Teaching Story Structure to Elementary School Students

Turns out, the Dramatica theory of story is so intuitive a 6-year old can understand it.

So easy, even a Kindergartener could understand 🤓 Thank God for Summer, who stepped in & helped me remember how much fun it can be to teach and learn the art of story structure.

Here, Summer goes over the Four Throughlines of Disney’s Moana. The 6-year olds the class understood the idea of an Obstacle Character and the idea that this character, or the Main Character, changes the way they think by the end of the story.

They were even able to easily identify the collective group of four Obstacle Characters in The LEGO Batman Movie!

(That word at the bottom is supposed to say father/son, but the electric white board crashed in the middle of the presentation!)

Today was a nice reminder of why we do the things we do, and why I personally feel so passionate about communicating the Dramatica theory of story and its practical application within the arts.

With story, we teach the next generation, and the generations after that, how to peaceably resolve their personal and interpersonal conflicts.

I'm proud to be a part of that tradition.