Understanding a story's plot is very important. Each piece needs to happen in a particular order for the story to make sense. In Wonder, readers must first be introduced to August and his disorder before we can understand why other children might want to make fun of him. We also need to learn about the way Daisy, Auggie's dog, treats him and how Auggie thinks she sees him, to understand his deep connection to her.
In this activity, students create their own plot diagram of Wonder including Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution. Each part should be labeled and include text to explain what is happening in each cell.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a visual plot diagram of Wonder.
Depending on your class, teachers can decide to chunk the story for students or to read through the entire story at once. The teacher can give hints to students as they move through the plot about which part of the narrative arc is being read.
Students can use bullet points to fill in the parts of the story, writing the setting and characters near the exposition, etc. As they work their way up the mountain to the climax, students may need scaffolding to identify the parts of the plot.
Help students to describe each moment of the plot to further cement their ideas. Using their own words to describe each part will internalize the lesson.
Students can use a plot diagram to help them make sense of the order of events in the story. This keeps each part of the action organized in a visual way, and helps students think more carefully and critically about it as they understand what is taking place.
The exposition of a story comes at the very beginning of the story and exposes the characters and the setting so the reader knows what the story is about.
The resolution of the story is when the story is resolved and things start to wrap up. Sometimes the main character lives happily ever after, sometimes sad ever after, and sometimes even dead ever after!