ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Teach Short Story Elements: As Easy as Boiling Water

Updated on January 24, 2013

Short Story Elements: Creating a Metaphor

Elements of any story are essential for students to understand. It is crucial to be able to identify parts of the story in order to analyze and critically think about that particular text. Students do well when learning about elements of anything when there is a picture involved. Take for example, essay writing and my Sandwich Strategy. When a student can take an everyday thing and associate it to a new concept, he or she is more likely to grasp the material.

In teaching elements of a short story, necessary in a Common Core classroom, comparing the smaller elements to a pot of boiling water is useful as it helps the students to visualize the material in a familiar context.

Source

The Pot, The Water and The Heat

When teaching about plot, the go to is always the plot diagram. It is a chart that is helpful for students to learn to identify parts of the plot and can be used to label the plot: exposition (introduction), rising action, climax, falling action and resolution (conclusion). The plot diagram certainly has its place, but I like to teach my students using the pot of water.

Three elements of the pot of water represent the exposition of the story: the pot, the water, and the heat applied to it.

The pot represents the setting. It is important to remember to tell students that setting isn't just time and place; setting represents cultures, ideas, and beliefs as well. Describe the features of the pot like the features of the setting. Is it an old pot or new pot? Is it a non-stick pot? Is it a clean pot or a grimey pot? Is it a big pot or a small pot? Is the setting in the past, present or future? What is the climate like? What do the people in that place or time believe? What are the traditions?

After identifying the pot (setting), discuss the water in the pot. The water represents the characters in the story. There can be a lot of characters and there can be few characters (Is there a lot of water or a little water?) What are the characters like (Is the water really warm or cold?).

The final part of the exposition is the heat. The heat applied to the pot represents the conflict. It is important to mention to the students that the conflict is usually identified in the exposition, but the conflict is really what drives the plot. Without the heat, we would never have a boil.

The next part of the plot is the rising action, or where the plot starts to progress and characters start to act or react to the conflict. This is where the heat starts to affect the water and things start moving around. We know something is going to happen because there is movement in the pot and there is steam coming from it.

The pot eventually erupts into the rolling bubbles of a boil. This is representative of the high point of the story, or the climax. It is a result of the conflict (or the heat).

After the boil, or the climax, there is some sort of logical reaction to the climax. This is the falling action, or perhaps when the pasta is added to the pot of boiling water. The plot starts to wind down as the characters react to the climax.

Finally, there is the resolution. It is when the pasta can be removed, drained and served. Resolution marks the end of the story, but it is important to note to the students that it doesn't necessarily mean all is solved and there is happily ever after. It simply means the story has come to some sort of conclusion.

Using the pot as a reference helps students build together the pieces. It may not work for everyone, but it is certainly worth using for differentiation purposes!

Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)