3rd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 13
Story Elements
Characters, settings and plots
What your child practices
Naming the characters, setting, problem and solution of a story, describing how characters feel and what they are like, and finding a story's lesson.
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3.1.4.3 · how characters, setting, conflict and events develop a plot
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Characters are who the story is about. The setting is where and when it happens.
- The problem is what goes wrong. The solution is how it gets fixed.
- Clues about what characters say and do tell you how they feel.
Example: A rabbit keeps eating Lena’s lettuce, so Lena and her mom build a fence. What is the solution? The problem is the rabbit eating the lettuce. The fix is what stops it. Answer: Lena and her mom put a fence around the lettuce.
Story Elements in Minnesota
In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 13 in 3rd grade English Language Arts, after Read and Think and before Word Jobs.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What is the setting of this story?
Priya and her dad baked lemon muffins for the school bake sale.
When they got to the gym, Priya saw that another family had brought lemon muffins too.
Priya frowned. “Now nobody will buy ours,” she said.
Then Priya had an idea. She asked the other family to share one big table with a sign that said “Lemon Muffin Corner.”
By noon, every muffin was gone!
- At the library after school
- At a farm in the country
- At a bake sale in the school gym
At a bake sale in the school gym
Hint: The setting is where and when a story happens. Look for clues about the place and the time.
Question 2
What is the problem in this story?
Priya and her dad baked lemon muffins for the school bake sale.
When they got to the gym, Priya saw that another family had brought lemon muffins too.
Priya frowned. “Now nobody will buy ours,” she said.
Then Priya had an idea. She asked the other family to share one big table with a sign that said “Lemon Muffin Corner.”
By noon, every muffin was gone!
- Another family brought the same kind of muffins.
- Priya and her dad burned the muffins.
- The bake sale was canceled.
Another family brought the same kind of muffins.
Hint: The problem is the trouble a character needs to fix. It usually shows up near the beginning.
Question 3
How did Priya feel when she saw the other lemon muffins?
Priya and her dad baked lemon muffins for the school bake sale.
When they got to the gym, Priya saw that another family had brought lemon muffins too.
Priya frowned. “Now nobody will buy ours,” she said.
Then Priya had an idea. She asked the other family to share one big table with a sign that said “Lemon Muffin Corner.”
By noon, every muffin was gone!
- Sleepy
- Excited
- Worried
Worried
Hint: Priya frowned and said nobody would buy their muffins.
Question 4
How did Ana most likely feel at the end?
On a sunny afternoon at the park, Ana tried to ride her bike without training wheels.
She wobbled and tipped over again and again.
Her friend Jay held the back of her seat while she pedaled.
After many tries, Jay let go, and Ana rode all the way to the pond by herself!
- Proud
- Bored
- Grumpy
Proud
Hint: Ana finally rode all by herself after many tries. How would you feel?
Question 5
How is the problem solved?
On a sunny afternoon at the park, Ana tried to ride her bike without training wheels.
She wobbled and tipped over again and again.
Her friend Jay held the back of her seat while she pedaled.
After many tries, Jay let go, and Ana rode all the way to the pond by herself!
- Jay held her seat until she could ride alone.
- Ana walked her bike home.
- Ana put her training wheels back on.
Jay held her seat until she could ride alone.
Hint: The solution is how the problem gets fixed. Look near the end of the story.
Question 6
What is the problem in this story?
On a sunny afternoon at the park, Ana tried to ride her bike without training wheels.
She wobbled and tipped over again and again.
Her friend Jay held the back of her seat while she pedaled.
After many tries, Jay let go, and Ana rode all the way to the pond by herself!
- Ana could not find the park.
- Ana kept tipping over on her bike.
- Ana's bike had a flat tire.
Ana kept tipping over on her bike.
Hint: The problem is the trouble a character needs to fix. It usually shows up near the beginning.