Should we ditch the plot diagram in favor of character?

For the Abydos Institute, we read Haven's article, Your Brain on Story. At TCTELA, I had attended Penny Kittle's session where she shared examples of making two pagers with quoted material. Here is the model I created for the assignment I asked teachers to complete.

I traced a famous image of Antaeus and Hercules wrestling as the central image and metaphor for my notes. Then, I added the main categories of things that I wanted to remember.

Haven stated: The Neural Story Net is “ a dominant part of our thinking and interpretation mental apparatus” (p. 12). We are “[pre-programmed] to make sense, to think, to learn, and to remember all in specific story terms” (p. 12).

And I began to wonder:

• Are students consciously aware of story structure and how to use it for comprehension, composing, and reasoning that lead to memory and transformational use?
• How can we use these elements to teach them how to use story as a mode of learning and engagement?

This quote made me question what we are doing with the plot diagram: "Stories are about character, not plots. Always have been; always will be. Stories are not about WHAT happens, but about the CHARACTERS to whom that stuff happens. Audiences won't care about events and information until they care about the characters involved in those events...Stories happen ON THE WAY to resolving the goals," (pg 5 and 8).  

I used the blackline to take notes about what we should/could teach instead. Here is a file of the notes, typed. 

 

What would this look like in a student product? I used the notes and the Story of Antaeus from

The Greek Myths by Robert Graves 1955, Penguin Books, Ltd. 

 

 

I feel like I have a deeper and more inferential understanding of the text than I would have gained from trying to fill out a plot diagram. I feel like the focus on character combats the key problems Haven discusses in what our brain unconsciously does to fill gaps that lead to poor comprehension.

Here's some more resources that I used for a presenting this July at Region 16's 25th Annual Literacy Conference:

https://www.bulbapp.com/u/ditch-the-plot-diagram-for-character