| Story Element |
Kindergarten |
1-2 grade |
3-4 grade |
5-6 grade |
| Characters |
- Recognize the main character.
- Identify characters' moods (happy, sad, angry, helping, mad ...).
- Recognize that character's actions are related to their moods and personalities.
- Identify personality traits of characters (good, bad, selfish, greedy, mean, shy, friendly, caring, cooperative, ...).
|
- Recognize main character in a story.
- Understand that the story is about the main character.
- Understand that the story's creator often uses feelings to describe the characters and make a more interesting story.
|
- Recognize that characters may change from the beginning to the end of a story.
- Recognize characters' development may or may not be important for the story.
- Identify the feelings that characters are described as having.
|
- Recognize that characters are able to have all the characteristics a human can have and more.
- Recognize that characters may be created with any characteristic that a creator chooses weather it is real or imaginary.
- Recognizes that characters are developed by their actions, speech, appearance, comments, and other characters' actions and the author's choice of words.
- Recognize and sympathize or empathize with the plight of the character.
- Recognize that characters usually change within the plot of the story.
- Recognize implied thoughts and feelings related to the characters.
|
| Plot |
- Can retell simple linear stories by chaining events.
|
- Recognize the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
- Recognize a problem and resolution within a story.
- Recognize the climax as the most exciting part of a story.
- Predict the outcome of a story using the clues provided by the creator.
|
- Identify conflict and tension in a story.
- Recognize that creators use a variety of strategies and patterns to make stories interesting.
- Recognize that several conflicts can happen in a story and may or may not build toward the climax and resolution.
- Recognize that many stories have conflict caused by a struggle between characters (a protagonist and antagonist).
|
- Understand complicated plots.
- Recognize stories within stories.
- Recognize strategies that authors use to create suspense during the development of the plot.
- Recognize that most plots follow a general pattern.
- Recognize a variety of interactions or conflicts (person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. society, person vs. nature...).
|
| Setting |
- Can relate where the story happened.
- Can tell the time as day or night, winter, summer, fall, or spring, holiday.
|
- Identify where the story takes place.
- Begin to understand that the selections of different kinds of settings are important for story and tone (it was a dark and stormy night).
|
- Explain how the setting is or isn't important for the story and tone.
- Describe how the story and characters are affected by the setting.
|
- Recognize all stories have settings.
- Recognize time can move steadily forward or jump forward or backward in leaps of time.
- Recognize that settings can be used to create tone and develop plot.
|
| Theme |
- Tell theme as a simple morale (It's good to help. Its not nice to be mean.).
|
- Recognize that stories have a main idea.
- Identify general explicit themes in some stories.
|
- Begin to identify implicit themes in some stories.
- Understand that the story is about the theme.
|
- Recognize a variety of themes.
- Recognize that a story may have multiple themes.
- Understand implied themes.
|
| Point of View |
- When asked who is telling the story will answer a character or creator (author, writer ...).
|
- Recognize first person narration.
- Recognize that the author isn't always the story teller or main character.
|
- Recognize the omniscient (knowing everything) narrator.
|
- Recognize all points of view.
- Recognize that a point of view may change in a story.
- Recognize that point of view can be used to assist the development of a style and tone.
|
| Style |
- Recognize word patterns and repeat ones they think are interesting.
|
- Recognize style that is most concrete (rhyme, alliteration).
- Recognize with a little more practice (assonance, consonance, rhythm).
- Picture in their mind's eye, from reading or listening to imagery, images from real their life experience that relate to the author's description.
|
- Recognize figures of speech (simile, metaphor, hyperbole, allusion).
- Understand puns, word plays, and figures of speech.
|
- Can recognize most kinds of style with samples or other kinds of assists.
- Recognize symbols in literature.
|
| Tone |
- Can look at picture books and describe the tone with regards to the illustrations (Happy, sad, stormy ...).
- Recognize sad, happy, and other emotions that are in a story.
|
- Describe how the creator described the characters and told a story.
- Recognize humor
|
- Describe how the tone relates to the story.
- Read aloud with inflection that indicates an understanding of the creator's tone
|
- Can recognize a wide variety of tones (absurd, parody, condescending, didactic ...).
|