Plot Elements Graphic Organizers: 10 Story Maps

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Ten plot-focused graphic organizers guide students through mapping a story's five elements — introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution — using formats that range from a classic Plot Pyramid and Story Cycle to a Prediction Tree, a nine-box Sequence Chain, and a two-column Changes-in-Plot chart. Each organizer opens with a short instructional page explaining exactly what to write in each section; the Plot Analysis format, for example, also asks students to identify point of view, foreshadowing, and symbolism alongside the standard plot stages. The set is part of a larger 'Graphic Organizers' series from the same publisher, with companion titles covering Character, Setting, Theme, and Conflict available separately or combined. Because every organizer is a blank template, teachers supply the story or text students will map onto it.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Identify and sequence a story's five plot elements: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution
Support a prediction about a story's outcome with evidence, using either a two-column chart or a Prediction Tree format
Analyze plot alongside point of view, foreshadowing, and symbolism using the Plot Analysis organizer
Compare how a story's plot changes from beginning to end using the Changes in Plot chart

Teaching tips

Choose a single organizer format that matches the current lesson focus (e.g., Prediction Tree for a predicting-with-evidence lesson, Plot Analysis for a literary-devices lesson) rather than assigning all ten at once.
Use the Storyboard or Sequence Chain formats with picture books or shorter texts, since they ask for up to six or nine discrete events.
Introduce the Plot Pyramid or Story Cycle first as the most foundational five-element formats before moving to the more advanced Plot Analysis organizer.

Skills covered

Plot-element identification and sequencing — students place a story's introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution into structured graphic organizer formats such as the Plot Pyramid and Story Cycle.
Evidence-based prediction — students record a prediction and cite supporting evidence from the text using the Prediction Tree or Prediction Chart formats.
Literary-device analysis — students identify point of view, foreshadowing, and symbolism alongside plot stages using the Plot Analysis organizer.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

How does the Plot Analysis organizer differ from the other plot organizers in this set?

Unlike the more straightforward Plot Pyramid or Story Cycle, the Plot Analysis organizer pairs each of the five plot stages with a related literary-device prompt — point of view at the introduction, foreshadowing during the rising action, and symbolism at the conclusion — so it asks for literary analysis alongside plot sequencing.

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Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

CCSS.RL.7.3 — Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
CCSS.RL.7.1 — Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Core concepts

plot structure
rising action
climax
resolution
prediction

Topics

literary device graphic organizer plot elements

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Plot: The Five Elements of a Story Graphic Organizers

What's inside this resource