conflict, resolution, and setting.

Paying Attention to Technology: Exploring a Fictional Technology (9-12)
Students complete a short survey to establish their beliefs about technology then compare their opinions to the ideas in a novel that depicts technology (such as 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, REM World, or Feed). By exploring the fictional technology, students are urged to think more deeply about their own beliefs and to pay attention to the ways that technology is described and used.

Rummaging for Fiction: Using Found Photographs and Notes to Spark Story Ideas  (9-12)
“I don’t know what to write about!” is a complaint students commonly make when they are asked to write a creative piece. In this lesson, students use found notes and photographs as prompts to help them identify subjects, settings, characters, and conflicts for pieces of creative writing.

Seuss and Silverstein: Posing Questions, Presenting Points (9-12)
Picture books and short stories by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein are written on an elementary level, yet they contain powerful social and personal messages. In this lesson, high school students work in groups to read a book or short story by Seuss or Silverstein, prepare thought-provoking questions, and lead a class discussion.

Short Story Fair: Responding to Short Stories in Multiple Media and Genres (9-12)
In this activity, students read short stories from a collection in small groups then prepare responses in multiple media and genres that are shared in a culminating Short Story Fair. On the days of the fair, the class explores the displays for the short stories, responding to related questions.

Story Character Homepage (6-8)
A project for literature circles or class novels to develop understanding of a character. In groups students will look at examples of homepages on the Internet, note what elements most contain, and use them as models to create a homepage for their chosen character.

Teaching the Epic through Ghost Stories (9-12)
Our oral tradition of telling ghost stories, with which most students are familiar, builds a useful bridge to the oral tradition of the ancient epic narrators. In this lesson, students connect to epic storytellers by sharing their own oral tales of ghosts and goblins and monsters.

Weaving the Multigenre Web (9-12)
Students analyze the elements of a novel in many different genres and then hyperlink these pieces together on student-constructed Web sites. This is a lesson which can be used with either a whole class novel, individual novels, partner books, or small group literature circles.

Word Maps: Developing Critical and Analytical Thinking About Literary Characters (9-12)
Characters come to life when we read. With the help of word maps, students can better understand and analyze the problems, actions, and feelings of the characters in a story and make connections to their own lives.

Writing about Writing: An Extended Metaphor Assignment (9-12)
Using Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer” as an inspiration, students examine the literary element of metaphor then write their own extended metaphor, describing themselves as writers.