In order to prepare for the telling of their own stories, our class looked at the following core elements of storytelling.
Plot
Character
Setting
Conflict/Problem
Moral/Message
We spent time discussing how these things are presented in the very first stories we encounter: books aimed at children.
As a class, we spent time reading parts of children’s stories to each other to determine the way that the plot was devised and how the moral message was conveyed.
Following this, we broke down the plot structure and some of the terminology, using Cinderella as an example along the way. Below are the screenshots from that discussion.
Once we had examined the structure of the plot and how it develops, we narrowed in on the beginning of the story, where things such as character, setting and the conflict are all clearly established. We spent a lot of time discussing the opening of The Kite Runner with these concepts in mind.
Following this, we started to discuss the first person narrative voice and what this brings to a story. We discovered the importance of the internal monologue that is created when this narrative POV is used and discussed the intimate connection this creates between a character and the audience. We examined a simple extract from The Hunger Games which many of us were already familiar with and questioned how the central character’s thoughts and feelings were developed in line with the plot of the story.
From here, we tested our skills on a piece that was foreign to the class and also moved from the realm of fiction into an autobiographical account from Mud, Sweat and Tears. We were looking to identify all the elements we had discussed over the past lessons.
Our final task was to look into how language can be used to enhance the story and consider that ever looming ‘show not tell’ skill that accompanies creative writing. For this, we used an extract from The Keeper.
Throughout this process, the students took notes and discussed their thoughts with each other to build a well-rounded picture of what storytelling looks like.
