LESSON 1.4
The What
Grades 1-3
We tell stories all the time. In fact, several thousand years ago, it was the main way people shared information. But we’re going to learn to tell a story for a different reason.
Many people think that each type of writing – an essay, a letter to Santa, a story – has a different structure. However, we have known for 2300 years that they are all the same.
Creating a story is the easiest way to learn the structure.
Let’s begin.
| What | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| I | had a problem with | a troublemaker | |
What
The What is what the story is about. It has two parts:
The Hero
The Troublemaker
It doesn’t matter if the hero is a 12-year-old boy named Zack or a 93-year-old woman named Miss Fletcher.
Nor does it matter if the troublemaker is a bully, an alien, a tornado, or an onery cat.
It’s all the same. You have a hero with a problem, and a troublemaker that is causing it.
We will have you be the hero. So from now on we will say I instead of hero.
No being a superhero, though! That sort of story is actually very hard to create. Instead, be a girl or a boy about your age, with a young person’s interests and fears.
Task 1.4.1 – Individual
Draw a barbell on a piece of paper. Use something round, like the lid of a jar, to make each barbell end.
Put I in the left circle and troublemaker in the right. What we have is like the ends of a barbell. We can call this the “Communication Barbell.”
Now you’re holding up the What. The What and the Communications Barbell are the same thing.
The Third Part of the What
The Barbell for stories should always have had a problem with or had a problem when. Those are the barbell’s “bar.” Some verbs will fit with one blank, some the other, and some with both. As long as a word fits at least one of the blanks, then it’s a verb.
She _____________ They ____________.
She runs, she laughs, she winks, she is. Those are all verbs.
So is they run, they laugh, they wink, they are.
Task 1.4.2 – Tandem
- Write down the two tests for a verb:
- Do you have to fill in both blanks for a word to be a verb?
- Use the two tests to decide which of the following are verbs. Leave words blank if they are not verbs. Don’t worry about what type of word those are.
buy
buys
car
dances
disappear
dug
enjoy
fast
here
high-jumps
into
mountains
puppet
sings
sang
understand
Verb Phrases
Verb phrases (VP) are groups of words that begin with a verb.
For stories, we have two important ones:
She had a problem with
She had a problem when
Task 1.4.2 – Tandem
Now turn the barbell into a box.
Draw a figure like the one below. Or your teacher can give you one.
Very neatly, fill it in like the one below.
Color it. Light green for the top row, yellow for the bottom.
| What | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| I | had a problem with | a troublemaker | |
Task 1.4.3 –Tandem
Hold out your hands. Now hold up your right hand (LH). Now hold out your left hand (LH).
| What | ||
|---|---|---|
| I | had a problem with | a troublemaker |
- Put LH in the left-hand empty box.
- Put RH in the right-hand empty box.
- Put VP in the middle box.
Task 1.4.4 –Tandem
What is the main sentence for the What Section of writing?
Play pattycake at least five times each. Each time, say the sentence.