Flow Maps are good practice for students to think and write logically and completely. In each stage and sub-stage, students explain the order of events in a story.

In the Frame of Reference (the outside rectangle), write the name of the story. Create rectangles to follow the order of events that flow from beginning to end. Smaller rectangles may be written below to list sub-stages of each major stage. If using sub-stages correct order is important.

Flow Maps are flexible in design. Order of the rectangles may be set by the arrows directing the sequence left to right, top to bottom, bottom to top or in a circle. The Flow Map below is an example of a story summarized in three frames read from left to right.

Most retelling Flow Maps start out with eight boxes. Next, students pare down unimportant details resulting in five boxes. Getting the story down to its ‘bare-bones’ of three boxes is challenging. Provide many examples and modeling prior to asking students to do this on their own.