Spotlight on Strategies: Story Elements Soup

Using Smore, I created a flyer that describes how an elementary teacher, specifically a second grade teacher, can make learning and understanding story elements interesting by applying the strategy Story Elements Soup. In my Smore, I explain story elements can be compared to different ingredients in a soup, such as the plot is the recipe and the theme is the broth. Once all parts of the soup are put together, it cooks up a tasty (and interesting) story!

Teaching story elements addresses many Iowa Core standards including reading standard RL.2.IA.1 : employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension. Students need to understand how the elements of a story fit together to create a tale worth reading. Teaching story elements is also beneficial to a child’s writing ability; they can transfer this knowledge to their own stories. Once students see and understand how the parts of a story come together a students can apply this same idea to their own short stories.

Incorporating digital media not only helps a teacher meet a speaking and listening standard, but also provides my students an opportunity to employ listening comprehension skills. Also, using the website Bookflix, students are kept engaged in the book because it is animated. Another great addition to using an online book is that it creates an equal playing field for all levels of fluency. A student isn’t concentrating on his or her ability to read with fluency, but instead on his or her ability to comprehend and apply their ability to describe the story elements. Using the app Scribble My Story also offers my students the chance to synthesize their learning and provide evidence of their understanding of story elements. Within the app, students can draw, type, or even record their thoughts. I really enjoy using this app because students of any capability can present their understanding. As Howard Gardner states, "it is advantageous to develop multiple, diverse representations of the same entity..." (2008, pg 87). Students may be using the same tool, but they are allowed to present their information in any way they deem best for their ability and creativity.

References: 
 Gardner, H. (2008). 5 Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Iowa Core. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2016 from https://iowacore.gov

Story Elements (N.D.). Teacher Vision, Retrieved from https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/reading-comprehension/48783.html