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5th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 1 of 13

Plot and Conflict

How stories rise and fall

What your child practices

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 5.8(B); 5.8(C) · plot structure and conflict

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A plot has five parts: exposition (who and where), rising action, climax (the most exciting turning point), falling action and resolution.
  2. Conflict is the struggle: person vs. person, person vs. nature or person vs. self.
  3. First person uses I, second person uses you, third person uses he, she or they.

Example: “In the last second, Kenji dives and stops the final shot.” Which part of the plot is this? It is the most tense moment, when the game is decided. After this, things wind down. Answer: climax

Plot and Conflict in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 1 of 13 in 5th grade English Language Arts, before Figurative Language.

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.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Put the events of “The New Player” in order, from the exposition to the resolution.

    • The other players crowd around and ask her how she planned her moves.
    • Maya starts a chess club, and soon it has twelve members.
    • At the school chess tournament, Maya faces the best player in the final game and wins.
    • 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.

  2. Question 2

    Which part of the plot is this event? “In the shootout, Kenji dives and stops the very last shot.”

    Kenji is the goalie for his soccer team, and penalty shots make him nervous.

    His team reaches the final, and the game ends in a tie.

    In the shootout, Kenji dives and stops the very last shot.

    His teammates cheer and lift him onto their shoulders.

    Kenji realizes he can be brave even when he feels nervous.

    • climax
    • rising action
    • falling action
    • resolution

  3. Question 3

    Which part of the plot is this event? “His team reaches the final, and the game ends in a tie.”

    Kenji is the goalie for his soccer team, and penalty shots make him nervous.

    His team reaches the final, and the game ends in a tie.

    In the shootout, Kenji dives and stops the very last shot.

    His teammates cheer and lift him onto their shoulders.

    Kenji realizes he can be brave even when he feels nervous.

    • exposition
    • rising action
    • climax
    • resolution

  4. Question 4

    In “The Butterfly Watch,” which event is the climax?

    • One caterpillar stops eating and hangs upside down, and the class worries that it is sick.
    • Sam's class is raising monarch caterpillars in a tank by the window.
    • A monarch butterfly comes out, and the class releases it in the school garden.
    • As the class watches, its skin splits open and a green chrysalis appears.

  5. Question 5

    What type of conflict is this?

    Ravi and his older brother both need the family computer for projects due tomorrow.

    • person vs. nature
    • person vs. self
    • person vs. person

  6. Question 6

    From which point of view is this sentence told?

    My brother and I built a snow fort in the yard.

    • first person
    • third person

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