Plot structure. Something that is so complex, and is taught every. single. year. Regardless of how old your students are, they will get some version of plot structure every year they are in school. As it becomes increasingly familiar, it becomes less of a focus. However, even 3rd graders can understand the nuances of plot structure, and yes, even say the “fancy” terms for each of the parts of our “plot mountain.” AND it can be done in less than 10 minutes per day! Here’s how I get my kids onto climbing plot mountain…

Climbing plot mountain is a habit in my classroom with every single novel we read aloud. You read that right. Every. single. novel. I start a read aloud novel the same (or very similar) way every time. I draw out a “plot mountain” on chart paper, and we add to it as the book goes on. This routine of adding to our plot mountain chart each time we read takes MAYBE 5-10 minutes.

Beginning of the Year

At the beginning of the year, I introduce plot mountain by having kids stand up, and pretend like they are hiking. I might tell a story to introduce the parts of plot mountain. But, at the start of the year, it’s just a mountain, with no labels. We just talk about how as the story continues, we climb up and down the mountain. It’s a bit of a hot mess. Kids are still getting used to having discussions in the classroom, and managing themselves. At the beginning of the year, I also don’t care what they want to add to our plot mountain. Is it important? I don’t care! Let’s add it! We get to weeding out unimportant story details later.

Then, after more exposure, we add in the labels (exposition, rising actions, climax, falling actions, resolution).

You can see these labels in our Because of Winn-Dixie chart. We discuss what each word means, and why it is important to understand in the context of the story. The exposition is the beginning of the story, where all the characters are introduced, and the setting is established. The rising actions are all the actions until the climax, where the problem is evolving. The climax, I explain, is the most important, most exciting part of the book. It’s the turning point, where the problem is faced head-on. The falling actions are all the things that happen as a result of the climax. Then, the resolution is where all the loose ends are tied up, like a nice little present.

Independent Practice

As we go through the year, students may then journal their own plot mountains for their independent reads in their reading notebooks. With lots of practice and discussion, kids begin to understand the nuances of fiction reading. Even in THIRD GRADE (!!!). We eventually add on other discussion points to our charts, like theme, or character traits, or things like that. But without the framework of tracking the story on a plot mountain, those discussions would be pretty difficult to have, as kids would not be able to reference the parts in the book that demonstrate those other areas.

I have taught this way for several years, and each year that I continue this practice, I see students continue to master and truly understand fiction storytelling. It sets them up for proficient and enjoyable independent reading. This is the goal, right? To create lifelong readers that LOVE and ENJOY reading!