Bookmaking in Schools: Literary Elements

Literary Elements

Setting: Where and when does the action take place?

Characters: Who is doing the actions? What do we know about them? (They don't have to be people!)

Problem: What gets in the main character's way?

Solution: How does the main character resolve the problem? Who helps?

Moral: What is the author trying to say about life in this story?

Mentor Texts

Using Mentor Texts is crucial in helping students understand how the literary elements work together. A read aloud (long or excerpted) followed by a group discussion or brainstorm really helps "illustrate" for students how the elements of art and design and literary elements work together to convey a message. It also will give you a reference point in small-group and individual conferences with students.

Self Reflection

Students often do not have a fully-formed idea for a story arc. But they often have everything they need to write one based on their own experiences. What they need is time when they can reflect on something specific that they can later turn into a story. Being targeted in the tasks and prompts that you provide will help students to make the necessary connections when they are mapping out their stories.

Creative Writing Prompts

There are lots of reasons why some students are not comfortable sharing their own experiences, and besides that they also have wonderful imaginations wherein far more interesting things may happen than in their actual lives. So it's good to create moments where students can also imagine and write stories that are not rooted in their own experiences.

Using images as writing prompts is the easiest way to do this. Finding funny, emotional, or action-packed pictures from the internet or mentor texts is a great way to start a brainstorm, class discussion, or journal entry.