A STORY FRAMES ANALYSIS OF HAPPY SONGKRAN DAY

 

In last week's BLOG, I recommended using Dow Phumiruk's picture book, Happy Songkran Day! The Thai New Year Celebration to celebrate culture and diversity. It may be used for all ages to explore the Thai New Year celebrated from April 13-15. Read last week's blog post to learn more about how to use the book in the classroom. This week, I'll give a brief summary of the book using Storyboard elements from my book, Story Frames for Teaching Literacy. For more information about Story Frames, go HERE or visit Brookes Publishing.

BEGINNING:

1. Ordinary World - Tida is a sweet young girl who lives with her parents and her sister, Lek. She gets a little clumsy when she is excited.

2. Call and Response - Tida wakes up her sister, Lek, on April 13, to celebrate the beginning of the Thai New Year. 

3. Mentors, Guides, and Gifts - Tida's mother teaches her the true meaning of the Thai cleaning rituals as the story progresses.

4. Crossing - The family cleans their hands in jasmine water to wash away the sins of the old year in preparation for the new one. 

MIDDLE:

5. New World - They go to the temple to pour water on the Buddha statue.

6. Problems, Prizes, and Plans - The family prepares special foods like satay with peanut sauce for the celebration. The prize is the big dance that evening, where Lek will perform with other children. Tida makes a lot of mistakes while cooking because she gets excited and rushes through things. 

7. Midpoint Attempt - Tek returns from dance rehearsal and shows the family her special dress made for the occasion. Tida wants to show off her work and accidentally spills peanut sauce on Tek's sash. 

8. Chase and Escape - Tida runs to her room in shame.

END:

9. Downtime - Her mother sits with Tida and explains that everyone makes mistakes. The point of the cleansing celebration is to wash away mistakes and start each year anew.

10. Death and Transformation - Tida and her mother wash the sash and make it good as new.

11. Climax: The Final Test - Tida apologizes to Tek for having so many accidents. Her sister tells her that the New Year is a time for forgiveness.

12. Final Reward - Family and friends celebrate the new year with water balloons, squirt guns, and buckets of water, all symbols of cleansing. Tek's dance performance is a great success, and at a big dinner that night, Tida is proud that she does not spill anything.

RELATED POSTS

Celebrating Thai Culture and Diversity with Happy Songkran Day

Simple Sentences Aren't So Simple

Complex Sentences Made Simple

Read more about Story Frames for Teaching Literacy HERE. Sign up HERE to receive my newsletter with FREE activities based on Story Frames and my decodable books. This month, newsletter recipients will receive my FREE activity Story Ad Lib #2: A Special Celebration.

Interview with Author Caroline Starr Rose

In November 2020, my new educational book on narrative structure will be published by Brookes Publishing - Story Frames - Using Narratives to Improve Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Executive Function Skills for Struggling Learners. In Chapter eleven, I analyze the plots of several narrative non-fiction picture books including A Race Around the World: The True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland written by Caroline Starr Rose and illustrated by Alexandra Bye (2019, Albert Whitman & Company). In Chapter thirteen, I analyze the plots of several novels with historical connections including the verse novel, May B. (2014, Yearling), also by Caroline Starr Rose. 

Although I examine books through the lens of narrative structure, many of the authors I discuss do not think of themselves as Plotters. Others have a plotting process very different from mine. Over the next several months, I will be interviewing many of them and talking to them about their writing process. The first author is Caroline Starr Rose, but before we get started with Caroline, let's clarify the difference between Plotters and Pantsers.

A Note about Plotters and Pantsers

Some authors think of themselves as Plotters, some as Pantsers, and others as something in between. Plotters spend a lot of time setting up a story before they ever start writing. They may organize scenes using index cards, create elaborate outlines, and have key beats or turning points in mind that they use to organize the events of a narrative. Pantsers tends to jump into a story and fly by the seat of their pants. They may come back later to refine the plot or not. Even authors who spend a lot of time researching a non-fiction topic may vary widely in the way they plot (or don't plot) their stories. Now let's find out about Caroline and her writing process.

1.      Do you consider yourself a Plotter, a Pantser, or something else? 

Caroline: I consider myself as a plotster, a combination of the two. While I can recognize story structure in other’s work, it’s often hard for me to find the same patterns in my own for a very long time. My aim when I’m beginning is to get familiar with my main character, the setting, and major turning points. The story grows (with some dead ends and wrong turns) from there.

2. What has been your most interesting research experience so far?

Caroline: I loved learning about the real-life race featured in A RACE AROUND THE WORLD.  The history gave me a built-in structure to shape the story around. I ended up creating a huge day-by-day chart of the race so I could have a sense of the event in its entirety. My editor referenced it when we worked on the manuscript, so did the art director and illustrator!

3. What is your favorite children’s book?

Caroline: I adore THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. I’ve probably read it thirty times over the years, first as a student, then to my students, and finally to my own boys. It’s a great book to use in mapping out the twelve story elements, from Crossing into the New World, called The Lands Beyond, to the Climax / Final Test, which includes climbing the Mountains of Ignorance to the highest physical point (and climatic point) in the story, the Castle in the Air.

4. Do you have any advice for young writers?

Caroline: Read, read, read, read, read. Read everything. It will be your greatest writing teacher. Let writing be fun! Sometimes the word “write” carries some negative connotations, even for me, and this is my job. Instead of writing, I often tell myself I’m about to explore, create, experiment, tinker, or play. There’s no wrong way to do those things, is there? This is a freeing way to approach my work! I hope it helps you, too.

To read more about the plotting structure outlined in Story Frames, visit my page for The Secret Language of Stories. To read more about Caroline and her other amazing books, visit carolinestarrrose.com