English 7: Elements of Fiction

Elements of Fiction

Elements of Fiction takes ALL 9 weeks for students to completly cover. For some reason many of them act as if they have not been introduced to these terms before, which is not the case. I also include Literary Terms in this section so everyone has the same vocabulary to discuss the novels and short stories we are reading. I know that the English department has a new Pacing Guide so you will need to see Mrs. Labbate for a copy. The guide was still being fine tuned before I left. Remember one lesson plan will last two days…

ELEMENTS OF FICTION

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/overview/

What I do is place this link on my weblog and then students just need to click on it on the weblog to go to the site. You will need to teach them how to get to the weblog. The weblog link is located on the PGS web site above the word COUNTY in the banner. Click on the word weblog and then use the search box…put in cwhite. You can post whatever you want students and parents to know about class. I use this to cover myself with parents because it date stamps when you entered the weblog. Remember the weblog info is as follows: Login cwhite…password thomas.

Students will review Elements of Fiction. Students are to take notes in their journals. They will refer to this all year. Some students will try not to take notes. You will need to help them by pointing out what is important. I often let them use notes on quizzes so they really need to do a good job. This could take more than one trip to the lab. The lab sign-up is on the F Drive. Or you can do this as a whole class using the projector. It is up to you. It can also depend on the class.

If you can’t get lab time you can display the slides through the mounted projector and tell them what to write down. I don’t make them write the example slides. I want the definitions etc.

If you Google ELEMENTS OF FICTION there are several good additional PowerPoint presentations you can use to show the class from the mounted projector. Please feel free to use them as well.

Also I have an assortment of worksheets, quizzes etc. that you can pick through they are in the baskets with labels. I also left several workbooks that have additional worksheets that you can have run off. Decide what works for you. ELEMENTS OF FICTION is the big item for the 1^st 9 weeks!

Here are some notes that you can also use (students have the hardest time with theme):

The Elements of Fiction

Plot, Setting, Character, Conflict, Symbol, and Point of View are the main elements which fiction writers use to develop a story and its Theme.

Because literature is an art and not a science, it is impossible to specifically quantify any of these elements within any story or to guarantee that each will be present in any given story. Setting might be the most important element in one and almost nonexistent in another.

Just as a Crime Scene Investigator cannot approach a crime scene looking for a specific clue (e. g., shell casings), you as a reader cannot approach a story deciding to look for a specific element, such as Symbol. To assume could blind you to important elements. Both the CSI team and you must examine the entire “area” carefully to determine what is present and how it is important.

With that understanding, let’s examine the elements.

PLOT

Literature teachers sometimes give the impression that plot is not important, that anyone interested in plot is an immature reader.

Of course plot is important. It was what got us interested in reading in the first place. It was the carrot on the string that pulled us through a story as we wanted to see what would happen next.

That said, let me emphasize that plot is rarely the most important element of a good story. As much as I’ve always loved surprise endings, if the only thing a film or a story has is a great twist ending, it doesn’t have anything on a second look.

And it’s worth noting that recent fiction and film have deemphasized plot, frequently stressing character or conflict for example. In film, for example, think David Lynch or Pulp Fiction.

SETTING

Stories actually have two types of setting: Physical and Chronological.

The physical setting is of course where the story takes place. The “where” can be very general—a small farming community, for example—or very specific—a two story white frame house at 739 Hill Street in Scott City, Missouri.

Likewise, the chronological setting, the “when,” can be equally general or specific.

The author’s choices are important. Shirley Jackson gives virtually no clues as to where or when her story “The Lottery” is set. Examination suggests that she wants the story to be universal, not limited by time or place. The first two stories you will read each establish a fairly specific physical setting; consider what each setting brings to each story.

CHARACTER

What type of individuals are the main characters? Brave, cowardly, bored, obnoxious? If you tell me that the protagonist (main character) is brave, you should be able to tell where in the story you got that perception.

In literature, as in real life, we can evaluate character three ways: what the individual says, what the individual does, and what others say about him or her.

CONFLICT

Two types of conflict are possible: External and Internal.

External conflict could be man against nature (people in a small lifeboat on a rough ocean) or man against man.

While internal conflict might not seem as exciting as external, remember that real life has far more internal than external conflict.

Film and fiction emphasize external conflict not simply because “it’s more interesting” but also because it’s easier to write. In a film script, you merely have to write “A five minute car chase follows” and you’ve filled five minutes. How long would it take to write five minutes worth of dialogue?

SYMBOL

Don’t get bent out of shape about symbols. Simply put, a symbol is something which means something else. Frequently it’s a tangible physical thing which symbolizes something intangible. The Seven/Eleven stores understood that a few years ago when they were selling roses with a sign saying, “A Rose Means ‘I Love You.’”

The basic point of a story or a poem rarely depends solely on understanding a symbol. However important or interesting they might be, symbols are usually “frosting,” things which add interest or depth.

It’s normal for you to be skeptical about symbols. If I tell you that the tree in a certain story symbolizes the Garden of Eden, you may ask “Is that really there or did you make it up?” or “How do you know what the author meant?”

Literature teachers may indeed “over-interpret” at times, find symbols that really aren’t there. But if you don’t occasionally chase white rabbits that aren’t there, you’ll rarely find the ones that are there.

In the film 2001, a computer named HAL is controlling a flight to Jupiter. When the human crew decides to abort the mission, HAL—programmed to guarantee the success of the mission—“logically” begins to kill off the humans. Science fiction’s oldest theme: man develops a technology which he not only cannot control, it controls him.

Consider HAL’s name. Add one letter to each of the letters in his name. Change the H to I, the A to B, and the L to M. When you realize how close HAL is to IBM, the first response is disbelief. But clearly the closeness of the names is either an absolute accident or an intentional choice. As much as we are startled by the latter, we probably agree that the odds against the former—it being an accident—are astronomical.

Somebody thought that up. Or maybe a computer.

POINT OF VIEW

Point of View is the “narrative point of view,” how the story is told—more specifically, who tells it.

There are two distinctly different types of point of view and each of those two types has two variations.

In the First Person point of view, the story is told by a character within the story, a character using the first person pronoun, I.

If the narrator is the main character, the point of view is first person protagonist. Mark Twain lets Huck Finn narrate his own story in this point of view.

If the narrator is a secondary character, the point of view is first person observer. Arthur Conan Doyle lets Sherlock Holmes’ friend Dr. Watson tell the Sherlock Holmes story. Doyle frequently gets credit for telling detective stories this way, but Edgar Allan Poe perfected the technique half a century earlier.

In the Third Person point of view, the story is not told by a character but by an “invisible author,” using the third person pronoun (he, she, or it) to tell the story. Instead of Huck Finn speaking directly to us, “My name’s Huckleberry Finn” and telling us “I killed a pig and spread the blood around so people would think I’d been killed”, the third person narrator would say: He killed a pig and spread the blood…..

If the third person narrator gives us the thoughts of characters (He wondered where he’d lost his baseball glove), then he is a third person omniscient (all knowing) narrator.

If the third person narrator only gives us information which could be recorded by a camera and microphone (no thoughts), then he is a third person dramatic narrator.

In summary, then, here are the types of point of view:

First Person Narrator

Protagonist

Observer

Third Person Narrator

Omniscient

Dramatic

Different points of view can emphasize different things. A first person protagonist narrator would give us access to the thoughts of the main character. If the author doesn’t want us to have that access, he could use the first person observer, for example, or the third person dramatic.

THEME

Theme isn’t so much an element of fiction as much as the result of the entire story. The theme is the main idea the writer of the poem or story wants the reader to understand and remember.

You may have used the word “Moral” in discussing theme; but it’s not a good synonym because “moral” implies a positive meaning or idea. And not all themes are positive.

One word—love, for example—may be a topic; but it cannot be a theme.

A theme is a statement about a topic.

For example: “The theme of the story is that love is the most important thing in the world.” That’s a cliché, of course, but it is a theme.

Not all stories or poems (or films) have an overriding “universal” theme.

Remember another activity to use is to have students fill out the plot diagram together with you for a well known fairy tale such as Cinderella. I have many different types of plot diagrams you can choose from. They are in one of the baskets with a label.

You can also use “The Real Story of the Big Bad Wolf” to develop a plot diagram. The book is in the basket.

Here is another activity you might use for Elements of Fiction:

Playing Teacher
Students will take notes indivdually on the elements of fiction in the computer lab and then work with their assigned group to develop a lesson to teach one of the six elements of fiction.

Students have been divided into 6 groups...each group has been assigned an element of fiction. Groups will design a lesson to teach their element of fiction to the class. Groups must also design an assessment tool to use to see if their lesson was a success!

Elements of Fiction

1. Setting
2. Character
3. Plot
4. Point of View
5. Theme
6. Symbolism

Below is a test for Elements of Fiction...You can cut and paste this into word and have it run off...

English 7

Name___________________________

Date____________________________

Elements of Fiction Test

The problem or struggle in a story

theme b. protagonist c. mood d. conflict

A category of writing – writings in the same style

climax b. antagonist c. mood d. genre

A complex, developed character with many qualities and traits

flat b. dynamic c. static d. round

Third person words

I, me, we b. He, she, they

A narrator tells the story

genre b. first person c. third person d. mystery

The second part of a short story, in which the conflict arises and becomes more intense

climax b. rising action c. falling action d. introduction

A story that takes place in the past

Fantasy b. mystery c. realistic fiction d. historical fiction

The story’s main character or hero

setting b. antagonist c. protagonist d. first person

When and where the story takes place

setting b. character c. realistic fiction d. conflict

A story in which a detective is trying to solve a crime or puzzle

Fantasy b. mystery c. historical fiction d. plot

Words that sound like what they mean

onomatopoeia b. personification c. simile d. metaphor

Uses “like” or “as” to compare objects

simile b. metaphor c. onomatopoeia d. personification

The narrator tells only what one character is thinking and feeling

prose b. 3^rd person limited c. first person d. 3^rd person omniscient

The author’s attitude about the subject

mood b. tone

A character that changes during a story

flat b. static c. dynamic d. round

A brief work of fiction with few characters and one plot

a. prose b. short story c. point of view d. first person

A conflict that takes place in the character’s mind

external conflict b. internal conflict

A story about imaginary events that involve technology, often set in the future

mystery b. science fiction c. fantasy d. realistic fiction

The mental images an author creates using the five senses

simile b. tone c. mood d. imagery

The moral or lesson to be learned in a story is called the

conflict b. mood c. sequencing d. theme

Any writing arranged in sentences and paragraphs – everything except poetry or drama

fiction b. genre c. climax d. prose

The feeling that the author wants the reader to experience

mood b. protagonist c. conflict d. fiction

The narrator tells what all characters are thinking and feeling

genre b. 3^rd person limited c. 3^rd person omniscient d. mystery

The story’s “bad guy;” the character who works against the main character

plot b. antagonist c. protagonist d. omniscient 3^rd person

Revealing the personality and traits of a character is called

personification b. setting c. exposition d. characterization

Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects

onomatopoeia b. simile c. personification d. climax

A story that takes place in our own time, about events that could really happen

prose b. realistic fiction c. historical fiction d. science fiction

The sequence of events in a story – what happens

theme b. plot c. genre d. prose

The story’s turning point, the most exciting part of a story

climax b. falling action c. introduction d. plot

The fourth part of a short story, in which the conflict moves toward a resolution

conclusion b. rising action c. introduction d. falling action

Please read the following selection and answer the questions.

Although Sherri was only seven years old, people always asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her response was easy - a teacher. She had the perfect picture in her mind what her classes would look like and how they would behave. The only problem was that she didn’t have any worksheets or materials to give her imaginary class.

In class, she watched the teacher walk over to her file cabinet and throw mounds of unused worksheets in the trash. “What a waste!” Sherri murmured to herself. An idea suddenly blossomed in her head. She would use the worksheets that had ended up in the trash! After school, when the halls were clear of students and teachers, she sneaked into Mrs. Smith’s class, her first grade classroom, and grabbed the discarded worksheets. Feeling confident that she had accomplished her mission, she walked around the corner with her new teaching materials under her arms. A loud, booming voice startled her as the janitor yelled, “What are you doing here? Go home!”

Sherri didn’t wait to respond to his questions as she ran out of the school’s front doors. As she walked home, she kept looking behind her to see if the janitor had followed her. Safely home, she closed her bedroom door and announced to her imaginary students, “Good morning, students. Today, you are going to learn about nouns and verbs. I am going to pass out a few worksheets and explain the assignment to you.”