For younger students, especially those with dyslexia, planning a narrative composition is important because it helps them to organise their thoughts and ideas. It also helps them to avoid writer’s block.
One of the most commonly taught frameworks in school is the ‘Story Mountain’, which is likely derived from Shakespeare’s Five-Act Structure. The problem with this framework is that it’s too simple for students at advanced writing stages, and too abstract for those struggling with the basics. It’s not a bad concept, but its application needs to be taught with appropriate instructions.
Let’s take a closer look at it and see what we can do to make it more handy for our students.
Must Read: 7 Tips to Help Your Child Study Without Tears
What the Story Mountain is
The Story Mountain is broken up into five parts: the Beginning, Conflict, Climax, Deflation and Resolution.
The Beginning is where the writer might introduce elements like important characters, places, and tone.
The Conflict brings in a foreshadowing of things to come.
The Climax is where the proverbial poo hits the fan.
The Deflation is the cleaning up process, where the tension begins to fall.
The Resolution is the happily ever after.
Many are under the impression that the Story Mountain only exists to help students plan better compositions. However, that is not true. The Story Mountain can be used as a framework to analyse novels and even films. The reason why shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Hobbit are so good is because they follow narrative arcs that resemble the Story Mountain’s structure.
It is a simple but powerful tool, especially when used in an educational setting.
The issue with the Story Mountain
While the Story Mountain’s structure seems simple enough concept to grasp, some students struggle to learn and apply it. There are a few reasons why this happens:
- Students can’t pinpoint the important elements of their story. Therefore, they also can’t translate their story into the Story Mountain.
- Students don’t know how to effectively translate the Story Mountain into a full composition.
Then, this leads to questions like:
- “How do I write the Beginning/Conflict/Climax/Deflation/Resolution?”
- “What makes the Conflict different from the Climax?”
As such, the educator must know how to explicitly distinguish each part from the others, and explicitly teach students how to do so.
Teaching students to use the Story Mountain
Fortunately, there is an easy way to help students students get used to the Story Mountain.
The trick is to assign each part of the Story Mountain to ONE SINGLE PARAGRAPH. This is a solution for weaker writers; stronger writers who can write with more fluidity will usually stretch each part across multiple paragraphs.
Thus, a completed Story Mountain that looks something like that:
…can be written as follows:
BEGINNING: It was a fine, sunny morning. John woke up and brushed his teeth, as per the usual routine. Then, grabbing his belongings, he left the house and headed for the supermarket. It was grocery shopping day!
CONFLICT: At the supermarket, John walked along Aisle Six, slowly observing the various types of oranges and apples. Not paying attention to where he was going, he bumped into a frumpy, grumpy middle-aged lady.
CLIMAX: “Sorry,” John began to apologise, but it was too late. The lady started yelling at the top of her lungs about how Tom had purposely bumped into her as an assassination attempt. As unhinged as she sounded, Tom was even more embarrassed by the turning of eyes in his direction. The old lady kept screaming until two security guards approached her. “Ma’am, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave. You’re disturbing the other patrons,” one of them said.
DEFLATION: Though she kicked and screamed, the two security guards would have none of it. Hauling her up, they escorted her out of the store. Then, they returned to John. “We apologise for the disturbance, sir,” said the one who had spoken previously, to which John replied, “That’s alright. Thanks for your help.” He then continued on his merry way to fill his trolley with groceries.
RESOLUTION: John left the supermarket after paying for the items. Heading back home with two arms full of plastic bags, he thought about the incident. He was glad he did not lose his cool. It made him seem like the bigger, better person.
As you can see, it’s a simple story with a solid structure that can be replicated even by very weak students. Telling students to write each part of the Story Mountain as a separate paragraph may seem like a very basic step, but it is an important one in the process of scaffolding. The more they practise with this in mind, the faster they can get used to the Story Mountain. In no time, they will be able to produce wonderful compositions.
Using the Story Mountain this way also excludes writing structure as a potential problem. This allows us to more easily identify other weaknesses in the student’s writing, such as recurring grammar mistakes. It also allows students to see real progress, which in turn builds their confidence and motivation.
Why the Story Mountain is an awesome tool
The Story Mountain is one of the best writing concepts that can be taught to students. However, it also requires a good educator to instruct students on how to use it properly. Getting students to write a basic five-paragraph composition using the Story Mountain is perhaps the fastest way to help them get used to it. As they get more adept at using it, they will be able to write longer, more complex stories. Then, the sky’s the limit.
Liked our article on the Story Mountain? Check out our other articles here: https://swordsandstationery.com/blog/