Using Plot Maps With Stop Motion Animation

Shorts of the Week


We are currently reviewing "No Excuse" Literary Terms in my middle school reading class.  When I dropped the subject of Plot Maps, they acted like they had never heard of them.  I am pretty sure they have seen them repeatedly in their educational careers.  However, since it was one more topic they appear to never have been exposed to, I decided we needed something catchy.

My fourth and fifth grade students happen to be working on creating Stop Motion Animation (more on that later).  We had been watching some pretty cool Shorts of the Week as examples.  I decided to pull these gems in for my middle school students to analyze and complete plot maps.

The Process:

I walked them through a short Stop Motion Animation clip called Gulp.  In it, a Jonah-style fisherman gets caught in the belly of a giant fish.  At 1:45, it is an easy one to view, discuss, and repeat as needed.  The beauty of Stop Motion Animation is that when you are scrolling through the video, you can see clip by clip progress, and stop just where needed. 

The first time I tell the kids to watch and just enjoy.  Afterwards, we jot down everything they can remember about the clip.  In most cases, that includes the title, creator's name, protagonist, antagonist, a few rising actions, and the resolution.

After a second viewing, we are able to fill in more pieces.  During the third viewing, we stop many times and had an in-depth conversation.

While not part of our Plot Map, we did discuss the foreshadowing evident in the video, and the connection some students made to the story of Jonah.

Be sure to check out the Gulp.  The Making of

Free Plot Map

The next day, we repeated the process with another Stop Motion Animation piece called Back to the Start.  This one clocks in at 2:21, and is branded content for Chipotle.  It is a touching story about sustainable agriculture.  It is a more complex piece than Gulp, and a great one to take kids to the next level. 

After viewing the clip many times and discussing it, the kids completed a Plot Map.  This time, we were able to have a discussion about symbolism in the video, and ventured into an ethics discussion on sustainable agriculture and the environment.  

We also talked about how Willie Nelson's version of "The Scientist" impacted the mood of the video.  We then listened to Coldplay's version of "The Scientist" and inferred how the mood would have been different if the creator would have chosen it to accompany the video.

While we didn't compare a written text to a multimedia version, we were able to analyze how the plot plays out just the same way it would in a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

On December 28, 2014, there was an article available on The Atlantic called "Cracking the Sitcom Code".  It's interesting how sitcoms all follow the same simple formula.  It appears as though many Stop Motion Animation films follow the typical Plot Map my middle school student claim to have never seen before...

Hopefully, this time they will remember.