An updated version of the Story Map, this interactive best suits secondary students in literary study. Students can map out the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution (shown at left) for a variety purposes and activities associated with works of drama. The interactive includes a set of graphic organizers which can facilitate postreading as well as prewriting activities that best suit your curriculum. 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/dramamap/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

Developing Story Structure With Paper-Bag Skits (6-8)
This lesson engages students in an interactive, dramatic activity to enhance their understanding of story structure and story elements. Using paper bags containing props, cooperative groups create semi-impromptu skits. Students use online tools as they develop the story elements in their skits.

Preparing a Character for a New Job: Character Analysis through Job Placement (9-12)
In this lesson, students are counselors working at an employment agency. Their job is to help clients find potential jobs and prepare them for their interviews. In the process of their task, students work in small groups to design a resume for the character as well as a series of potential interview questions and accompanying answers for the character. The examples in this lesson focus on The Glass Menagerie; however, many other pieces of literature will also work for this class

The Ten-Minute Play: Encouraging Original Response to Challenging Texts (9-12)
In this lesson, students use both analytical and creative skills to create a ten-minute dramatic adaptation of a section of a complex novel such as Toni Morrison's Beloved. Students participate in peer critiques of the plays, allowing more opportunities for reflection and exploration of the text.

Unlocking the Underlying Symbolism and Themes of a Dramatic Work (9-12)
This lesson plan invites students to explore a character from Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and an object associated with that character through story mapping and character-item poems. These graphic organizers and poems then become important keys to unlocking the underlying symbolism and themes in Hansberry’s play. By allowing students to discover these keys on their own, this activity encourages students to take responsibility for making meaning of the texts that they read.