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English languagE support lEsson

The Last Dog
Analyze Craft and Structure
Conflict and resolution
Content Objective Students will learn about the story elements conflict and resolution.

Language Objective Students will apply understanding of language resources for liniking ideas, events or reasons
throughout a text.
JUMP START
Have students consider this scenario: It’s a hot day
and Tara has a tall glass of lemonade and is extremely
thirsty. Pat is sitting across from her and is obviously
also thirsty, but doesn’t have anything to drink. Ask
students to think about what’s going on in this
situation and what might happen.
TEACH
Tell students that in this lesson they will focus on
conflict and resolution. Explain that the conflict in a
story is the problem with which the characters
struggle. The resolution is the solution to the problem
—how the problem is solved. These are two of the
basic elements of a plot around which the other
elements are structured.
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Tell students that in most of the stories they read the
conflict and and how it will be resolved will be over
something more important than a glass of lemonade.
Ask students to summarize the conflict and its
resolution in the story “The Last Dog.” (The boy
struggles with the inner conflict of loneliness and the
main conflict of saving the dog. The conflicts are
resolved through the boy’s friendship with the dog and
the fact that he gets both of them thrown out of the
dome.) If students have difficulty identifying conflict
and resolution in the story, create a simple chart and
diagram the story elements for them.
Have students of differing fluencies work together to
come up with story ideas that involve a conflict, and
perhaps an inner conflict. Have students jot their ideas
down on a story map and list possible resolutions.

In the situation described in the Jump Start, the conflict

is that both girls are thirsty, but there is only one glass Practice and Application
of lemonade. Tara also has an added conflict called an Support students as they complete the Analyze Craft
inner conflict. Although she is thirsty and likely wants and Structure activity in the Student Edition.
all of the lemonade, another person is also thirsty and
could use a drink. Should she share the lemonade? Ask
students what will be the likely resolution to both
conflicts. (Most students will say that Tara will share
the lemonade with Pat.)