Plot is what happens in a story'

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(No Transcript)
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What Is Plot?
Plot is what happens in a story.
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What Is Plot?
Most plots have four parts, which are like
building blocks.
Jen goes home happy.
The team makes it to finalsand wins!
Her team loses a game, then wins five games.
Jen wants her soccer team to win the state
championship.
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What Is Plot?
You can use a simple plot diagram to show what
happens in a story.
Why does the climax of the story appear at the
top of the diagram?

• All the other events lead up to it.

• It is the high pointthe most exciting partof
  the story.

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What Is Plot?
You can use a simple plot diagram to show what
happens in a story.
Why is the basic situation at the bottom of the
diagram?

• All the events grow out of it.

• It is the first thing you readit sets the stage
  for the action.

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Building Block 1 Conflict
A conflict is a struggle between opposing
characters or opposing forces.
The conflict is usually revealed at the beginning
of a story as part of the basic situation.
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Building Block 1 Conflict
In an external conflict, characters struggle
against something or someone outside themselves.
Internal conflicts happen inside a characters
mind.
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Building Block 1 Conflict
Look carefully at each picture below. Decide
whether the picture best represents an external
conflict or an internal conflict.
Be prepared to explain your answers.
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Building Block 2 Events
Each plot includes a series of events that make
it hard for the characters to solve their
problems or work out their conflicts.
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Building Block 2 Events
If there were no complications, a character would
solve the problem too quickly, and there would be
no suspense in the story.
Suspense is what keeps you reading to figure out
what is going to happen next.
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Building Block 2 Events
Another way that writers create suspense in a
story is to foreshadow, or hint at, future events.
If someone throws a brick through a characters
window, we have a hint that something dangerous
may happen in the characters future.
A writer uses foreshadowing to plant interesting
clues for the reader.
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Building Block 2 Events
Study the picture below. What does this
character want? What complication prevents him
from getting what he wants?
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Building Block 2 Events
Read these sentences from stories in Collection
1. Which sentences are examples of foreshadowing?
In the room next to ours I found a message
scrawled on the wall. Beware the Sentinel, it
said in big black letters. Duffys Jacket
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in
his fur and his tail but quite like a weasel in
his head and his habits.
Rikki-tikki-tavi
Three Skeleton Key . . . earned its name from the
story of the three convicts who, escaping . . .
in a stolen dugout canoe, were wrecked on the
rock during the night, managed to escape the sea,
but eventually died of hunger and thirst.
Three Skeleton Key
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Building Block 2 Events
These two passages are examples of foreshadowing.
In the room next to ours I found a message
scrawled on the wall. Beware the Sentinel, it
said in big black letters.
Duffys
Jacket
This sentence suggests that a dangerous person or
animal is lurking around. The sentence
foreshadows an encounter with the Sentinel.
Three Skeleton Key . . . earned its name from the
story of the three convicts who, escaping . . .
in a stolen dugout canoe, were wrecked on the
rock . . . Three Skeleton Key
This passage suggests that Three Skeleton Key
is a story about an island, or key, with a
frightening reputation.
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Building Block 3 Climax
The third part of plot is the climax. The climax
is the storys most exciting or emotional moment.
Usually the storys conflict is resolved during
the scene that is the climax.
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Building Block 3 Climax
Which of these scenes seems more like the climax
of a story?
A
B
In scene A, a soccer player is about to make a
goalperhaps the winning goal of the game. Scene
A best represents the climaxor most exciting
partof a story about a soccer team.
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Building Block 4 Resolution
The resolution is the last part of the
storywhere the loose ends of the plot are tied
up and the story ends.
During the resolution, we often find out what
happened to the characters after their conflict
was resolved.
Terrence and his big brother walked home
together, still talking about their amazing game
against the neighborhood champs.
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Building Block 4 Resolution
Here are some examples of story resolutions. Do
you recognize the stories?
The prince and the princess lived happily ever
after. The king would allow no frog in his
kingdom to be harmedor kissed.
The children went home with their woodcutter
father. Their stepmother was never seen again.
The house made of candy was sold for parts to the
village baker.
After losing so much, the three brothers started
a charity organization to build more sturdy
houses for other victims of wolf-wind.