plot profiles

I got this idea from Literacy for the 21st Century by Gail Tompkins. Its a great visual for helping children to understand rising and falling action in fiction texts. I read two or three chapters before I introduce the poster. (The poster is laminated and those are just dots/stickers with masking tape stuck on the back for easy removal.) I might write notes next to the dots so that down the road we can remind ourselves what exciting event (climax) the dot referred to. You can see I wrote "steals dog" and then later, "Shiloh hurt" so that we can discuss which event had the highest tension/excitement. Much of this is discussion and the children don't always agree where the sticker should go. As the plot profile develops you can really see the way the author used rising and falling action to build the story. Sometimes I give the children a worksheet copy of the poster and stickers so they can build their own. Christine