Literary Elements

Think about a story you read or a movie you saw that had you “on the edge of your seat” wondering what was going to happen next. What made you feel that way?

S U S P E N S E
• Suspense is a feeling of growing tension and excitement.
• Suspense makes the reader curious about the outcome of the story.
• Suspense is created by raising questions in the reader’s mind.
• When is a time that you have felt suspense?

PREDICTION
• A reasonable guess about what will happen in a story.
• When you make predictions, you stay involved because you want to know if your predictions are correct.

EXAMPLES OF PREDICTION
• In the story, “Seventh Grade”…
– What predictions did we make about Victor?
• That he would become friends with Teresa
– What did we think would happen after Victor
“spoke” in French?
• Mr. Bueller would tell Teresa the truth

How to Make a Good Prediction
• Review what you already know about the setting and the plot.
• Guess what the characters might do next.
What events might result?
• Base your prediction on characters’ words, actions, and personalities.

F O R E S H A D O W I N G
• Foreshadowing occurs when a writer provides hints that suggest a future event in the story.
• Foreshadowing creates suspense.
• Foreshadowing is often accomplished through symbols and imagery.
• “Gut feeling”

An example of foreshadowing:
~Character is cleaning a gun in the opening scene.
What could this foreshadow?
• Merely the appearance of a deadly weapon, even though it is used for an innocuous purpose - such as being cleaned - suggests terrible consequences later on in the story.