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Story Story

+Short Story

Literary Elements

n  Plot

n  Character

Genre Focus

n  What is a short story?

n  Why read a short story?

n  How to read a short story?

Reading Skills

n  Predict

n  Evaluate

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Genre Focus: Short Story

+ Genre Focus: Short Story

Short stories are short made-up (not true) stories.

n  Made-up stories are called fiction.

Short stories are usually in narrative form.

n  Narrative is a series of events that tells a story. n  Narrator is someone who tells a story.

+ Genre Focus: Short Story

Short stories tend to be more simple than novels (long stories).

n Usually a short story focuses on (has):

•  only one incident or conflict

•  What is the problem?

•  has a single plot.

•  What happens?

•  a single setting or place

•  Where does it happens?

•  a small number of characters (people).

• Who is in the story?

•  covers a short period of time.

•  When does it happen?

+ Genre Focus: Short Story

Every short story has a plot:

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Literary Elements: Plot and Character

+ Literary Elements: Plot Plot is all parts of a story

n Each part of the story leads to the next part. n It is the basic plan of the story.

The plot is created through conflict.

n Conflict is a struggle between n  people n  ideas n  forces

+ Literary Elements: Plot

Exposition

•  Exposition introduces the reader to the characters, place and time of the story.

Rising Action

•  As the story continues, conflicts or problems happen to create suspense.

Climax

•  The conflict in the rising action reaches a point where it is clear.

Falling Action

•  The conflict start to be resolved or solved by the characters in the story.

Resolution

•  The conflict is solved and the story ends with a lesson for the reader.

+ Literary Elements: Plot

+ Literary Elements: Character A character is an actor in the story.

n Characters can be people, animals, robots or whatever the writer wants.

You learn about the characters by:

n What they do. n What they think. n What they say. n What they feel.

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Reading Skills: Predict and Evaluate

+ Reading Skills: Predict Predict

n To predict means to think ahead to guess what might happen. n Use clues in the story to guess what will happen next.

When you read what really happened, you are checking your prediction.

n Your prediction doesn’t always have to be true! It’s a guess!

+ Reading Skills: Evaluate Evaluate

n When you evaluate, you form an opinion about the story while you read it.

n An opinion is what you think or believe. n Everyone has different opinions!

When you evaluate, you ask yourself questions:

n How do I feel about the character or what is happening?

+ Project

Making a Short Story

You will draw/write a short story

Your short story must have:

a title a character a conflict a resolution