Story Elements

So this week I have been trying out my story element visuals with my kiddos.  I have been pretty happy with them and I love having visuals to reinforce the concepts I am teaching.  I made a few changes from my original set.  Mainly I just changed the clip art for the important event.  I wasn't happy with the detective with the footprints because I had several colleagues who were not able to tell that they were footprints!  I am not going to share with you what they thought the cute little foot prints were!  I finally got my whole story element with visuals pack for sale on TPT this morning.  Here is a peek at what it includes: 

I have added large posters of concepts per the request of one of my teaching buddies.  As an intervention specialist, I do so much small group work that I didn't even think about hanging up large visual supports:)

 

What I use all the time is my small visual cards.  I use them with my groups K-2.  It is a great way to review what they remember about the story from the previous day or after they have done a picture walk before reading.

 

 I actually laminated my questions so students could write answers with a dry erase marker or I could model for students how I want them to respond to the question.  I don't know about you guys but I constantly struggle with getting kids to restate the question in their answer.  I also thought about cutting the questions apart and just having my kids focus on one concept at a time like just the MAIN CHARACTER or just the SETTING.

Since I encounter kids of all levels, I wanted them to be able to sequence story events and show me that they understand the concept of beginning, middle, and end without having to worry about writing out an answer, therefore I decided to have them illustrate to show their story knowledge.  In many cases, the kids struggle so much with thinking of what they are going to write and then how to spell it that the skill they are actually demonstrating that they know gets lost along the way. 

Games are a great way to reinforce a skill or concept so I created a concentration game that allows students to increase their understanding of story elements and strengthen their memory as well.

Finally ASSESSMENT!  I have not used this piece yet but I know that it is important piece to ensure whether students actually understand a concept or skill.  I made it a cut and paste to make the activity a little more FUN!

I would love to hear your ideas or thoughts about teaching story elements!  Please leave a comment below:)  The first five people to comment can have my entire pack for FREE!  If you happen to miss out on the freebie click here to get this pack from my TPT store.