Genre: Legend
“Legends, like stories, have the same elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems or events, resolution and lessons or themes. What makes a legend a little different are a number of things. Using a dictionary definition a legend is “a story handed down for generations among a people and popularly believed to have a historical basis, although not verifiable.” Introduce these characteristics of legends from Margaret Mooney’s book, Text Forms and Features:
Purpose:
• To focus on positive character traits
• To present models of behavior and ethics
Form:
• A story (narrative), often part fact and part fiction, about the deeds of a famous hero, kept alive through oral retellings and later written down.
“Legends, like stories, have the same elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems or events, resolution and lessons or themes. What makes a legend a little different are a number of things. Using a dictionary definition a legend is “a story handed down for generations among a people and popularly believed to have a historical basis, although not verifiable.” Introduce these characteristics of legends from Margaret Mooney’s book, Text Forms and Features:
Purpose:
• To focus on positive character traits
• To present models of behavior and ethics
Form:
• A story (narrative), often part fact and part fiction, about the deeds of a famous hero, kept alive through oral retellings and later written down.
Genre: Adventure
Adventure stories, like other narratives, have the same elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems or events, resolution and lessons or themes. Adventure story is a form of realistic fiction and has many of the same features. Adventure stories can be based on historical fact and therefore, also fall into the category of historical fiction. Some features of adventure stories make them different from other narratives. The dictionary defines adventure as the encountering of danger; a daring, hazardous undertaking; and risk.
Definition:
• A narrative that features the unknown, uncharted, or unexpected, with elements of danger, excitement and risk (from Harris, et al. The Literacy Dictionary, IRA, 1995)
Purpose:
• To entertain
• To involve the reader in the exciting adventures of fictional characters
Form and Features:
• Opens with the background information needed to understand the story and introduces characters in a setting, conflict, problem or goal.
• The middle of an adventure story (realistic fiction) develops the plot including the story’s events, the characters’ reactions to these events, and the roadblocks the characters encounter. The plot builds to a climax (the point at which the conflict reaches its greatest height and the crisis or turning point occurs).
• The adventure story ends with a resolution to the conflict or problem or a conclusion.
• Plot: the sequence of events usually set in motion by a problem that begins the action or causes the conflict (from Cornett, C. Integrating Literature and the Arts Through the Curriculum, Simon and Schuster, 1999.)
• Conflict, the tension that exists between the forces in the character’s life, is important in adventure stories and can be in four forms:
- Person – against – self
- Person – against – person
- Person – against – nature
- Person – against – society
• Adventure stories are realistic fiction; so, the characters must seem like real people, the actions of the characters must seem real and the setting must also be realistic.
• Adventure stories can also have features of historical fiction:
- setting is a specific time and place in history,
- real events are mixed with fictional events, and
- historical characters are mixed with fictional characters
• Sensory details are used for impact.
• Description and dialogue are often used as elements and features of an adventure story.
Adventure stories, like other narratives, have the same elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems or events, resolution and lessons or themes. Adventure story is a form of realistic fiction and has many of the same features. Adventure stories can be based on historical fact and therefore, also fall into the category of historical fiction. Some features of adventure stories make them different from other narratives. The dictionary defines adventure as the encountering of danger; a daring, hazardous undertaking; and risk.
Definition:
• A narrative that features the unknown, uncharted, or unexpected, with elements of danger, excitement and risk (from Harris, et al. The Literacy Dictionary, IRA, 1995)
Purpose:
• To entertain
• To involve the reader in the exciting adventures of fictional characters
Form and Features:
• Opens with the background information needed to understand the story and introduces characters in a setting, conflict, problem or goal.
• The middle of an adventure story (realistic fiction) develops the plot including the story’s events, the characters’ reactions to these events, and the roadblocks the characters encounter. The plot builds to a climax (the point at which the conflict reaches its greatest height and the crisis or turning point occurs).
• The adventure story ends with a resolution to the conflict or problem or a conclusion.
• Plot: the sequence of events usually set in motion by a problem that begins the action or causes the conflict (from Cornett, C. Integrating Literature and the Arts Through the Curriculum, Simon and Schuster, 1999.)
• Conflict, the tension that exists between the forces in the character’s life, is important in adventure stories and can be in four forms:
- Person – against – self
- Person – against – person
- Person – against – nature
- Person – against – society
• Adventure stories are realistic fiction; so, the characters must seem like real people, the actions of the characters must seem real and the setting must also be realistic.
• Adventure stories can also have features of historical fiction:
- setting is a specific time and place in history,
- real events are mixed with fictional events, and
- historical characters are mixed with fictional characters
• Sensory details are used for impact.
• Description and dialogue are often used as elements and features of an adventure story.