Pytash: Jago Ch. 4

How Stories Work

We probably learned about literary elements in grade school, but they continue to be just as important and at times deceiving today as they were back then. On page 61, Jago had a list of the mostly W words that lead to figuring out the literary elements. Who-> characters, Where and When -> setting, What, Why and How -> plot, So what-> author's purpose and theme. This would be a good chart to put up in the classroom, so students can always have reference to it when reading a book. Freytag's pyramid is another chart that could be posted in the room. It might help students identify the part of the book they are reading. Knowing where the section of the story is on Freytag's Pyramid could help them in determining the author's tone and purpose at some circumstances.

"Effort imprints the reading on students' minds" (Jago 67). Student's seem to remember stories that took them more effort than those that were a breeze. This could be like people remembering bad things more than they remember good things. It takes more effort to solve a hard or bad situation than an easy one, where practically no effort is needed. Helping students reach the steps to understand a more complicated novel would guide them to use those steps later in solving another complicated novel. Rather than just telling them what's happening, you will let them learn themselves, so they will be able to apply it in the future.