Support your pupils in the course of their story planning and writing with this 13-page narrative writing KS2 resource pack.
It's based around five of the seven basic plots originally suggested by Christopher Booker. Each plot is explained alongside a summary of a familiar story that fits the structure.
After familiarising themselves with these texts, children can adapt and change the stories to create tales of their own during creative writing in KS2. By changing characters or details they can create a new story whilst keeping the same plot.
Narrative writing KS2 resource
The five plot types we cover in this narrative writing KS2 resource are:
- Overcoming the monster – the hero defeats a monster or villain
- Rags to riches – a poor or unsuccessful character rises to success
- The quest – a hero/group goes on an important journey
- Voyage and return – the main character travels on a journey which changes their life
- Rebirth – a main character is changed after an event of self-discovery
There are two more plot types, according to Booker, that we don't cover in detail here:
- Comedy – a humorous character triumphs over difficult circumstances. Events in the story become more and more confusing until all becomes clear at the end of the tale
- Tragedy – a character pays the cost of having flaws
Instead of sharing every summary with pupils, divide the class into five groups. Provide each group with a different sheet. That group can then read the text and transform it into a story map or presentation.
Once each group has shared their text with the rest of the class, children will have five plots to base their writing on.
Add story maps or photographs from presentations to a class display. Further discussion can revolve around recognising one of the plot types in other stories.
National Curriculum English programme of study links
Pupils should be taught to plan their writing by discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write, in order to learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar.