1. Introduce the term "plot" and ask the students to define it. Have the students look the word up in book or online dictionaries and share what they find with the class. Summarize the plot of some well-known children's books and see if your students can guess which book the plot comes from. For example, an orphan girl is stolen from her bedroom and taken to Giant Country. She conspires with her kidnapper to have all the other giants in Giant Country captured to stop them from eating people. (The BFG, by Roald Dahl)
   
   
2. Have students write their own plot summaries of popular books and quiz their classmates.
   
   
3. Discuss the role of decision making in creating the plot of a story and how the author needs to decide what actions their characters will take and which events will occur. Discuss the role of the reader in this process and how the author needs to make choices that will keep the reader interested in the story and wanting more.
   
   
4. Explain that the path a story takes is not inevitable. Whenever a pivotal moment occurs, where a character is faced with a decision, there is the opportunity for the story to branch off in a number of different directions.
   
   
5. Share with the class one or more books from Scholastic's Choose Your Own Adventure series. The books in this series invite the reader to decide how the tale will progress by presenting them with choices at pivotal points throughout the story. Each book has one beginning, but many endings so that it can be read over and over again, each time changing the path of the story by making different choices.

1. Have students sit comfortably in their chairs. Read "The House" slowly, to enhance relaxation and focus. At the end of the reading, give the students a few minutes of quiet time with their eyes closed to imagine what could happen next.
   
   
2. Encourage the students to write an ending for the story. Watch and take note of which students have taken the story in a unique or unexpected direction.
   
   
3. Ask the students to read their stories to each other in small groups or choose a number of students to read their stories to the class.
   

It's summer. You're walking down a familiar street. The sun is warm against your skin. You trail your hand along a brick wall. It feels rough against your fingers. A lizard runs past your hand. You try to catch it, but it slips into a crack beneath the bricks.

You turn a corner into an unfamiliar street, lined with maple trees. The houses are big and imposing. A robin calls from somewhere ahead. You move toward the noise, searching the trees as you walk.

One house has a garden filled with exotic flowers. You lean over the fence and breathe in their sweet smell. Then you see the robin perched in a giant maple tree. The tree is in the garden of a stately old house. Two storeys high and surrounded by a wide porch, the once grand manor now looks shabby and neglected.

The robin makes a tuk tuk sound and flies over to the porch rail. No one is around so you climb over the fence. The garden resembles an overgrown jungle. As you pass the letterbox, a small brown snake slithers over your shoe. You shake it off and run. The robin watches as you leap up the steps and crumple onto the porch. Lying there panting, you feel something wriggle beneath your hand. You lift it up. A cockroach races toward the house. You chase it and slam your foot down with a crunch as it reaches the front door. You turn to look for the robin and hear a creak, like hinges on a very old door.

Jodie Wells-Slowgrove is a freelance writer and teacher-librarian. She lives in a pretty house by a creek on the outskirts of Sydney with her husband, two children, and numerous pets.

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