Use this narrative structure worksheet to teach your students about the characteristic stages of narrative texts.
Teach Text Organization with a Narrative Structure Worksheet
Learning about narrative structure gives students a framework for recognizing how authors build a story, develop tension and bring events to a satisfying conclusion. This skill can then be applied to their own narrative writing.
This narrative structure worksheet focuses on the traditional stages of a narrative: title, orientation, complication, events, climax and resolution. Students cut out and read paragraphs from the engaging narrative text, The King of the Birds, before sorting and gluing each paragraph into the correct row of a scaffold table. This hands-on approach encourages close reading while helping students recognize how different parts of a story work together.
This narrative structure worksheet downloads as a quick-print PDF or editable Google Slides file. Answers are provided in both file options to make grading quick and easy!
Teach Story Structure with a Model Text
It’s easy to build a lesson on story structure around this age-appropriate model text. Here are some steps you might follow when implementing this resource in your classroom:
- Introduce or revise the key stages of a narrative before beginning the activity.
- Read the jumbled version of The King of the Birds together as a class. After reading each paragraph, encourage the students to use textual clues to determine whether it belongs at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the story.
- Have the students cut out the paragraphs. Encourage partner discussion and collaboration as they work out where each paragraph belongs within the narrative structure.
- Once they have finalised all of their decisions, have the students paste the paragraphs in order in the table provided. Review the answers as a class.
By completing this resource, your students will have a visual representation of how narrative texts are organized into characteristic stages.
Download This Narrative Plot Structure Worksheet
Use the Download button to access your preferred version of this narrative plot structure worksheet. (Note: You will be prompted to make a copy of the Google Slides template on your personal drive before accessing it.)
As the resource contains an answer sheet, we suggest printing one copy, then removing the answer sheet before making copies for your students.
Use this resource for literacy rotations, guided reading sessions, homework tasks or whole-class lessons to help students develop a deeper understanding of how narratives are constructed.
Tanya Bailey, a teacher in South Carolina and a Teach Starter collaborator, contributed to this resource.
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