STORY STRUCTURE

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

- state the elements that make up a narrative

- deconstruct a narrative based on the elements taught

Let us begin!

*This section will be done in class Stories contain PARTS (similar to how a car engine is made up of many different parts) These parts in a story are arranged in a certain manner to create the STRUCTURE of the story. This structure shapes how the author tells the story. Not all stories follow a predictable pattern but most do. Parts of a story / Elements of a story: Orientation Initiating Event Goal Attempt Consequence Resolution  We will read the following story to learn how we can identify the Parts of a story / Elements of a story

Earth, Swallow Me Up! by Pedro Pablo Sacristan

Alfie was the most easily embarrassed person you could imagine, and he greatly feared ridicule. Even the slightest annoyance would turn his face as red as a chilli. And so it was, that one day something truly ridiculous happened to Alfie, something which almost made him explode with embarrassment.

He was with his friend practising for a play: The Three Little Pigs. While rehearsing in school, Alfie shyly invited Dora, one of his classmates, to his house that afternoon. “Arrmm… Dora, do you want to come over to my house today for a sausage sandwich?” Just as he finished, he realised that he was still wearing his little pig costume for the play. Dora started giggling and everyone around him burst into laughter. Poor Alfie; he turned bright red. Unable to react, he thought, “Earth, swallow me up!”

Suddenly, Alfie disappeared into the ground, and found himself in an incredible place. Everyone in that place had wanted Earth to swallow them up too! It was no surprise at all as their expressions were all one of utter embarrassment.

Alfie met an athlete who had run a race in the wrong direction, and thought he had won it by a huge distance. He met a bald young lady whose wig was blown off during a performance on stage, and he met a bride who had stepped on the train of her wedding dress and ended up rolling on the floor like a meatball.

Soon Alfie found out that the only way to escape from that place was through laughter - but not just any kind of laughter. He realised that he could only escape if he learned to laugh at himself. It was not easy. Some folks had spent years there, under the Earth, refusing to find anything amusing about their own embarrassment.

But Alfie managed to overcome this, and learned how to find humour in those moments of shame and embarrassment. He also learned to use them in a way that made others laugh, and bring them some joy. When he remembered himself in the little pig outfit, talking to Dora about the sausage sandwich, he could not stop laughing at the whole situation.

As soon as he realised all this, Alfie was instantly returned to the same room in school, in front of Dora, just where he had left her. But this time, far from getting embarrassed and tongue-tied, he smiled at her, took off his little piggy mask, wiggled his little piggy bottom and said, “Hi Dora! I have great ham in store at home! Sausage sandwich?”

Dora and the others laughed, and from that day on, Alfie became one of the funniest kids at school, able to make himself and his friends laugh at whatever happened to them. 

http://freestoriesforkids.com

Enjoyed Earth, Swallow Me Up! ? Great! Now, let us see how we can DECONSTRUCT the story into its different elements / parts.

*This section will be done at home Now that you have learned how to deconstruct a story, You can try it yourself! Read the Story below:

A Case of ‘Siblingitis’

Ramona could feel her heart pounding as she finally climbed the steps to the hospital. Visitors, some carrying flowers and others looking careworn, walked towards the lifts. Nurses hurried and a doctor was paged over the loudspeaker. Ramona could scarcely contain her own excitement. The rising of the lift made her stomach feel as if it had stayed behind on the first floor. When the lift stopped, Mr Lim led the way down the hall.

"Excuse me," called a nurse.

Surprised, the family stopped and turned.

"Children under twelve are not allowed to visit the maternity ward," said the nurse. "Little girl, you will have to go down and wait in the lobby."

"Why is that?" asked Mr Lim.

"Children under twelve might have contagious diseases," explained the nurse.

"We have to protect the babies."

"I'm sorry, Ramona," said Mr Lim. "I didn't know. I am afraid you will have to do as the nurse says."

"Does she mean I'm germy?" Ramona was humiliated. "I took a shower this morning and washed my hands so I would be extra clean."

"Sometimes children are coming down with something and don't know it,” explained Mr Lim.  “Now, be a big girl and go downstairs and wait for us."

Ramona's eyes filled with tears of disappointment, but she found some pleasure in riding in the lift alone. By the time she reached the lobby, she felt worse. The nurse called her a little girl. Her father called her a big girl. What was she? A germy girl.

Ramona sat gingerly on the edge of a couch. If she leaned back, she might get germs on it, or it might get germs on her. She swallowed hard. Was her throat a little bit sore? She thought maybe it was, way down in the back. She put her hand to her forehead the way her mother did when she thought Ramona might have a fever. Her forehead was warm, maybe too warm.

As Ramona waited, she began to itch the way she itched when she had chicken pox. Her head itched, her back itched, her legs itched. Ramona scratched. A woman sat down on the couch, looked at Ramona, got up and moved to another couch.

Now Ramona was angry. It would serve everybody right if she came down with some horrible disease, right there in their old hospital. That would show everybody how germ-free this place was. Ramona squirmed and gave that hard-to-reach place between her shoulder blades a good hard scratch. Then she scratched her head with both hands. People stopped to stare.

A man in a white coat, with a stethoscope hanging out of his pocket, came hurrying through the lobby, glanced at Ramona, stopped, and took a good look at her. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Awful," she admitted. "A nurse said I was too germy to see my mother and new sister, but I think I caught some disease right here."

"I see," said the doctor. "Open your mouth and say 'ah'."

Ramona ahhed until she gagged.

"Mh-hm," murmured the doctor. He looked so serious Ramona was alarmed.

Then he pulled out his stethoscope and listened to her front and back, thumping as he did so. What was he hearing? Was there something wrong with her insides? Why didn't her father come?

The doctor nodded as if his worst suspicions had been confirmed. "Just as I thought," he said, pulling out his prescription pad.

"An acute case of siblingitis. Not at all unusual around here, but it shouldn't last long." He tore off the prescription he had written, instructed Ramona to give it to her father, and hurried on down the hall.  

Ramona could not remember the name of her illness. She tried to read the doctor's scribbly cursive writing, but she could not. She could only read neat handwriting, the sort her teacher wrote on the blackboard.

Itching again, she was still staring at the slip of paper when Mr Lim and Brandon stepped out of the lift. "Sarah is so tiny." Brandon was radiant with joy. “And she is simply adorable! She has a little round nose and - oh, when you see her, you'll love her."

"I'm sick," Ramona tried to sound pitiful. "I've got something awful. A doctor said so."

Brandon paid no attention. "And Sarah has brown hair--"
Mr Lim interrupted. "What's wrong, Ramona?"

"A doctor said I have something, some kind of itis, and I have to have this right away." She handed her father her prescription and scratched one shoulder. "If I don't, I might get worse."

Mr Lim read the scribbly cursive, and then he did a strange thing. He lifted Ramona and gave her a big hug and a kiss, right there in the lobby. The itching stopped. Ramona felt much better. "You have acute siblingitis," explained her father. “Itis means inflammation."

"He understood you were worried and angry because you weren't allowed to see your new sibling, and prescribed attention," explained Mr Lim. "Now let's go buy ice cream and have a wonderful evening together."

 An extract from Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary, an American writer

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