literary text types and features

• literary text — a creative text such as a story, poem or play
• character — a person, animal or imagined being in a literary text
• event — something that happens in a literary text
• beginning — the part where the text and its first event start
• ending — the part where the final event finishes the text
• fairytale — a traditional kind of imaginative story that often has magical events or a lesson
• poem — a literary text arranged to make meaning through words, lines, sounds or rhythm

I can recognise literary texts and find characters, events, beginnings and endings.

Learning goal: I can recognise literary texts and find characters, events, beginnings and endings.

I am ready when I can

• I can recognise a story, fairytale or story poem as a kind of literary text.
• I can identify a character by answering who is in the text.
• I can identify an event by explaining what happens.
• I can locate the first story event and the final story event.
• I can use text or picture evidence to explain each feature.

See the skill in action

A short story begins, “A girl called Mina found a shining shell.” Mina takes the shell home, listens to its ocean sound and returns it to the beach.

Worked example 2: find a story inside a poem

A four-line poem tells of a sleepy bird that wakes, stretches, flies and reaches a tree.

First name the kind of literary text. Then use its words or images to locate the same story features.

• Every text with pictures is a story — Compare an illustrated information page with a literary text and look for characters and connected events.
• A character is the same as an event — Ask who for the character and what happened for the event, then sort one example of each.
• The title or cover is automatically the story beginning — Open the text and locate the first story event; explain that the cover helps us enter the text but is not usually an event.

1. Who or what happened? — Sort cards into Character and Event. Children explain why Mina is who and returning the shell is what happened.
   Two labelled hoops: Character and Event
2. Story bookends — Place a Beginning marker before the first event and an Ending marker after the final event, then retell the middle events.
   Beginning marker, ordered event cards, ending marker
3. Literary text gallery — Compare a short story, fairytale and story poem. Name each type and find one shared feature.
   Three covers with feature icons for character, event, beginning and ending

Quick checks

• In a story, what is a character?
• Which is an event in a story?
• Which opening sounds like a familiar fairy-tale beginning?
• A story starts, ‘A girl called Amira lived beside the sea.’ What does the beginning introduce?

Mastery evidence

• In a story, what is a character?
• Which is an event in a story?
• Which opening sounds like a familiar fairy-tale beginning?
• A story starts, ‘A girl called Amira lived beside the sea.’ What does the beginning introduce?
• The learner identifies an opening phrase or character introduction as a beginning feature.
• The learner points to a repeated feature in the selected text without presenting it as a rule for all First Nations stories.
• The learner identifies a character and at least two ordered events in the poem.
• The learner identifies one present fairytale feature and locates its text or image evidence.