Story Elements
The time and place where the story happens.
What is the setting of a story?
If a character is crying, they feel...
What is sad or upset?
This is the reason an author writes something.
What is the author’s purpose?
This is the name of the text, usually found at the top of the page.
What is the title?
These are hints in a sentence that help you figure out what a word means.
What are context clues?
The main issue that the character(s) face
What is problem/conflict?
Words like “shouted” or “stomped” give you this clue about a character’s emotion.
What is that they are angry?
When an author uses statistics, facts, and charts in an article, this is most likely their purpose.
What is to inform?
This helps readers know what each section of a text is about.
What is a heading?
A word like “enormous” in a sentence can help you figure out that “gigantic” means this.
What is very big/huge?
Three parts of a story's plot
What are the beginning, middle, and end?
If a person hides a gift behind their back, this is probably what they are doing.
What is planning a surprise?
The story doesn’t teach a lesson or share real information—it’s just fun to read and includes made-up characters. This is why the author wrote it.
What is to entertain?
Bold words, captions, and diagrams are examples of these.
What are text features?
This is a word that means the same as “happy.”
What is glad/joyful/cheerful/excited?
The order of events
What is sequence?
The characters are wearing coats, drinking hot chocolate, and there’s frost on the windows. This is something you can infer about the setting.
What is it’s winter or very cold outside?
These three reasons are why authors usually write.
What is P.I.E./ persuade, inform, or entertain?
This text feature is often used in nonfiction texts to show steps in a process, like how a plant grows.
What is a diagram or sequence chart?
When a word you don’t know is followed by an example or explanation, this type of context clue is being used.
What is a definition or example clue?
The message, lesson or morale that the story is trying to teach you.
What is theme?
Even though Marcus said he wasn’t nervous, his hands were sweaty and he kept looking at the clock.
This is what you can infer about Marcus and why.
What is he is nervous, because of his behavior and body language?
The author writes a story about how plastic hurts ocean animals and says readers should help clean beaches. This is the author’s purpose.
What is to persuade the reader to care for the environment?
This text structures help organize nonfiction information in different ways. For example, Ms. Uribe didn't get enough sleep last night, therefore she is so sleepy.
What is cause and effect?
“The storm was relentless, pounding the windows for hours without stopping.”
Using context, this is what "relentless" means.
What is never stopping/continuous/keep going?