Best for
Story comparison, mentor-text study, narrative planning, and lessons where students need to see that “story structure” is not one universal formula.
English • Years 7-10 • Story structure and text studies
Narrative Structure Comparison
Use this handout to help ākonga compare different ways stories are shaped. The goal is not to rank one structure above another. It is to notice how pattern, sequence, perspective, and purpose change the way a story feels and what it values.
Free structure base, premium class-text path
This page already gives the comparison, prompts, and planning space. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want the same scaffold built around your class novel, a local story, or a specific mentor text.
- Swap in a current text, oral story, or local narrative study.
- Generate a junior version with more visual chunking or a senior version with evaluative language.
- Save the adapted task in My Kete and reopen it later in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 30-45 minutes.
- Grouping: Whole-class comparison first, then paired analysis or planning.
- Prep: Bring one familiar story or text students can quickly reference.
- Teaching move: Ask “What does this structure value?” so the comparison stays purposeful rather than purely technical.
Resources already provided
- Structure comparison grid
- Analysis prompts
- Story-planning task
- Support and extension pathways
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
If the lesson mentions structure comparison or narrative planning, the core materials are already on this page.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how different narrative structures organise meaning.
- We are learning how structure affects perspective, focus, and audience response.
- We are learning how to choose a story pattern that suits the kaupapa of our own writing.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can describe at least two features of a chosen narrative structure.
- I can explain how structure changes the way a story feels or what it emphasises.
- I can plan a story using one clear structural approach.
Curriculum integration / Te Mātaiaho alignment
The companion page links this handout to English expectations around creative texts, story craft, structure, and interpreting how texts carry perspective and cultural context.
Why this matters in Aotearoa
Students often meet Western linear story arcs as if they are the default pattern for all narratives. Good teaching makes that assumption visible and challenges it with broader story knowledge.
Through a mātauranga Māori lens, stories may carry whakapapa, whenua, cyclical return, collective experience, and ongoing connection rather than only one individual hero moving toward a neat ending.
Two broad story patterns
Western linear arc
Often moves through setup, rising tension, climax, and resolution. It tends to privilege forward motion, cause and effect, and a clearer ending.
Māori storytelling patterns
May begin in whakapapa, return to key ideas, interweave multiple strands, centre the collective, and connect the story to ongoing meaning in the present.
Compare the patterns
Focus: Is the structure mostly about an individual, a group, a line of descent, or a relationship to place?
Time: Does the story move in a straight line, circle back, or braid several strands together?
Ending: Does it resolve the problem neatly, or leave the reader with an ongoing question, responsibility, or connection?
Meaning: What values or ways of seeing the world does the structure make more visible?
Plan one story in two different ways
Choose one simple story idea. Then plan how it would look using two different structures.
Story idea: A young person returns to a place that matters to their whānau.
Linear version: What would the opening, build-up, turning point, and ending be?
Whakapapa- or return-shaped version: What histories, relationships, or repeated motifs would shape the telling?
Story map sketch
Draw or map the structure of your chosen version. Label the most important moments or returns.
Tautoko / Support
- Use one familiar story before introducing broader comparison language.
- Let students talk through the pattern orally before writing it down.
- Offer sentence frames such as “This structure emphasises ... because ...”
Whakawhānui / Extend
- Ask students to justify which structure better suits a specific kaupapa.
- Compare a class novel with a pūrākau or oral retelling.
- Have students draft the same opening twice using different structures.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
English — Te Reo Pākehā
Level 3–4: Read and interpret a range of texts for meaning and purpose; identify author intent, text structure, and language choices; write clearly for specific audiences and purposes using appropriate conventions.
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Understand how texts construct knowledge and perspective; evaluate the credibility and purpose of different sources; communicate ideas and findings effectively in written and oral forms.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
In te ao Māori, language — reo — is a taonga: a treasure that carries culture, identity, and whakapapa across generations. The ability to speak clearly, to argue persuasively, to read critically, and to write with purpose are not simply academic skills — they are forms of mana in action. Māori oratory (whaikōrero) has always valued precision, evidence, and the ability to locate one's argument within a broader cultural and ancestral context. Students who develop strong literacy skills are developing the same capacities that made great orators powerful: the ability to be heard, understood, and taken seriously in any room they enter.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
Curriculum alignment
- Reading — Making Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to identify, form, and express ideas across a range of texts.
- Writing — Creating Meaning: Students will select and use sources of information, processes, and strategies to write in a range of text types for a variety of purposes and audiences.