Lesson 4 - The essential elements of narrative

Welcome to the next lesson sequence on ‘the short story’

In this lesson sequence you will: 

• explore how the narrative elements of point of view and language impact the reader

• explore how language devices create engagement and meaning in narrative

• understand and begin planning the creative task – composing a short story

• understand that short story is an economical narrative form

• learn strategies for coding and summarising new content

• independently read a short story for understanding 

• annotate a prose fiction text

• create Frayer models for unfamiliar vocabulary

• demonstrate their interpretations of a short story through a ‘sketch to stretch’.

To open your student booklet in Microsoft Word(docx  11.6MB), select the icon. It will download automatically.

To open your student booklet in Google Docs, select the icon then select 'Use Template' to create a copy for yourself. 

In Lesson 4, you will continue your exploration of the elements of narrative, specifically ‘point of view’ and ‘language’ to understand how these elements impact on stories and readers. 

During this lesson you will:

• explore how the narrative elements of point of view and language impact the reader

• explore how language devices create engagement and meaning in narrative.

Task 2

1. Refer to the excerpt that you wrote for ‘setting’. What point of view did you use for this story? 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person? Did you use a limited or omniscient point of view? 

   • Point of view I used:

2. Explain why you used this point of view.

3. Rewrite the excerpt using a different point of view. For example, if you used a 3rd person point of view, you might choose a 1st person point of view. 

   • Point of view I will use:

4. Explain how the change in point of view affected the story.

5. Complete the thinking routine ‘I used to think, now I think’. 

   • For point of view, explain what you used to think, and how your knowledge and thinking has changed. 

   • You may like to focus on one new idea that you have learned. 

   • Provide as much detail as possible.  

• I used to think …

• Now I think…