Completing the Circle: The Craft of Circular Plot Structure

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

K, 1, 2

Overview

After exploring a variety of circle plot storybooks, students identify, explore, and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories. "Reading like writers," students will explore the ways that stories are structured; then, "writing like writers," students explore organizational structures in their own writing. Students first examine the attributes of circular shapes and brainstorm things with a circular pattern, such as seasons. After exploring how Cynthia Rylant's Long Night Moon might be a circular story, students listen to a circle story read aloud. Students discuss why the story is called a circular story and make connections to Rylant's book. They then read several more examples and, using circle plot diagrams as their tools, students write their own circular plot stories. Finally, students share their work with peers, revise their work using a checklist for self-evaluation, and compare their self-evaluation to teacher assessment.

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.R5

Utilize the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

UP:ELA21.K.R5

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.2

Actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge needed to be successful as they learn to read and, later, read to learn.

UP:ELA21.K.2

Vocabulary

  • Actively engage
  • Teacher-led reading experiences
  • Collaborative discussions
  • Background knowledge
  • Peers

Knowledge

Students know:
  • How to engage in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers to build background knowledge.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Build background knowledge by actively engaging in teacher-led reading experiences and collaborative discussions with peers.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • They need to build background knowledge to be successful as they learn to read and read to learn.
  • They need to actively engage in teacher-led reading experiences and discussions with peers to build their background knowledge.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.3

Actively participate in teacher-led choral and shared reading experiences.

UP:ELA21.K.3

Vocabulary

  • Actively participate
  • Choral reading
  • Shared reading

Knowledge

Students know:
  • How to actively participate in teacher-led choral and shared reading experiences.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Actively participate in teacher-led choral and shared reading experiences.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Actively participating in choral and shared reading activities helps them build their background knowledge and improve their reading fluency, so they can become fluent readers.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.27

Identify and describe the main story elements in a literary text.

UP:ELA21.K.27

Vocabulary

  • Identify
  • Describe
  • Characters
  • Settings
  • Important events
  • Literary text

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Main story elements in a literary text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the main story elements (characters, settings, and important events) in a literary text.
  • Describe the main story elements (characters, settings, and important events) in a literary text.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Identifying the characters, setting, and important events in a text help them better understand the overall meaning of the text.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.28

With prompting and support, use text clues to determine main ideas and make predictions about an ending in a literary text.

UP:ELA21.K.28

Vocabulary

  • Text clues
  • Determine
  • Main idea
  • Make predictions
  • Ending
  • Literary text
  • Prompting
  • Support

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Text clues can help make inferences.
  • The main idea of a literary text.
  • Techniques for predicting the end of a literary text.

Skills

Students are able to:
With prompting and support,
  • Identify the main idea in a literary text using text clues.
  • Make predictions about an ending in a literary text using text clues.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Text clues will help them identify the main idea and make predictions about the end of a story which helps to comprehend the text.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): KG

ELA21.K.37

Actively participate in shared and independent writing experiences, for varied purposes and audiences, across different genres.

UP:ELA21.K.37

Vocabulary

  • Actively participate
  • Shared writing experiences
  • Independent writing experiences
  • Varied purposes
  • Varied audiences
  • Difference genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Different genres of writing.
  • The purpose and audience for writing can change.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write for various purposes and audiences across different genres, with teacher assistance and independently.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Writing conveys a message, and the format of writing will change, depending on its purpose, audience, and intended meaning.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 1

ELA21.1.R5

Utilize the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

UP:ELA21.1.R5

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 1

ELA21.1.2

Actively participate in shared reading experiences and collaborative discussions to build background knowledge and learn how oral reading should sound.

UP:ELA21.1.2

Vocabulary

  • Participate
  • Shared reading
  • Background knowledge
  • Oral reading

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The process of shared reading experiences and collaborative discussions.
  • Shared reading and collaborative discussions can increase their background knowledge.
  • How fluent oral reading sounds.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Participate in shared reading and discussions to build background knowledge and learn new information.
  • Describe how oral reading should sound.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Actively participating in shared reading experiences and collaborative discussions can build their background knowledge.
  • Listening to others read aloud can help improve their oral reading skills.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 1

ELA21.1.23

Identify and describe the main story elements in a literary text.

UP:ELA21.1.23

Vocabulary

  • Identify
  • Describe
  • Story elements
  • Literary text

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Main story elements in a literary text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the main story elements in a text.
  • Describe the main story elements in a text.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Literary texts include predictable story elements, such as plot, characters, setting, conflict, and resolution, to help the reader to better comprehend the text.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 1

ELA21.1.27

Make predictions using information found within a literary text.

UP:ELA21.1.27

Vocabulary

  • Predictions
  • Information
  • Literary text

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Predictions can be made using information from a text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Made predictions about what will happen next based on information in a literary text.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • A prediction is an educated guess for what will happen next in a story, and they can use information in the story to create predictions.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 1

ELA21.1.34

With prompting and support, write a narrative that recounts two or more appropriately sequenced events using transitions, incorporating relevant details, and providing a sense of closure.

UP:ELA21.1.34

Vocabulary

  • Narrative
  • Appropriately sequenced events
  • Transitions
  • Relevant details
  • Sense of closure
  • Prompting
  • Support

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Narrative text describes a story in a series of events.
  • Events in a narrative are sequenced using transition words.
  • Narrative writing should include relevant details.
  • Narrative writing should end with a sense of closure.

Skills

Students are able to:
With prompting and support,
  • Write a narrative that recounts two or more appropriately sequenced events.
  • Use transition words in a narrative story.
  • Incorporate relevant details in a narrative story.
  • Provide a sense of closure when ending a narrative story.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • A narrative writing describes a sequence of events, uses transition words to show the chronological order of events, incorporates relevant details that are important to understand the story, and ends by providing the reader with a sense of closure.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 2

ELA21.2.R5

Utilize the writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

UP:ELA21.2.R5

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 2

ELA21.2.23

Identify the main story elements in a literary text.

UP:ELA21.2.23

Vocabulary

  • Story elements
  • Literary text

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Literary text is a story that contains story elements, like a plot and characters.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the main story elements in a literary text, such as characters, settings, and plot.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Literary texts include story elements, and they can identify the various elements to better understand the text.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 2

ELA21.2.27

Identify the text structures within literary and informational texts, including cause and effect, problem and solution, and sequence of events.

UP:ELA21.2.27

Vocabulary

  • Text structures
  • Literary texts
  • Informational texts
  • Cause and effect
  • Problem and solution
  • Sequence of events

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Literary and informational texts follow predictable structures.
  • Cause and effect text structure describes an event (the cause) and the consequence or result of the event (the effect).
  • Problem and solution text structure describes a problem and how the problem was solved or could be solved.
  • Sequence of events is the order of events within a text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify the text structure of literary texts.
  • Identify the text structure of informational texts.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Identifying the text structure of literary and informational texts will set a purpose for their reading and improve their comprehension.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 2

ELA21.2.40

Write a personal or fictional narrative using a logical sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings and providing a sense of closure.

UP:ELA21.2.40

Vocabulary

  • Personal narrative
  • Fictional narrative
  • Logical
  • Sequence of events
  • Details
  • Actions
  • Thoughts
  • Feelings
  • Closure

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • A narrative story describes a sequence of events in a logical order (beginning, middle, end).
  • A narrative story describes the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the characters.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write a personal narrative that recalls a personal experience or write a fictional narrative with a made-up story.
  • Write a narrative with a logical sequence of events and provide details that describe how the character feels, acts, and thinks.
  • Write a narrative that ends with a sense of closure.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Narrative writing includes predictable elements, like a logical sequence of events and an ending that provides the reader with a sense of closure.
  • Narrative writing can be used to tell about something that happened to them personally or it can tell a story they made up.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

ReadWriteThink

License Type

Custom
http://readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/completing-circle-cr…

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.readwritethink.org/util/legal.html

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

raulstoncg
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