Students review literary text structures in this lesson. After this lesson, students are able to:
- Elucidate how a story is introduced at the beginning.
- Elucidate how the story comes to a finish.
- Examine how a literary text's events are organized.
- Retell a narrative in chronological order.

- How can literary and factual texts become meaningful to strategic readers?
- What is the true purpose of this text?

- Literary Elements: The characters, setting, and plot of a story.
- Characters: The people or animals in a story.
- Setting: The time and place, or where and when, a story happens.
- Plot: The sequence of events in a story, including a problem and a solution.
- Events: The things that happen in a story.
- Sequence: The order in which events happen.
- Introduce: To start something new.
- Conclude: To end.

- materials, such as clay or colored paper, scissors, and glue for a sequencing activity
- John Steven Gurney. (2002). Dinosaur Train. HarperCollins. 
Alternative books:
- Audrey Wood. (1984). The Napping House. Harcourt Children’s Books, 1984.
- Margery Cuyler. (2009). The Bumpy Little Pumpkin. Scholastic Paperbacks.
- other books by Margery Cuyler and books by Jan Brett.
Teachers may substitute other books to provide a range of reading and level of text complexity.
- several fiction and literary nonfiction texts (biographies or historical events) at students’ independent reading levels
- a read-aloud story that fits the needs of students for guided practice
- student copies of Story Maps (L-2-2_Story Maps)
- student copies of the Text Structure Analysis worksheet (L-2-2-2_Text Structure Analysis)
- student copies of Exit Tickets (L-2-2-2_Exit Tickets)
- chart paper, markers, scissors

Stress the significance of recognizing story structure throughout the class. Talk about the significance of narrating events in the correct order and examining a story's beginning and conclusion.
- Ask them if they can recognize the elements of a story and if they understand what story structure is.
- Informally determine if students can accurately identify story structure in a pair or small group using your anecdotal observations and notes.
- To evaluate students' progress toward the lesson's objective, use the checklist that follows:
- Students use plot, character, setting, problem/solution, and/or three or four significant events and the order in which they occur to identify the story structure of a literary work.
- Students are able to narrate a story using its beginning, middle, and end as guides.
- Students are able to recognize the opening methods used by authors to initiate stories.
- Students are able to point out how the author wraps up the story's events.

Modeling, Active Participation, and Scaffolding
W: Assist pupils in deciphering and analyzing various literary texts' narrative structures. 
H: Incorporate students into the lecture by assigning them a task that requires them to follow a set of instructions to create something. 
E: Complete a graphic organizer and evaluate the text's beginning and end to show students how to use what they know about story structure. 
R: Adapt the lesson or provide more time as needed for students who require more assistance. Students should work in pairs before sharing material with the entire group. 
E: Ask students to complete a graphic organizer and text structure analysis questions to gauge their comprehension of story structure. 
T: Introduce the concept of story structure to students at all levels through texts, debates, and peer interactions. To accommodate each student's needs, use visual organizers that are differentiated. 
O: Examine and apply your understanding of story form in an orderly fashion, working in pairs and leading class discussions. 

Focus Question: What role do a story's beginning and finale have in its overall structure?

The introductory activity aims to have students produce something that necessitates following a set of steps. Encourage students to grasp the significance of sequence in structure through discussion, and then apply this knowledge to the structure of stories. Make adjustments to the activity based on the resources you have and the time you have available. Some instances are as follows:

Give pupils modeling clay and instruct them to make a snowman. After that, talk about how they had to create three balls, each smaller than the last, and then stack them on top of one another.
Give the students glue, scissors, and colored paper. Make a house with them, please. After that, talk about how they had to cut out and glue the forms for the windows, door, roof, and house.
Students can sketch a house or a snowman, and then they can talk about the order in which they drew the various parts.

Say, "There are a series of steps we follow when making something. What occurs if we don't follow the instructions in the right order?" (It doesn't work out properly.) Say, "We'll talk about how an author employs sequencing to develop a tale in this class. The story's structure depends on the order in which the events occur."

Part 1

You can write the primary idea of each story on a separate sentence strip in advance of the session. The narrative Dinosaur Train is used in the lesson, but you can modify the exercise to fit any other literature. Alternatively, as students identify the events in the story, you may write down each one on a sentence strip.

Read aloud "Dinosaur Train." See the anchor chart that was made in the first lesson. Say, "We use literary elements to analyze stories. Tell me about literary components." (plot, setting, and characters) Encourage pupils to recognize the story's literary components by posing queries like these:

Who appears in the narrative?
When and where does the narrative occur?
What is the story's outcome?
How do the characters respond to what happens in the narrative?

To encourage students to use these types of questions when analyzing a story, you can write the questions on the board.

In Dinosaur Train, the following are some of the most significant events:

Jesse creates one final drawing before going to bed.
Jesse hears a booming sound.
Jesse boards a train with a dinosaur.
The train tips over as Jesse and the dinosaurs gaze out the window.
Jesse assists the dinosaurs in raising the train.
On his way back to his room, Jesse takes the engineer dinosaur for a ride in the engine.

Place the sentence strips containing the key points in a random arrangement on a chart or the board. Say, "A story's plot is its sequence of events. To give the story meaning, the author has chosen to arrange the events in a particular order. The plot is organized according to the events that occur. It's the way the writer structures the narrative. See if the narrative makes sense after reading the events on the board." 

Talk about the significance of sequencing in a story as soon as students see that the events are not in the correct order. Ask pupils to assist you in rearranging the sequence of events.

You keep going to say, "In other words, the story structure explains what happens at the start, middle, and end of the story. The reader can better comprehend how events flow or link when they are aware of the story's theme and structure."

"Let us now examine the author's approach to starting the story," you say. Go back and read the first lines of the narrative: "For Jesse, Thursday was just another day. Dinosaurs and trains. Trains and dinosaurs. " You continuously ask, "Why did the author decide to start the story this way?" One possible response is that the author wants the reader to realize that although the day begins normally, there will soon be a change. Because it's crucial to the plot, the author wants the reader to see how much Jesse enjoys playing with trains and dinosaurs.

Show pages 2–4 of the narrative. Encourage pupils to examine the drawing that Jesse drew closely. Raise a question: "How does the illustration help the reader understand what happens next in the story?". (Jesse illustrates a dinosaur-themed train. A dinosaur makes an appearance in the tale and boards the train with him. (The picture makes it clearer to the reader that Jesse might be dreaming or envisioning the coming of the dinosaur train while he draws.) Say, "The author introduces the action at the beginning of the story with words and illustrations. The illustration that Jesse creates advances the narrative to the following scene."

Say, "Let's now examine the conclusion of the story." Show the story's final two pages, then read the following: "Next stop—Jesse's room!" Instruct pupils to examine the illustration. Ask, "In what ways do the words and illustrations aid in your comprehension of the narrative?" (Some possible responses include that the word and illustration mark the end or conclusion of the story.) "Why did the author decide to wrap up the story in this manner?" (Since the story begins and finishes in Jesse's room, it completes a circle. The ending could mean that the dream is over or that Jesse is done envisioning as he paints the picture.) Say, "The action comes to an end or the story concludes."

Part 2

You can use an overhead projector or the interactive whiteboard to display a copy of one of the narrative maps (L-2-2_Story Maps). Select the narrative map that most satisfies your pupils' demands. Explain that students will listen to a story and attempt to identify the most important events that occur at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Choose a story to tell the class. Distribute copies of the story maps once you have finished reading the narrative. Help pupils recognize the main characters, the scene, and the sequence in which the major events occur. Allow pupils to annotate their narrative maps with the material you capture on the display copy. Determine whether students can recognize text structure through discussion and observation.

After that, present a copy of the L-2-2-2_Text Structure Analysis text analysis questions. Explain to your pupils that they will be analyzing the beginning and ending of the story to see how the author introduces the story and concludes the action. Review the meanings of the phrases "conclude" (to terminate) and "introduce" (to start something new).

Give copies of the text analysis questions to each student. Discuss the why and how questions with the class. Ask students to turn to a partner or discuss the beginning of the story and its purpose in small groups. Encourage them to talk about how the story is introduced at the beginning. On the text analysis page, have students write down their thoughts under number 1.

Then, have students talk about how the story's action comes to a close and why the author chose to end it this way. Ask them to jot down their thoughts under the text analysis page's number 2.

Remind pupils that the beginning, middle, and end of a story comprise its story structure. Consider the following: "Why is it important for the reader to understand story structure?" It makes it easier for the reader to comprehend how certain incidents relate to the main plot. It aids the reader's memory of the narrative. Request that students narrate the narrative they read using the understanding of the story structure they have learned.

Part 3

Use literary materials that are either at or below the students' levels of independent reading for this portion of the session. Assign students to groups based on their reading levels, either heterogeneous or homogenous. To assist in completing the task, you might decide to work with readers who are having difficulty.

Reread the description of the plot structure from Part 1. Next, assign students to work in pairs to select a literary book that is 20 minutes or less and is appropriate for their level of independent reading.

"You will read a story with a partner," you say. "Take note of the things that occur at the start, middle, and finish of the narrative as you read. Determine the events that matter most. Following your reading, each of you will fill out an exit ticket." you require.

There are two exit ticket variants available (L-2-2-2_Exit Tickets). You have the option of giving each student an identical copy or differentiating instruction according to each student's skill level. Before the students start working, go over the questions on the exit tickets with them.

Give the children around 30 minutes to finish the exit ticket and read the story. While the kids are working, circulate the room, offering assistance when required.

Gather the exit tickets and determine which pupils can benefit from more training or experience.

Extension:

The following activities are possible for students who require more learning opportunities:

Give prepared sentence strips that represent the start, middle, and finish of a well-known story (along with visual cues, if needed). Ask pupils to recount the tale while rearranging the comic strips.
Collaborate with kids to complete a basic graphic organizer that focuses on the story's beginning and ending. Talk about the relationships that exist between the story's beginning and ending.
Pupils who are prepared to go above and beyond the requirements could engage in the following:

Give a character, setting, and initial event for your narrative starter. Assign pupils to compose the story's middle and conclusion in small groups. Next, ask them to describe how the action culminates in the series of events that precede it.
Ask pupils to rewrite a well-known story's conclusion. Ask them to describe how the story's action concludes in the revised ending.
Students should contrast the opening and closing of two comparable stories written by various authors.