Grade 5 · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 16
Plot and Conflict
How stories rise and fall
What your child practises
The five parts of a plot, types of conflict (person vs. person, nature or self), and telling first-, second- and third-person point of view apart.
Nunavut Curriculum approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · the structure of stories, and connecting to texts
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
Put the events of “The Storm on the Lake” in order, from the exposition to the resolution.
- Leo loves fishing on the lake with his aunt every Saturday.
- At last, the boat bumps against the dock, and his aunt ties it up tight.
- Leo grabs the oars and rows with all his strength as the waves grow bigger.
- One morning, dark clouds roll in while they're far from shore, and the motor won't start.
- That night, Leo decides to learn how to read the weather before every trip.
Leo loves fishing on the lake with his aunt every Saturday. → One morning, dark clouds roll in while they're far from shore, and the motor won't start. → Leo grabs the oars and rows with all his strength as the waves grow bigger. → At last, the boat bumps against the dock, and his aunt ties it up tight. → That night, Leo decides to learn how to read the weather before every trip.
Hint: Start with the event that introduces the characters. End with how things turn out.
Question 2
Which part of the plot is this event? “She asks to join the lunchtime chess games, but the players tell her the boards are full.”
Maya has just moved to a new town and doesn't know anyone at her school.
She asks to join the lunchtime chess games, but the players tell her the boards are full.
At the school chess tournament, Maya faces the best player in the final game and wins.
The other players crowd around and ask her how she planned her moves.
Maya starts a chess club, and soon it has twelve members.
- falling action
- exposition
- resolution
- rising action
rising action
Hint: In the rising action, a problem appears and the tension builds.
Question 3
Which part of the plot is this event? “Maya starts a chess club, and soon it has twelve members.”
Maya has just moved to a new town and doesn't know anyone at her school.
She asks to join the lunchtime chess games, but the players tell her the boards are full.
At the school chess tournament, Maya faces the best player in the final game and wins.
The other players crowd around and ask her how she planned her moves.
Maya starts a chess club, and soon it has twelve members.
- resolution
- rising action
- climax
- falling action
resolution
Hint: The resolution comes last. It shows how things end up once the problem is solved.
Question 4
In “The Butterfly Watch,” which event is the climax?
- A monarch butterfly comes out, and the class releases it in the school garden.
- Sam's class is raising monarch caterpillars in a tank by the window.
- As the class watches, its skin splits open and a green chrysalis appears.
- Every day, the students check on the chrysalis as it slowly darkens.
As the class watches, its skin splits open and a green chrysalis appears.
Hint: The climax is the turning point: the most exciting or tense moment of the story.
Question 5
From which point of view is this sentence told?
Kenji peered into the tide pool, searching for crabs.
- first person
- third person
third person
Hint: First person uses I, me, my or we. Second person speaks to the reader as “you.” Third person uses names and he, she or they.
Question 6
What type of conflict is this?
Ravi and his older brother both need the family computer for projects due tomorrow.
- person vs. person
- person vs. self
- person vs. nature
person vs. person
Hint: The struggle is between two characters who want different things.