The Exploration of Character and Story Events in 2nd grade

Introduction

Have you ever wondered how characters in movies and stories change from the beginning to the end? In this assignment, you will explore a story and make sure to pay attention to what the characters say, feel, and do. You will use your context clues and natural instinct in the text and pictures to understand what happens and why it is so important to pay attention to the characters.

By the end of this activity, you will be able to:

  • Explain how the characters change from the beginning to the end.
  • Describe who the main character and important events in the story are.
  • Retell the story using key details in the order of the story line. 

These goals match 2nd grade Florida reading and ELA standards where students should be able to read and understanding stories while collaborating with classmates about characters and using details from the text.

Task

Working in a small group of 2 other classmates, you will come together and create a PowerPoint that retells a story, and with voting, you will chose a character in the movie to explain how he/she changed throughout the plot.

Task:

  • Read a short story on a 2nd grade level together.
  • Discuss the key details, main characters and setting.
  • Analyze the characters in the story.
  • Make a Power point using pictures from the story and sentences that retell the story.
  • As a group, present each slide for the class to hear. 

 

Process

Step 1: Go into groups and chose who does what-

  • Reader: reads the story out loud to the group.
  • Slide Designer: puts together each slide and chooses pictures for the slides.
  • Narrator: helps to coordinate and record slides.

 

Step 2: Reading the story-

1. Go to the story link given by me.

2. Read the story once quietly and alone.

3. Go into groups and have the reader read the story aloud while others follow along.

 

Step 3: Discuss the story with your group-

  • Who is the character that appealed to you the most?
  • Where and when does this story take place? (setting)
  • What are three key details and important events that took place in the beginning, middle, and end?
  • How does the character that you chose feel or act in the beginning versus the end?

 

Step 4: Planning the Project/ PowerPoint-

1. Open PowerPoint with your group

2. Create slides in this order:

  • Slide 1: Title and your group member names with the date on the top right.
  • Slide 2: Character of your choice and setting.
  • Slide 3: Beginning key details and events that took place.
  • Slide 4: Middle key events/details.
  • Slide 5: Ending key events/details.
  • Slide 6: How did this specific character change throughout the story and what was the lesson learned.

 

Step 5: Practice before Presenting-

1. Practice each slide by reading out loud with your team members with expression like you would if you were presenting in front of a large crowd.

2. Since this will be in person, I will call every group by numbers that are provided to you.

3. Make sure you are double checking your work so that you succeed and fix any mistakes there might be.

Evaluation

This group project will be graded with a rubric in these categories:

  • Teamwork: Everyone is comfortable with their role and participates in a timely and orderly manner.
  • Presentation: The slides are well put together, neat and easy to read. They include helpful pictures and the narration is clear and matches the text on each of the slides.
  • Explaination of character change: Clearly explains how the character changes from beginning to the end of the story by using key details and concepts to support the explanation.
  • Characters and events: Includes at least three important events in the correct order while also identifying the main character and setting.

On a scale of 1–4, I will be rating them from:

  • 4 = Excellent

  • 3 = Good

  • 2 = Needs Some Help

  • 1 = Needs A Lot of Help

Conclusion

In this assignment, you worked with a small group to read a story closely to identify important events and key details in a story. You can now think about how a character can grow and change in a story. Moving forward, I will provide another enrichment activity with a link so you can practice your exploration of character and story events. 

Extra activity: 

  • Go online and find a website that has children's stories, such as https://freekidsbooks.org/

  • Draw three boxes labeled “Beginning, Middle, End.”

  • In each box, draw or write how your favorite character feels and what happens that changes them throughout the story.