What are some good activities for teaching author purpose/theme and elements of story structure??? Third Grade

Question

What are some good activities for teaching author purpose/theme and elements of story structure??? Third Grade

Answer 1

read some fables to them that has an obvious theme and ask them to guess what it is. this should help them find it when the theme is not obvious. also make handouts of the story structures you plan on teaching them so they can learn it.

Answer 2

Yep, keep it simple - fables, fairy tales, etc.  You can't go terribly in-depth with 3rd graders on this, but you can read them a story, pointing out the important parts, and then ask what the author meant them to learn from it (purpose).  Theme is pretty abstract for 3rd graders, but you can ask them what feelings the story made them feel - loyalty, trust, joy, anger, frustration, whatever.  This will help them figure out theme as they get a bit older.

For elements of story structure, make it concrete.  Use a visual organizer (like the "mountain" or "hill" model) to show rising action, conflict, resolution, and falling action.  

Keep it simple - don't do this with a chapter book - but a short story, fairy tale, or fable would work well.  Keep it to something that has definite rising action, one conflict, one resolution, and definite falling action.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

involve students by asking questions after giving them som time for guessing.for elements of story first of all tell them some elements through av-aids & then let them identify themselves.