Beginning Middle End Graphic Organizer – This post may contain free Amazon affiliate advertising. See my disclosure here for more information.
Grammar story elements are a common need for students with language disabilities! You are in the right place if you want to know:
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Beginning Middle End Graphic Organizer
Those of you who have been here a long time know that I have changed jobs/locations several times, working inpatient, elementary school, middle school, high school and now full time. in high school (and love it!!). One skill I focus on in all these settings and at all levels is understanding and sharing stories.
Summarizing Graphic Organizers: When To Use Them, How To Teach Them, And Where To Get Them (for Free)!
Let’s start with the basics so we’re all on the same page. What exactly is the grammar of history? What do I include when I teach history grammar?
Narrative grammar is the parts or parts of a narrative. What it includes varies depending on what program or learning protocol you use, but it usually includes things like character, setting, problem, decision, or emotion. It can also include things like plot, climax, or suspense.
When I teach story grammar elements, especially to older students, I almost always include specific teaching of story structure (eg beginning/middle/end) and transition words (eg first, first, last) as I think they really help reinforce . my student’s understanding of how stories work. One of my students told me that the picture I gave him to use in class with information about story grammar, story structure, and transition words was so helpful that he felt like he was cheating. #SLPwin
Before I get into ideas for teaching history grammar, I will share a study that provides the basis for why teaching grammar is an effective strategy for increasing reading comprehension. I have personally seen huge gains in my students’ comprehension and storytelling when using this framework. I have also seen HUGE success using visuals and graphic organizers in the classroom (when clickable) to help with writing.
Free Graphic Organizer Templates
The ASHA website has a systematic review of courses on teaching history grammar as a reading comprehension strategy for students with learning disabilities. You can read their findings here, but overall they say that “findings suggest that manipulating narrative language improves reading comprehension skills in children with learning disabilities.”
They also argue that modeling techniques and graphic organizers (such as story mapping) are effective in teaching story grammar and reading comprehension strategies. This is good news because these are great strategies and tools in our wheelhouse that are perfect for extracurricular activities for students from kindergarten through high school.
So, how do I teach you? How do I start with very young students or older students who don’t know this vocabulary at all? I usually teach these skills at three levels. I administer pre-tests and post-tests for each level to show progress on the IEP and notes. Below I will describe the 8 steps I usually follow. If you want details on how I teach Story Grammar and the things I show on this blog, click here to check out the Story Grammar Packet. Includes posters, visuals, photo editors, hands-on stories, guides, sample activities, and more!
Are you looking for book ideas to use when teaching history grammar? Click here to check out my top recommendations!
Story Charts Beginning Middle End Reading Comprehension
Familiarization – In the first stage, I do a lot of familiarization with the elements of the plot. I read fun (and low quality) books and parts of the storyline. When I first started, I said a lot of things like, “Wow! This page told us a lot! We know some of the characters and the setting. Billy and his grandfather are people, so we know they’re actors.’ At this stage, I point to posters and other visuals. I don’t expect great results from my students, I just model, talk to myself and give a lot of examples.
Sorting – Once my students demonstrate a basic understanding of the grammar elements, I work on organizing the examples into grammatical sections of the story. I will give each student 5 cards with examples of grammatical parts of the story (eg Alice, fell and hurt her knee, disappointed, at school) and ask them to decide which part of the story is grammatical. . I put up posters and my students go around the room and arrange their cards on the posters. I reiterate what each section is and how a piece of information can fit into more than one section! In the second step, I begin to introduce the idea that some words are key words that help us understand the grammar of the story. For example, if you see the words ‘determination’, ‘want’ or ‘thought’, these are usually the key words we learn about the character’s plan to solve their problem.
Definitions – Once my students can sort the cards on the posters, we will move on to coding the definitions for each part. We can begin by relating plot elements to their meanings. Sometimes I will show each poster and the students will summarize what each part is, how we can find it, etc. We discuss that actions in a story are always verbs (what the characters do). After step 3, I often give my students this same worksheet to test their ability to match plot symbols to descriptions. I use this information in my IEP and progress notes!
Plot Structure – One thing I have often overlooked when teaching plot grammar is clearly teaching plot structures. As I have emphasized this, I have seen better progress and transfer from my students! For most of my students, I teach a beginning/middle/end story structure. I teach my older students (grades 6+) story structure with a storyboard because that’s what they use in class. Sidenote: My students have fun doing storyboard quizzes in their writing classes 🙂 In this step, we discuss what information you usually get from each part of the story. For example, at the beginning of a story, you can almost always find the setting, characters, and premise (or first event).
K 1 Writing Digital Poster Set
Transition Words – Next I teach transition words. We’ll discuss how transition words are great clues to what’s happening in the story and what each sentence tells you. For example, if you see the word “but,” you’ll usually know there’s a problem. When you see the word “finally,” you’re probably reading the end of the story. We sort transition words by where you find them in the story (eg beginning/middle/end) and practice writing sentences with them. For my writing students in class, I often do a few sessions where I let them bring their computers to class and we work on adding transition words to their stories.
Identification – After learning all these parts, we begin to put everything together in step 6! During this time we practice by reading stories about stories within stories. We find plot elements in all of them. We talk about them, including words, and relate these stories to our lives. We talk about what the stories remind us of and come up with ways my students can relate the story. During this phase, I use a ton of checklists and graphic editors.
Retelling – Once my students are good at identifying the plot elements in the stories, we work on retelling those stories. I always start by retelling a story that my students have heard before, preferably several times and discussed. At this stage, I regularly introduce a self-evaluation rubric for retelling stories. I will record how the students retell the story. We listen to it and use the self-assessment rubric to see what elements my students have included in their stories and what parts they have left out.
Writing – Now it’s time to put it all together and have my students use all of their techniques and tools to write their stories! I use the same image editors as in the previous steps. I like to use the visuals below to tie everything together. 90% of my cases have this attached to the notebook so they can refer to it every time they write in class!
Beginning, Middle, End: Starting Foundational Skills In Kindergarten
I also like to give them small versions of the posters on the assembly ring for quick access in the classroom.
It is important to note that I do not follow these steps the same way for every student. Sometimes I’ll jump up a bit if I need to.
If you want to check out my package and all of these printables, click here! This school year was a lifesaver for me!
Shannon is an SLP for children and creator of Speechy Musings. As an SLP, she is passionate about language, literacy, and AAC. In addition to being an SLP, she enjoys hiking, camping, dogs, and traveling.
Book Week Fun Part Two
60 best images of creating ideas for stories in therapy 10 best wordless books for speech therapy when you think of a story
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