Part of Lesson Plan: Elements of Story: Introduction Three Act Structure

Activity Overview / Details

The beginning of the lecture discusses the origin of narrative structure, referencing Aristotle's dramatic arc and Seven Golden Rules of Successful Storytelling. Aristotle concludes that in ancient Greek theater, the following seven elements were included:

1. Plot

2. Character

3. Theme or Idea

4. Speech (Dialogue)

5. Chorus (Music)

6. Decor (Production Design)

7. Spectacle (Special Effects)

Question: Compare and contrast the above process with today's process in visual storytelling (movies, television, documentary, etc)

The next phase of the lecture is communicated through a multimedia presentation called “Elements of Story”.

The presentation begins with a look at the origin of the narrative structure diagram of the three-act structure and then proceeds with a breakdown of the following elements of story and how they fit into the three-act structure:

Act 1: Exposition, Inciting Incident

Act 2: Rising Action, Turning Point

Act 3: Falling Action, Resolution

Following a description of each element, the students are taken back to a slide of the diagram, so they get a visual of how the element fits into the diagram. Following each slide of the diagram, they are then taken to a broken image of the Super Mario Bros’s video game at the end of level one. Teacher then explains the parallel between “Mario climbing the stairs to the final prize” and Act One (Exposition and Inciting Incident).  The presentation continues in the same pattern: Act #, Elements of Story characteristic to the Act, Diagram, Super Mario Bros. Diagram. Based on student interests and culture,  a different metaphorical representations/diagram can be used as an example.
 

Following the presentation of acts and vocabulary associated with each act, the students are then presented with the term “Metaphor”.

Teacher leads a discussion in the definition of metaphor and explicitly discusses how the Super Mario Bros. diagram is a metaphor for the three-act structure diagram.