Education Technology


NCTE: Assessing Conflict and Plot

Activity Overview

Students will develop original conflicts and plots for potential use in original stories. They will assess each other by exchanging their work. The prompts in the NoteFolio™ file help the students create meaningful critiques.

Before the Activity

See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.

Install the NoteFolio™ App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.

Review the terms conflict, plot, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Review how the plot is developed through details elaborated in the five parts of the plot, and remind the students that these are dependent on a compelling conflict. Refer to Activities 1 and 2 to do so.

During the Activity

  • Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
  • Distribute the NoteFolio file(s) to your class using TI Connect™ and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
  • Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity


  • Students will:
  • Comprehend the terms plot, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and internal and external conflict.
  • Analyze a short story to identify the conflict and label the parts of the plot.
  • Develop their own detailed plots for a story.
  • Identify and evaluate the literary element of plot in professional models and peer writing.
  • After the Activity

    When the assessment is completed, the students or teams should review the assessment of their work. If the teacher desires, the students can be allowed to revise their plot and conflict to improve their work and incorporate any suggestions made by the reviewers.

    Spend time with the class reviewing and discussing the different plots and conflicts developed by the students. Point out different elements that were effective in these plots, and brainstorm ways in which weaker or less effective elements could be improved.

    If the teacher is using this lesson to build the students up to writing their own original narrative, this may be a good place to stop and quickly review the different story elements that the class has already investigated. Point out how each element interacts with and contributes to the other elements as well as the overall effect of the story.