English 1-2 Curriculum Guide - Portland Public Schools [PDF]

English 1-2 Curriculum Guide

Portland Public Schools Version 1.0: September 2009

Table of Contents Acknowledgments

3

Introduction to Curriculum Guide

4

Using this Curriculum Guide

6

Introduction to English 1-2

7

List of Units for English 1-2

10

Introduction to the Units of Study

11

Grade 9 Priority Standards

12

Priority Standards by Unit

14

Possible Year-Long Plans

17

Blank Year-Long Planning Templates

20

Sample Student Progress Monitoring of Priority Standards

25

Conventions for English 1-2

26

Academic Vocabulary for English 1-2

27

Modes of Writing

32

Support for Common Assignment/Literary Analysis

34

Support for Narrative Writing

67

Types of Assessments

128

Summary of Understanding by Design

129

Optional Grade Nine Diagnostic Assessment

134

2

Acknowledgements Thank you to all of the amazingly talented and generous teachers who participated in the curriculum writing sessions in June of 2009 that led to the development of the ninth and twelfth grade curriculum guides: Nick Ross Jordan Gutlerner Mark Halpern Anne Dierker Gary Sletmoe Alain Millar Alicia Smith Amanda-Jane Nelson

Heather Straube Bethany Nelson Jonathon Carr Kris Fisher-Spurlock William Boly Carol Dennis Jennifer Owens Barbara Brown

Special thanks to those editors who assisted with the assembly and organization of the guides: Alex Gordin David Hillis Keri Troehler Therese Cooper Pam Garrett Mary Rodeback

Thank you to Catherine Theriault and Kelly Gomes for their brilliant contributions to the Narrative Resources section of the guide and to Alex Gordin for his Literary Analysis section. Also, thank you to all of the writers of previous years’ curriculum packets that served as the basis for much of the work found here. For over ten years, PPS teachers, with the support and direction of Linda Christensen, have come together to write and share curriculum. You will find that so much of their labor remains in active use in this guide and in classrooms around the district.

3

Introduction to PPS Curriculum Guides (May 2009) Overview Middle and high school courses in the core content areas will have curriculum guides teachers can use as a resource. The guides developed by teams of teachers and revised as needed, will include all the grade level standards and assessments for the priority standards. Standards and summative assessments will be consistent across schools, while specific instructional strategies and supplemental materials may vary. These guides will provide at least one plan for addressing all standards using district-adopted materials, districtsupported instructional strategies, and district assessments. Strategies for differentiating learning for students will be included. Purpose and Rationale An aligned curriculum benefits students, their families, and our teachers, and provides the basis to measure student progress across the district. Students benefit from encountering the same high expectations, are less likely to experience either gaps or repetition in content and skills, and do better when it is clear what they are expected to learn and how their progress will be measured. Their families are better able to support consistent standards and can expect the same curriculum even if they make a move within the district. Having a common guide for teachers provides resources (especially for teachers new to the District), opportunities to plan collaboratively and share exemplary practices, and upto-date instructional materials that support struggling and advanced students The guides provide a foundation for each secondary course. Teachers may supplement the foundation with other resources and strategies, but may not eliminate standards or assessments. Development Process Teams of 4-7 teachers including special education and ESL will work with a curriculum specialist to design the curriculum guides. They will meet together periodically and will do work independently. Sessions for review by the team and others will be scheduled throughout the process. At the end of the development phase, copies of the guide will be available to any teacher who would like to field test. The developers will field test the entire guide. Those who are field testing will convene periodically for professional review and review of student work. After the field test period, all teachers will use the standards and common course assessments. 4

Teachers will be compensated for group development and review time. Before individual work is started, the curriculum specialist will submit a budget to the director for approval. Teachers will submit completed curriculum with payment request. Teachers who field test will be compensated for group review sessions and up to eight hours per month for participation. Future Vision This work is the foundation for helpful guides for teachers now and for a powerful future. As we develop a web-based system to store and share these resources, we imagine these results: o Teachers will have instantaneous access to all core curriculum materials, classroom assessments, and student progress reports o Teachers will be able to collaborate electronically anytime and anywhere, sharing lessons and contributing insights o Professional development will be teacher-directed, focused on what they need, with the opportunity to improve their practice by viewing videos on specific content, exemplary lessons and effective instruction o Teachers will save time by having relevant Internet resources all in one place o Students and teachers will find resources in our public libraries and libraries throughout our system. o We will be able to adapt and replace materials and resources with greater ease and frequency

5

Using this Curriculum Guide This guide for English 1-2 is intended to be used as a planning tool to assist teachers in clearly targeting specific grade-level priority standards, and it includes resources for on-going progress monitoring and assessment of student achievement toward those expectations. It has been developed in a manner to provide students with multiple opportunities throughout the year to show their proficiency with the priority standards. It represents one way that a full year of English 1-2 could be delivered. This guide, however, need not be used as a lock-step scope-and-sequence for how to teach this grade level. There is no expectation that all teachers will be teaching the same topic or text on any particular day. In fact, this guide, developed by classroom teachers, has been designed to encourage professional flexibility, by providing information and resources so that teachers can make the most appropriate curricular choices for their students. Suggestions for how to use this guide for planning your year: 1. Look through the pages that follow about the grade-level focus, core novels, adopted materials, and commonly taught works. 2. Read through the list of units that are a part of this guide. Notice each unit’s duration, focus, and culminating assessment. 3. Scan the horizontal charts that identify the priority standards addressed in each of the units. Consider your own priorities and those of your school and department. 4. Look over the possible year-long plans suggested by the developers of this guide. These possible plans address, as fully as possible, the majority of the priority standards in a way that reflects a typical year in this grade level. Notice that some units on these suggested year-long plans are not yet found in this guide. 5. Sketch out your own possible year-long plan on the blank unit template, which asks you to consider the duration, focus, and assessments. 6. Go through the blank priority standards horizontal chart with each of your units to identify the priority standards you will most likely address in that unit. Look out for gaps and too much repetition of priority standards. 7. Locate the resources found within and outside this guide that you will need to address the topics and priority standards you have identified. 8. During each unit, you may want to track students’ progress in meeting identified priority standard by using the monitoring form found in each unit, which has been filled in with some of the unit’s identified priority standards, though it can be modified to reflect your individual focus as well.

6

Introduction to English 1-2 In 2006, over forty Language Arts teachers from across the district came together in a series of meetings in an effort to define and distinguish each of the four years of English in Portland Public Schools. Their recommendations were shared with our colleagues and were refined further. The result is the following consensus document that lays out, in broad strokes, the themes and main texts of English 1-2.

Course Description Freshman language arts students examine the major genres through four themes related to personal identity and heroism. Students make meaningful connections of thematic units and extend understanding beyond the text. They read a balance of contemporary and classic works—short stories, essays, novels, poetry, dramas, and nonfiction—that encourages them to make inferences and to look at the world through archetypal patterns. Students improve their writing, reading, speaking, listening, viewing, and study skills.

Essential Question How can an individual mature and change through taking heroic action?

Themes • • • •

Self, Family, and Community Identity and Self-Discovery Coming-of-Age Heroic Journey

Commonly Assigned Projects • • • •

Coming-of-Age Narrative A Character Voice Piece Hero Essay/Project Single Literary Element Essay

Core Works List Title

PPS Curriculum Guide

In 2007 Anthology

Parental Opt Out Letter

Bless Me, Ultima * Breaking Through * Bronx Masquerade * The Catcher In The Rye * P The Odyssey * + Romeo And Juliet * + The Secret Life Of Bees * Slam * Speak * P Warriors Don’t Cry * *Class sets for all Core Works are available for delivery through the multimedia library. 7

Commonly Taught Works in English 1-2 TITLE

AUTHOR

DRP

LEXILE

*(p)The Absolutely True Diary Alexie Annie John Kincaid 55 1220L Anthem Rand 51 880L Banner in the Sky Ullman 51 680L Black Like Me Griffin 58 990L Anaya 52 840L *Bless Me, Ultima Braided Lives: Anth. of Multicultural various Jimenez 51 750L *Breaking Through Grimes 47 670L Bronx Masquerade Salinger 49 790L **(p)The Catcher in the Rye The Call of the Wild London 62 1120L California Blue Klass 51 820L Children of the River Crew 51 700L The Comedy of Errors Shakespeare Donald Duk Chin The Education of Little Tree Carter 54 890L Ellen Foster Gibbons 48 870L Gilgamesh Translation 55 The Giver (curr. specific to ESL 5-6) Lowry 56 760L *Habibi (curr. specific to ESL) Nye 53 850L Hear My Voice: Multicultural Lit. various The Hobbit Tolkien 57 1000L *The House on Mango Street Cisneros 48 870L How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent Alvarez 950L I Heard the Owl Call My Name Craven 57 1080L Jesse Soto 52 900L King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of… Hochschild *The Legacy of Luna: The Story of … Butterfly 980L The Lilies of the Field Barrett 55 770L *(p)A Long Way Gone Beah *Monster Myers 670L Montana 1948 Watson 940L Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare *Nectar in a Sieve Markandaya 56 900L Never Cry Wolf Mowat 66 1330L Homer 45-61 1050L **The Odyssey October Sky Hickam 54 900L *Of Beetles and Angels Asgedom 56 The Pearl Steinbeck 58 1010L Shakespeare **Romeo and Juliet Kidd 52 840L **The Secret Life of Bees Myers 48 750L Slam! Anderson 50 690L **(p) Speak A Summer Life Soto 54 990L *Taste of Salt: Story of Modern Haiti Temple 48 650L Two Old Women Wallis 60 1030L Beals 59 1000L **Warriors Don’t Cry When the Legends Die Borland 53 850L Titles in bold are Core Works. *titles have PPS curriculum packets available. **titles are part of the Curriculum Guide. (p) titles have parental opt-out letters.

8

English 1-2 Adopted Materials In 2007, the PPS School Board approved the following texts for adoption and purchase for the English 1-2 course. These texts are in addition to the Core Works listed on a previous page. Holt Rinehart Winston (2007), Elements of Literature, 3rd Course In addition to a teachers’ edition, this includes the following ancillary Holt materials: The Reader, The Adapted Reader, Daily Language Activities, Leveled Library, two volumes of Assessments, Visual Connections, Fine Art Transparencies, Reading Solutions, as well as the Holt One-Stop Planner and a collection audio stories on CD. Great Source (2007) Write Source 9 In addition to a teachers’ edition, this includes the following ancillary materials: Skills Book, Daily Language Workouts, Assessments, and a CD-ROM. *If you do not have access to these adopted resources, please first contact your librarian or book clerk, and then contact the Textbook office.

Additional Resources: While the following curriculum packets have not yet been revised to be included in this curriculum guide, they have been proven to be extraordinarily useful over the years and appropriate for most ninth grade classrooms. If you do not have access to these or any of the other curriculum packets, please contact the high school Language Arts TOSA. Inside Poetry Lit Analysis Personal Essay Persuasive Writing Reading Strategies Teaching Tone Writing Paragraphs Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

Bless Me Ultima Bronx Masquerade The House on Mango Street The Hot Zone A Long Way Gone Monster Nectar in a Sieve Slam

9

Units in English 1-2 Curriculum Guide The curriculum guide consists of the following units listed in alphabetical order:

Unit

Duration

Advertising*

3 weeks

Catcher in the Rye** Film:*

Focus

Culminating Assessment

4 weeks

Analyzing persuasive techniques and audience. Representations in media Characterization, context, theme

Advertisement Analysis and Creation Analytical Essay

2 or 4 weeks

Theme, tone, characterization through director’s choice:

Analytical Essay

Narrative: Hero’s Journey* Poetry*

3 weeks

Narrative elements; archetypes, analysis of characterization

Quest Narrative

3 weeks

The effects of literary and poetic devices

Poetry Analysis Essay

Romeo and Juliet**

6 weeks

Characterization, theme, performance and effect

Character Analysis and Performance

Secret Life of Bees**

3 weeks

Characterization, author’s purpose

Literary Analysis Scrapbook

Speak**

2 weeks

Oral Narrative*

3 weeks

Figurative language, characterization, author’s purpose Identity; narrative elements; oral presentation

Personal Narrative/Artistic Map Oral Narrative

The Odyssey**

6 weeks

Epic, theme, point of view

Short Story with varied Point of View

Warriors Don’t Cry**

4 weeks

Narrative elements, social justice, Civil Rights

Narrative Graphic Novel

Edward Scissorhands and Crooklyn

*Entirely new units. **Revisions of previously developed materials.

10

Introduction to Units of Study This curriculum guide is made up of units written, compiled, and revised by teachers from around the district. The majority of the units were written during the summer of 2009, though many are revisions of units that had been written earlier and are in widespread use in schools across the district. The most significant aspect of the units in this guide is that they have attempted to focus, as closely as possible, on the priority standards for the particular grade level and to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their proficiency. There are suggested pathways through a year of this grade level based upon the priority standards in each unit, but you will find several planning tools and blank templates to allow you to develop your year. Each unit in the curriculum guide includes: 1. An introduction to the unit written by the unit designers that explains the writers’ objectives. 2. A unit template that identifies the priority standards, assessment evidence, and a pathway through the unit. For more information about the template, please see the Understanding by Design section in this guide. 3. A student monitoring chart that provides a place for teachers to keep track of their students’ progress in meeting the unit’s identified priority standards. This will be an essential tool for those teachers who are looking toward standardsbased grading. 4. A list of the academic vocabulary used in the unit. 5. A pre-assessment that helps teachers to identifies their students’ strengths and weaknesses in the identified priority standards addressed in the unit. This will be an easy way for teachers to quickly assess their students’ current rate and level in order to meet their differentiation needs. 6. A series of lesson plans and activities that lead students through the unit with a specific focus on the unit’s identified priority standards. 7. A culminating assessment that is a performance task designed to address the students’ current status in meeting the unit’s priority standards. Scoring guides and student reflections are provided. 8. A list of differentiation ideas for the unit. 9. A list of additional resources.

11

Grade Nine Priority Standards (DRAFT) In 2006, the group of Language Arts teachers from around the district who met to discuss the distinguishing features of the four grade-level English courses recognized that the state and district-approved standards are not too practical for assisting grade-level articulation because they are essentially identical in grades 9 through 12. Additionally, the sheer volume and depth of the standards make them difficult to incorporate in the classroom in any practical way. Therefore, that group began developing what it called “Power Standards” and the work continued in 2008-09 with teachers and TOSAs from grades 6-12 and district Instructional Facilitators offering feedback on what is truly essential at each grade level, with specific focus on eligible content for the 10th grade state-wide assessment. This draft document serves as the foundation for the units that were developed for this curriculum guide and will continue be revised based on feedback throughout the year. These priority standards are not expected to be the only focus of the curriculum, but rather are those aspects that a teachers can say with some certainty that his or her students will have multiple opportunities to practice and master throughout the year. READING/LITERATURE Determine meanings of words using contextual and structural clues and through the use of 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10

definition, inference, example, restatement, or contrast. (9.3.1) (9.3.6.) Use the features of informational text to reach supported conclusions. (9.4.2) Summarize sequence of events (9.5.1), (9.8.1) Predict future outcomes supported by the text, using contextual clues. (9.6.1), (9.9.1) Infer an author’s unstated ideas, analyzing evidence that supports those unstated ideas and make reasonable generalizations about text. (9.6.4), (9.9.3) Draw conclusions about the author’s purpose. (9.7.1) Analyze characterization (9.9.6) Describe the function and effect upon a literary work of common literary devices, such as imagery, use of dialogue (including dialect), foreshadowing, flashbacks, allusion, figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, and personification. (9.10.1) Define how tone or meaning is conveyed in poetry through word choice, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, punctuation, and sound patterns (e.g., rhythm, repetition, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia). (9.10.10) Analyze how dramatic elements are used to develop characters/mood through dialogue, soliloquies, asides, character foils, stage directions. (9.10.13), (9.10.15)

WRITING Writing Traits 9.11     

Develop a thesis, providing connections and insights. (9.12.1) Provide details/examples to support ideas developed into separate paragraphs. (9.12.2) Engage readers with an interesting introduction and ending paragraph. (9.12.2) Use variety of facts/descriptive words to paint an image in the mind of reader. (9.12.4) Use varied sentence types (9.12.5)

12

9.12

9.13

Conventions (9.12.6)  Homophones and frequently misspelled words such as their/they're/there  Contractions and apostrophe usage  Correctly use verbs that are often misused (e.g., lie/lay; sit/set; rise/raise).  Ensure that verbs agree with their subjects.  Correctly use verb tenses: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Writing Modes (9.13) (E=expository, P=persuasive, LA=literary analysis, N=narrative/reflective, R=Research)

        

Focused thesis that leads to an explanation of complicated ideas (E) Include relevant information and exclude extraneous information (E and N) Write summaries of informational texts (E) Pose relevant research questions (R) Support interpretations of literature through the use of textual references (LA) Include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character. (N) Use dialogue, interior monologue, suspense, and the naming of specific narrative actions, including movement, gestures, and expressions. (N) Establish a situation, point of view, conflict, and setting. (N) Establish a controlling idea that takes a thoughtful, backward examination and analyzes a condition or situation of significance. (N)

SPEAKING/LISTENING/VIEWING Initiate new topics in addition to responding to adult-initiated topics. (9.15.4) 9.14 Actively solicit another person’s comment or opinion. (9.16.2) 9.15 Offer one’s own opinion assertively without dominating (9.16.3) 9.16 Analyze advertisements, entertainment and news programs for how they affect targeted 9.17 9.18

audiences. (9.18.1) Make informed judgments about television, radio, and film productions. (9.18.3)

The numbers in italics refer to the full PPS-approved standard document. The full standards document is available on the OTL website.

13

Priority Standards by Unit

x x

x

x x

x

x

x

x x x

x x

x x x

x x x

x x

x x

x

x x

x x

x x x

x

x x

x x

9.01 9.02

x

9.03 9.04

x

9.05

x

9.06 9.07 9.08

x

x

x x

Warriors

Odyssey

Oral Narrative

Speak

Secret Bees

R and J

Poetry

Narrative

Film

Catcher

Ads

READING/LITERATURE

x

9.09 9.10

14

Determine meanings of words using contextual and structural clues and through the use of definition, inference, example, restatement, or contrast. (9.3.1) (9.3.6.) Use the features of informational text to reach supported conclusions. (9.4.2) Summarize sequence of events (9.5.1), (9.8.1) Predict future outcomes supported by the text, using contextual clues. (9.6.1), (9.9.1) Infer an author’s unstated ideas, analyzing evidence that supports those unstated ideas and make reasonable generalizations about text. (9.6.4), (9.9.3) Draw conclusions about the author’s purpose. (9.7.1) Analyze characterization (9.9.6) Describe the function and effect upon a literary work of common literary devices, such as imagery, use of dialogue (including dialect), foreshadowing, flashbacks, allusion, figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, and personification. (9.10.1) Define how tone or meaning is conveyed in poetry through word choice, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, punctuation, and sound patterns. (9.10.10) Analyze how dramatic elements are used to develop characters/mood through dialogue, soliloquies, asides, character foils, stage directions. (9.10.13), (9.10.15)

Warriors

Odyssey

Storytell

Speak

Bees

R and J

Poetry

Narrative

Film

Catcher

Ads

WRITING

9.11 x x

x x

x x

x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x x

x x

x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x 9.12

9.13

Writing Traits  Develop a thesis, providing connections and insights. (9.12.1)  Provide details/examples to support ideas developed into separate paragraphs. (9.12.2)  Engage readers with an interesting introduction and ending paragraph. (9.12.2)  Use variety of facts/descriptive words to paint an image in the mind of reader. (9.12.4)  Use varied sentence types (9.12.5) Conventions (9.12.6)  Homophones and frequently misspelled words such as their/they're/there  Contractions and apostrophe usage  Correctly use verbs that are often misused (e.g., lie/lay; sit/set; rise/raise).  Ensure that verbs agree with their subjects.  Correctly use verb tenses: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Writing Modes (9.13) (E=expository, P=persuasive, LA=literary analysis, N=narrative/reflective, R=Research)

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x



x

x

x

x

 

x

15

Focused thesis that leads to an explanation of complicated ideas (E) Include relevant information and exclude extraneous information (E and N) Write summaries of informational texts (E)

Odyssey

Warriors

x

Storytell

Poetry

x

x

Speak

Narrative

x x

x

x

x x

x x

x x

x

x

x

x

x



X

x

x

x



x x

x x

x x

x x

 

Bees

Film

x x

R and J

Catcher

Ads

x

x x

x x

x x

x

 

Pose relevant research questions (R) Support interpretations of literature through the use of textual references (LA) Include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character. (N) Use dialogue, interior monologue, suspense, and the naming of specific narrative actions, including movement, gestures, and expressions. (N) Establish a situation, point of view, conflict, and setting. (N) Establish a controlling idea that takes a thoughtful, backward examination and analyzes a condition or situation of significance. (N)

Odyssey

Warriors

x

x

x

x

9.14

x x

x

x

x x

9.15 9.16 9.17

x

9.18

Storytell

Speak

x

Bees

R and J

Poetry

Narrative

Film

Catcher

Ads

SPEAKING/LISTENING/VIEWING

x x

x

x

x

16

Initiate new topics in addition to responding to adult-initiated topics. (9.15.4) Actively solicit another person’s comment or opinion. (9.16.2) Offer one’s own opinion assertively without dominating (9.16.3) Analyze advertisements, entertainment and news programs for how they affect targeted audiences. (9.18.1) Make informed judgments about television, radio, and film productions. (9.18.3)

Possible Year-long Unit Plan #1 Unit

Duration

Focus

Culminating Assessment

Coming of Age*

2 weeks

Personal narrative

Interview about High School

Narrative: Hero’s Journey

3 weeks

Narrative

Quest Narrative

Absolutely True Diary*

3 weeks

Characterization

Analytical paragraphs

Film

4 weeks

Theme and effect

Analytical Essay

Poetry

3 weeks

Literary devices

Poetry Anthology

The Odyssey

6 weeks

Point of view

Short Story

Advertising

3 weeks

Audience and persuasion

Ad analysis and creation

Romeo and Juliet

6 weeks

Performance and character/theme analysis

Character analysis and performance

Fourth

Third

Second

First

Q

*Units not found in this curriculum guide

17

Possible Year-long Unit Plan #2

Fourth

Third

Second

First

Q

Unit

Duration

Focus

Culminating Assessment

Short Stories*

2 weeks

Personal narrative

Identity Poem

Secret Life of Bees

4 weeks

Narrative

Quest Narrative

Absolutely True Diary*

3 weeks

Characterization

The Odyssey

5 weeks

Theme and effect

Illustrated Booklet/Graphic Novel Analytical Essay

Poetry

3 weeks

Literary devices

Poetry Anthology

Film Edward Scissorhands

4 weeks

Analyzing film as text

Film Essay

Advertising

3 weeks

Audience and persuasion

Romeo and Juliet

6 weeks

Collaboration and Performance

Ad analysis and creation/poster board Character analysis and performance

*Units not found in this curriculum guide

18

Possible Year-long Unit Plan #3

Fourth

Third

Second

First

Q

Unit

Duration

Focus

Culminating Assessment

Speak

3 weeks

The Odyssey

5 weeks

Mini-Memoirs Narrative Writing Characterization/expository Analytical essay

Secret Life of Bees

5 weeks

metaphors and symbols

Artistic Map

Poetry

3 weeks

Literary devices

Poetry Anthology

Film Crooklyn

3 weeks

Analyzing film as text

Film Essay

Warriors Don’t 4 weeks Cry

Narrative elements and Civil Rights

Graphic Novel

Catcher in the Rye

4 weeks

Characterization

Characterization essay

Romeo and Juliet

6 weeks

Collaboration and Performance

Character analysis and performance

Personal narrative

*Units not found in this curriculum guide

19

Blank Template for Year-long Unit Planning Unit

Duration

Fourth

Third

Second

First

Q

*Units not found in this curriculum guide

20

Focus

Culminating Assessment

Blank Priority Standards Planning Template READING/LITERATURE

9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08

9.09

9.10

Determine meanings of words using contextual and structural clues and through the use of definition, inference, example, restatement, or contrast. (9.3.1) (9.3.6.) Use the features of informational text to reach supported conclusions. (9.4.2) Summarize sequence of events (9.5.1), (9.8.1) Predict future outcomes supported by the text, using contextual clues. (9.6.1), (9.9.1) Infer an author’s unstated ideas, analyzing evidence that supports those unstated ideas and make reasonable generalizations about text. (9.6.4), (9.9.3) Draw conclusions about the author’s purpose. (9.7.1) Analyze characterization (9.9.6) Describe the function and effect upon a literary work of common literary devices, such as imagery, use of dialogue (including dialect), foreshadowing, flashbacks, allusion, figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, and personification. (9.10.1) Define how tone or meaning is conveyed in poetry through word choice, figurative language, sentence structure, line length, punctuation, and sound patterns (e.g., rhythm, repetition, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia). (9.10.10) Analyze how dramatic elements are used to develop characters/mood through dialogue, soliloquies, asides, character foils, stage directions. (9.10.13), (9.10.15)

21

WRITING

Writing Traits  Develop a thesis, providing connections and insights. (9.12.1)  Provide details/examples to support ideas developed into separate paragraphs. (9.12.2)  Engage readers with an interesting introduction and ending paragraph. (9.12.2)  Use variety of facts/descriptive words to paint an image in the mind of reader. (9.12.4)  Use varied sentence types (9.12.5) Conventions (9.12.6)  Homophones and frequently misspelled words such as their/they're/there  Contractions and apostrophe usage  Correctly use verbs that are often misused (e.g., lie/lay; sit/set; rise/raise).  Ensure that verbs agree with their subjects.  Correctly use verb tenses: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Writing Modes (9.13)

9.11

9.12

9.13

(E=expository, P=persuasive, LA=literary analysis, N=narrative/reflective, R=Research)



22

Focused thesis that leads to an explanation of

       

23

complicated ideas (E) Include relevant information and exclude extraneous information (E and N) Write summaries of informational texts (E) Pose relevant research questions (R) Support interpretations of literature through the use of textual references (LA) Include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character. (N) Use dialogue, interior monologue, suspense, and the naming of specific narrative actions, including movement, gestures, and expressions. (N) Establish a situation, point of view, conflict, and setting. (N) Establish a controlling idea that takes a thoughtful, backward examination and analyzes a condition or situation of significance. (N)

SPEAKING/LISTENING/VIEWING

9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18

24

Initiate new topics in addition to responding to adultinitiated topics. (9.15.4) Actively solicit another person’s comment or opinion. (9.16.2) Offer one’s own opinion assertively without dominating (9.16.3) Analyze advertisements, entertainment and news programs for how they affect targeted audiences. (9.18.1) Make informed judgments about television, radio, and film productions. (9.18.3)

Student Progress Monitoring: Film Unit (SAMPLE) You may want to use the following chart to identify and communicate your students’ progress in meeting (M), exceeding (E), and not yet meeting (D) specified priority standards throughout the unit. Or, there might not be enough evidence (n/e) to make a judgment. You will find blank forms – with identified priority standards – in each unit. Student

Sample, Student 1

9.05 Infer an author’s unstated ideas, analyzing evidence that supports those unstated ideas and make reasonable generalizations about text.

9.08. Describe the function and effect upon a literary work of common literary devices

9.11. Develop a thesis, providing connections and insights.

9.13. Support interpretations of literature through the use of textual references

Other: Uses all proper conventions in writing

E

E x

E

E

E

M x

Sample, Student 2

n/e

x

Sample, Student 3 Sample, Student 4

D

M

D

n/e

M x

x x

x x

Sample, Student 6

x

n/e

x x

x

Sample, Student 5

D

x x

25

D x

n/e

M

D

x

x x

M

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

n/e x

x x

Conventions English 1-2 Based on the draft Priority Standards document, the following are the common errors in conventions that should be addressed in the ninth grade. Certainly, there are many other errors that freshmen typically commit, but these could be a starting point and a focus for the work that you do with conventions in your classroom. Research has shown that teachers should not explicitly teach separate, stand-alone, classwide grammar lessons on the following topics, but rather help students to become aware of the patterns of errors they commit in their writing and to lead mini-lessons for those students who need them. Please see the other grade-level priority standards available on the OTL website if you are interested in trying to vertically align your department’s approach to teaching conventions.

Grade Nine: Resources Available Write Source pp. 678-697

Holt pp. 1201-1205

2. Contractions and apostrophe usage

pp. 628-631

pp. 1195-1196

3. Correctly use verbs that are often misused (e.g., lie/lay; sit/set; rise/raise).

pp. 678-697

pp. 1201-1205

4. Ensure that verbs agree with their subjects.

pp. 752-755

pp. 1160-1162

5. Correctly use verb tenses: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect.

pp. 718-720

pp. 1165-1166

9.12. Conventions (9.12.6) 1. Homophones and frequently misspelled words such as their/they're/there

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Academic Vocabulary Robert Marzano, in Building Academic Vocabulary, says that “people’s knowledge of any topic is encapsulated in the terms they know that are relevant to the topic” (2) and that students who have a broader background knowledge in a subject perform better. Neither of these statements is particularly groundbreaking or surprising to most classroom teachers. But what Marzano and others argue for is that we need to explicitly teach the terminology of our discipline rather than assume that our students have already learned it or will pick it up in the context of our classrooms. He concludes that “one of the most crucial services that teachers can provide, particularly for students who do not come from academically advantaged backgrounds, is systemic instruction in important academic terms” (3). In his text referred to above, Marzano offers a list of over a hundred terms from “adjective clause” to “word origin” for high school Language Arts classes. But instead of merely copying or compiling a list of such terms, the writers and editors who worked on this curriculum guide went about the process a bit differently. After the writers completed writing their units, they went back and asked themselves, “What is the implicit and explicit vocabulary that students would need to know in order to be successful in this unit?” So, the following list is not designed to be a checklist of terms that you need to “cover” over the course of the year, but rather, are the terms that grade-level teachers identified are an integral part of their curriculum and of which students need to be aware. Because these terms are those that are normally only implied during instruction, when we falsely assume that students already know them, we do need to be more explicit about our teaching of these terms. Suggestions for teaching academic vocabulary are: 1. Frayer Model: in which students work to define a terms, along with its examples and non-examples. 2. Concept Circles: in which students try to define relationships between words and concepts. 3. Concept Ladders: in which students focus on the function and parts of the terms. Probably the most effective method for teaching Academic Vocabulary is to keep a Word Wall of the terms found in a particular unit posted prominently in the classroom and referred to often during instruction.

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Frayer Model

Directions:

Complete the chart to show what you know about_________________. Write as much as you can.

Definition

Information

Examples

Non-Examples

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Concept Circles Describe the meaning and relationships between and among the words in the sections of the concept circles.

choice

technology

censorship

support

strategies

_________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________

genres

_________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ __

confidence recognition

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Concept Ladder
 Concept ladders can be used when you want the students to focus on one particular word/concept rather than on a set of words.
 
 As written by Jean Gillet and Charles Temple in Understanding Reading Problems: Assessment and Instruction: "...it is useful to think of the meaning of one word in relation to the meanings of others. To semanticists, meanings come not by themselves but in family or hierarchial relationships. A duck can be thought of not just as a white or yellow creature with a beak and feathers but as a kind of bird. Moreover, it is useful to know that there are varieties of ducks: mallards, teals, wood ducks, mergansers. Ducks are seen in stages, too. A little fuzzy yellow-beaked thing grows up to be a brown-and-green adult duck... Albert Upton (1973), has suggested a set of questions that people should ask when they are striving for exactness in meaning: 
  What is it a kind of / what are the kinds of it?  What is it a part of / what are the parts of it?  What is it a stage of / what are the stages of it?  What is it a product or a result or / what are the products or results of it?


These four questions can be adapted to yield much information about any meaning or word under consideration. Depending on whether the item under scrutiny is a class of things (that is, ducks in general) or a particular thing (that mallard over there with the twisted beak), one side of the question or the other will be useful but not always both." From: http://4sbccfaculty.sbcc.edu/lessons/success/vocabulary/vocab_R.htm

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Academic Vocabulary English 1-2 Terms in bold appear in four or more units. Active Listening Active Voice Advertisements Alliteration Analysis Anecdote Antecedents Audience Author’s purpose Characterization Cinematic elements Climax Conflict Connotation Context Conventions Denotation Dialogue Dialogue Journal Diction Direct Quotation Editing Effect Epic Epithets Extended metaphor Falling Action Figurative Language Flashback Foreshadowing

Genre Graphic novel Headline Homonym Identity Imagery Inference Interior Monologue Irony Layout design Media Memoir Metaphor MLA style Monologue Mood Multi-Genre Narration Narrative Narrator Omniscient Point of View Oral tradition Oxymoron Panel template Pantoum Paraphrase Parody Personification Personna Persuasion

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Plot Point of View Primary research Prologue Pun Resolution Revision Rising Action Satire Secondary research Sensory detail Setting Simile Slogan Social networking Socratic Seminar Soliloquy Sonnet Supporting examples Symbolism Synonym Tableau Theatrical elements Theme Thesis Tone Topic sentences Voice Writing process

Writing Modes There are many different forms – or modes – that student writing can take. The following definitions, which are adapted from the Oregon Department of Education, are not the only definitions of these modes, nor should student writing necessarily take any one of these forms exclusively; good writing often blends multiple modes. The purpose of this section is only to have a common language about the four most frequent modes of student writing: narrative, expository, persuasive, and imaginative. The Narrative Mode Definition: Narrative writing recounts a personal experience or tells a story based on a real event or on an imagined event. All details come together in an integrated way to create some central theme or impression and, in the case of fiction, is created to entertain the reader. Narrative writing is usually characterized by the following:  use of first or third-person narrator;  plot, characters, setting;  dialogue;  showing, not telling;  events organized in time-order sequence (although flashbacks and other organizational patterns are also used). Forms: Narrative writing appears in poetry, short stories, novels, personal essays, tall tales, and folk tales, to name just a few. It also takes a particular form in scripts and plays. A writer might use narrative writing to make a point in persuasive essay or to give an example in expository writing. Whatever the form, its purpose is to tell. The Expository Mode Definition: Expository writing gives information, explains something, clarifies a process or defines a concept. Though objective and not dependent on emotion, expository writing may be lively, engaging, and reflective of the writer's underlying commitment to the topic. Expository writing is characterized by the following:  development of a main idea;  support of the main idea using examples, details, and/or facts;  presentation of logically organized information;  commitment to the topic. Forms: Expository writing appears in lab reports, letters, newsletters, definitions, guidebooks, catalogues, newspaper articles, magazine articles, how-to writing, pamphlets, comparison/contrast essays, cause-effect essays, problem-solution essays, reports, research papers, literary analyses, to name just a few. Whatever the form, its purpose is to inform, explain, clarify, define, or instruct.

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The Persuasive Mode Definition: Persuasive writing attempts to convince the reader that a point of view is valid or persuade the reader to take a specific action. Successful persuasive writing is based on a topic that is limited in scope (readily definable), debatable, and meaningful or important to both the writer and intended audience. Persuasive writing is characterized by the following:  topic or issue stated;  position of writer clearly stated;  argument supported by reasons, examples and/or facts. Forms: Persuasive writing appears in letters to the editor, editorials, advertisements, advice columns, award nominations, pamphlets, petitions, and opinion writing, to name just a few. Whatever the form, its purpose is to persuade

The Imaginative Mode Definition: Imaginative writing invents a situation, perspective or story based on the writer's imagination. The writer may create a scene, situation or character, may predict what might happen under hypothetical circumstances, or use his/her creativity to solve a hypothetical problem. The writer may use his/her knowledge of the world to bring a special flair or flavor to the writing, but is not bound by the constraints of reality. Imaginative writing may contain elements of fantasy. The key question, however, is not how fantastic it is, but rather how inventive is it?  Frequently allows writer to select topic of interest  Demonstrates high degree of creativity of the writer  Can require the reader to believe or accept the "unusual"  Requires good use of description to hold the reader's attention  Includes forms of poetry or drama Forms: Imaginative writing appears in short stories, plays, film scripts, poetry, to name just a few.

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English 1-2 Common Assignment: Literary Analysis Resources available in this section: Page District assignment and sample classroom adapted prompts

35

Pre-assessment prompts with reflection

37

Sample activity: characterization in short stories with lessons

38

Peer critique form

44

Scored student exemplars

46

Craft lessons for literary analysis Thesis statements Writing introductions Using and embedding quotes Transitions Conclusions

52 56 59 63 64

List of available resources

66

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English 1-2 Common Assignment: Literary Analysis

District Prompt: From a literary text, select a literary element and write an essay that analyzes the element in the work. The selection of elements to be considered is character, setting, plot, theme, or tone. The essay should have a thesis, introduction, body, and conclusion, and use evidence from the work to support the thesis.

Sample Classroom Adapted Prompts 2007-08 Prompt: Using a passage from a literary text, (i.e., poem, short story, novel, play) write an analytical essay that answers the following question: “What is the tone of the piece, how is this tone achieved, and what is the impact on the reader?” Use one to four literary elements and/or literary devices, and specific examples from the text to support your thesis. Character: 1. From the short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut (96-107 Holt anthology) analyze the character of Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist. As you understand his character, think about his character traits that make him larger than life (107). 2. From the short story, “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street,” (127-136) by Wendi Kaufman what do you feel are Helen’s significant character traits (136)? Note the traits and compose a character essay determining about what you learned about her character. (SPED/ELL) 3. Read and review the core text, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Is Holden, the protagonist, a reliable, or unreliable character in the novel? Give examples from the story to support your point. (TAG) 4. Read and review the core text, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Describe how the main character, Melinda, faces adversity. What examples from this coming of age novel reveal her resiliency or ability to cope with loss? Plot 5. Read the short story “The Interlopers,” by Saki, (189-194) and compose an essay on the conflicts in the piece. Make sure you reflect on the plot twist at the end of the story. 6. Read the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game,” (17-34), by Richard Connell. Compose an essay where you describe what the main characters want, and what problems they face. State in your writing what the climax is and what is the resolution (36).

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Setting (Read and review the material on setting on pages 60-61 in the Holt anthology. 7. View the film, Edward Scissorhands directed by Tim Burton. How does setting play a role in Edward’s life on the hill? How does setting affect him when he tries to integrate with his neighbors? Give examples from the piece to illustrate the importance of setting in this literary work. (SPED/ELL) 8. Read and review “A Christmas Memory,” (63-72) by Truman Capote in the Holt anthology. How does setting affect this characters and/or the readers of this short story? Review sensory details in the short story as you analyze this literary element in the text (75). (TAG) Theme: 9. Read and review Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Make a list of themes or ideas learned and compose an essay using evidence from throughout the play to support a main point or thesis on theme from this important core text. Consider what Shakespeare might be saying about love, death, families, fate, and so on. 10. Read and review the short story, “Disguises,” ((249-268) from the Holt Anthology. Look to the textual aid on page 248, and compose an essay on this short story around the Literary Focus at the bottom half of the page. Review “What does Mrs. Chen’s journey suggests about the power of friends and enemies in our lives.” (TAG) 11. Read and review Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. After reviewing the text, decide on a theme or something the protagonist learns about himself in the novel. Create a thesis and use evidence in your expository writing. Tone: 12. Read and review the short story, “Thank you Ma’m” (109-112) by Langston Hughes. How is tone reflected in this short story? Analyze dialogue, imagery, and figurative language to illustrate the literary term of tone in this piece. (TAG)

***Be sure that students read pages 154-161 in the Holt Anthology for understanding of this literary terminology and review pages 254-294 in the 9th Grade Write Source on how to compose a literary essay.

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Pre-Assessment for the Ninth Grade Common Assignment To Teachers: You may want to ask your students to respond to one of the following stories early in the year to give you and your students an idea about their skills for this grade levels literary analysis focus. All prompts use literature designated as “at grade level,” however, teachers should use professional judgment in determining what is appropriate for their students.

Prompt: Students will write an essay explaining the characterization, plot, setting, tone or theme of the selected story. They will make a statement or thesis about what the reader has learned about a literary element from the short story, create an outline, and then write a rough draft. Choose from one of the following stories:   

“Thank You Ma’m” by Langston Hughes in the Holt Anthology (109-112). “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street” by Wendi Kaufman in the Holt Anthology (127-134) “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier in the Holt Anthology (142-148).

Reflection: Once students have submitted their essays and they have been scored, be sure to take some time to reflect about what they did well and what they need to work on. Questions to consider: 1. What traits received the highest/lowest scores? 2. Were they able to write an effective essay with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion? 3. With which literary element – theme, character, conflict, setting, tone – were students most successful? 4. How smoothly were students able to integrate quotations into their writing? 5. Overall, did students include enough supporting evidence to prove their points? 6. Did the text(s) seem grade-level appropriate for the students? Where and why did they struggle? What reading strategies will have to be used? 7. What errors in conventions appeared in student papers? What mini-lessons might help for their next essays?

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Sample Activity for the Ninth Grade Common Assignment Prompt: Read (or re-read) “Thank You Ma’m” by Langston Hughes in the Holt Anthology (109-112) and write an essay about the character of either Roger or Mrs. Jones. Students should create an outline first with a thesis about the character and gather supporting evidence.

Time: 3 class periods including writing time. Materials Needed: Holt texts, writing materials. Steps in the Assignment:  

Have students preview the prompt and read the short story, “Thank You M’am by Langston Hughes. Look over the prompt again and review the handout.

The literary term of character is composed into a thesis. Remind students that other ideas and terms are possible for the writing as well. Sample thesis on the literary term of character: Roger, the young man, learns a positive lesson about life in this coming of age story. He changes from a young thief to a thoughtful young man. 

Create an outline around a literary term on character, plot, setting, or theme,

Sample Outline Quote: “The boy took care to sit on the opposite far side of the room away from the purse …”(112). Comment: The young man wanted to avoid temptation and also wanted to earn her trust. II. “That will be fine,” said the boy”(112). Comment: Roger and Mrs. Jones are eating at the table together, a kind and hospitable event that suggest grace and comfort. III. The boy wanted to say something other than “Thank you,m’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones…” (112). Comment: The young man is grateful for the woman’s kindness and cannot express his appreciation enough. Perhaps he takes this lesson to heart or share it with others. I.



From the thesis and outline the opening paragraph of writing is composed and crafted and shared with the class. (Refer to essay format as well).

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Sample Paragraphs I Will Not Forget You “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes is a powerful short story that conveys important lessons about life, especially for a young man named Roger. Roger confronts Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones on a dark city night as he tries to steal her pocketbook or purse in attempt to buy what we later learn is a pair of blue suede shoes. As the story unfolds and the characters interact, Roger learns a powerful and positive lesson in life and he evolves or changes from a young thief into a thoughtful young man. 

The second paragraph is shared with the students of the class. Quotations and interpretation are role-modeled through the exemplar example.

2nd paragraph After Roger’s apprehension he is hauled up to Mrs. Jones tenement home. There is a brief interrogation about his name and motives and she proceeds to share a bit about her own past. It is during this discussion that she him invites him to sit and have something to eat. There seems to be a softening in the characters as if the act of eating food represents civility and hospitality. Roger’s character begins to transform when he sits on the bed away from the purse. Langston writes, “But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room, way from the purse, …(112) so as if to say the young man to wanted to resist temptation and also display trust. 

Discuss the paragraph with the class. Make sure that you go over the thesis and review how this second paragraph covers the quote as represented in the outline. Remind students the other examples would be used in the rest of the writing.

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Craft Lesson: Gathering Details for the Outline Time: 2 class periods Materials Needed: Write Source text (264-265), Holt Anthology and writing materials Steps in the Assignment:    

Refer to the short story, “Thank You M’am (109-112). Refer to pages 264-265 in the 9th grade Write Source text. Go over the steps of gathering details as identified on page 264, for the Hughes short story. Refer to the character chart and the earlier craft lesson on theme. The sample in the text states the theme, as Forgiveness is Sweet. Have students gather details on the theme. For example: 1. 2. 3.

The young man picks up the pocketbook when asked. The boy is taken to the apartment and invited in the woman’s home. Introductions are made.



Students are asked to gather other details or pieces of information that support the theme.



Students review the short story and find short quotations that connect to the ideas that have been gathered. For example: 1. 2.

3.

The young boy picks up the pocketbook- “Then she said, Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself.” (110) The young man goes to the apartment and learns civility. “The woman said, ‘You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong.’ ” (110) Find other quotations that connect to the details.

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Craft Lesson: Theme Time: 1 class period Materials Needed: Write Source text (263) , Holt Anthology and writing materials Steps in the Assignment:    

Go over theme on page 263 in the 9th grade Write Source text. Go over the steps of discovering a theme as identified on page 266. For the Hughes short story: Look for clues in the title, “Thank you M’am.” Look for the author’s statement on life.

Review the “Try It” prewriting tips and form your own theme A main theme in the story is __________

Craft Lesson: Thesis Time: 1 class period Materials Needed: Write Source text (594), Holt Anthology and writing materials Steps in the Assignment:     

Refer to the short story, “Thank You M’am” ((109-112) that has been the focus of the preassessment assignment and the exemplar pieces. Go over thesis on page 594 in the 9th grade Write Source text. Review the thesis checklist at the bottom of page 594 Recall events in the story and refer to the ninth grade prompt. Compose a thesis:

Thesis:

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Craft Lesson: The Middle Paragraph(s) Embedding the Quotations Time: 1 class period Materials Needed: Write Source text (270-271), Holt Anthology and writing materials Steps in the Assignment: Refer to the short story, “Thank You M’am” ((109-112) and the handouts on theme, thesis, and gathering details.  Review your outline and compose paragraph(s) based on the ideas that you gathered. Look over the first example of detail and quotation that we gathered on the theme that forgiveness is sweet. The young man picks up the pocketbook when asked. “Then she said, Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself.” (110). These details could be crafted into a paragraph as follows: Early in the short story we learn moral implications about the characters of Roger and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. She requests that he pick up the pocketbook and he complies obediently. She responds to this action with moral indignation and rebuke, “Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself” (110) indicating that Roger had crossed a moral or ethical boundary and needs to reflect on his action. This is the beginning of the process of forgiveness for both the woman and Roger. 

Review the next detail and quotation and compose another paragraph. Be sure to explain the detail and connect the quotation to the example. Interpret and connect the idea that forgiveness is sweet to the example.

Detail: The young man goes to the apartment and learns civility. Quotation: “”The woman said, You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong.” (110) Your paragraph:

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Ninth Grade Literary Analysis Essay Format Write about a literary term that interests or intrigues you about the story. Review your outline and text and come up with an idea or thesis. Think of the following questions or ideas when you sit down and write the essay. Compose a creative title to the writing I.

Introduction Have you introduced the text and author that you are writing about? (Underline title) Have you explained the general plot of the story? What is the text or book about? What is the point or thesis of your writing? Creative Strategies: Start with a specific quote and then expand into ideas about the story

II.

Body or Main section of your writing Do you use examples and do you explain how they relate to your point? Do you use short quotes? Hint: Quote and enclose page number in parentheses i.e. (23) **The stronger papers will use short quotes and longer analysis to support the main idea. Hint: Use your outline and texts. This part should be the longest section of our paper. Also, it will reveal how much you invested and paid attention to the story.

III.

Conclusion What kinds of examples have you used? Have you made your point? Can you establish any general observations or patterns? What personal ideas or connections can you add?

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Peer Reflection on Literary Analysis 1.

What literary element is written about in the essay?

2.

State two examples that are used as evidence.

3.

What is a specific line(s) that you find strong or authentic in the writing?

4.

What is an area that could be revised or clarified?

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Self Reflection on Literary Analysis Essay 1.

What is the thesis or main point in my writing?

2.

State two examples that I use as evidence to support my point.

3. Give two examples of specific word choice or literary terminology that I use in my writing.

4.

What is a specific line(s) that I find strong or authentic in my writing?

5. Reviewing the editing checklist on page 288 in Write Source. What is a strong area and what is an area that I need to work on when editing my writing?

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Sample Scored Essay with Commentary Title: “Calypso” Trait

Grade level: 9 Score

Ideas and Content

4

Organization

4

Word Choice

4

Voice

3

Sentence Fluency

4

Conventions

4

Comments The writing is clear with a range of evidence including references to specific metaphors, similes, and even references to diction. However, the thesis was scored as limited, “…the tone of the poem is lonely, but proud.” The writer moves the reader along in a competent manner with basic transitions. Examples such as “There are many metaphors, I have also noticed personification,” contribute to this competent, but elemental assessment. The writer also has a sense of the general purpose of an introduction and the conclusion attempts to connect earlier ideas. The language is functional with references to literary terms such as metaphor, simile, personification, and diction in the writing. Words like “yearning,” and “despair,” contribute to appropriate word selection as well. The voice in the literary analysis is inappropriately personal in places and there is limited success in establishing an academic voice. Examples such as, “I love this metaphor,” and “I have also noticed personification in the poem,” contribute to the score for this trait. The writing flows, although sentence patterns and development lack variation. The line, “I love this metaphor,” illustrates a straightforward subject verb pattern. Quotations from the piece are inconsistently embedded. For example, the passage in the fourth paragraph: “I knew that he was drowning, and I brought him into me” was not smoothly inserted into the writer’s own sentence. The writing demonstrated control of standard conventions, and an error like the capitalization of “Nymph” in the first paragraph does not interfere with readability.

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Sample Scored Essay with Commentary Title: “How to Eat a Guava” Traits

Score

Ideas and Content

2

Organization

3

Word Choice

Voice

Grade level: 9

3

3

Sentence Fluency

4

Conventions

3

Comments The writing is unclear with minimal details with minimal thesis development: “The tone of ‘How to Eat a Guava,’ is very nostalgic.” The author includes very little evidence from the text; overall, the piece is not convincing. Order and structure are attempted. There is some evidence of transitions, as “Like all good authors,” “In the last paragraphs,” and “This whole piece,” illustrate some evidence of organization in the writing. While the introduction and conclusion are identifiable, the author does not demonstrate a clear understanding of the purpose for each type of paragraph. The word choice conveys a basic message with word selections such as “beautiful,” “smell,” “nostalgic,” “stop,” and “think.” The voice is inappropriately personal in places. Examples such as, “Like all good authors (I think)…” and “To me this passage is beautiful,” contributes to this score. The writing analysis flows and readability is not impeded. However, the embedded quotations, while attempted, are occasionally awkward. The fourth paragraph of the analysis: “In the last two paragraphs she says,” demonstrates this awkwardness. The writing demonstrates limited control. Errors like “…she says;” and “Such as; ” in the third paragraph are significant and begin to interfere with readability.

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Craft Lessons: Literary Analysis On the following pages, you will find a number of lessons that were written by PPS teachers as part of summer curriculum camps. Even though they were originally written as part of curricular materials for specific, grade-level texts, the following activities are relevant to most texts and grade levels. At the end of each activity you will find the title of the curriculum from which it was taken in case you would like to have more information about that particular text or topic. All these curricular guides are available on the OTL website.

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Developing a Working Thesis Standards: 11.13.2, 5 – Writing Expository Texts Objectives: Students will understand the elements of a good thesis and complete three or four possible thesis ideas for their own papers. They will be able to generate thesis ideas that connect specific characters with key ideas or motifs. Students will practice recognizing and developing focused clear thesis statements with the understanding that these are the foundation to a strong essay. At the end or the lesson, there will be several possible theses for students to use. Materials: Individual copies of A Raisin in the Sun, access to completed Connecting Character to Theme posters, journals, retrieval charts, and Thesis Feedback handout. Time: 1 hour Activities: 1) Explain that a good thesis statement is essential for writing a good essay because:  It provides a simple and concise embedded question or clear idea in one sentence that will then be answered or addressed concisely with proof throughout the essay.  It is arguable  It forces the writer to think before writing the essay exactly what the essay will include and seek to prove.  It allows the writing of topic sentences that fully respond to and explain the thesis. 2) Explain the parts of a good (at least for this type of essay) thesis statement include in One or two sentences:  The author's name  The title of the work in italics or underlined  A simple, yet meaningful, statement about the connection between a major character and one aspect of the America Experience as evidenced by the play. You must be able to have a good answer to the question about the thesis, "So What?" 3) Provide examples of thesis statements and explain why they are good or bad.  Bad: In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha wants to be a doctor, but her brother wants her to be a nurse. (This is a fact easily found in the play and doesn’t clearly connect Beneatha with any of the big ideas)  Good: In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha is the perfect example of a character who struggles against racism and sexism as she attempts to fulfill her ambitions. (This is a well-written thesis statement because it connects Beneatha with idea of race and social justice, one of the parts of the American Experience.)  Bad: In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter is obsessed with money. (This is broad, general, and overly obvious; it does not lead to a bigger idea or an answer of the “so what” question.



Good: In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter’s obsession with money often causes him to act unkindly to those he loves. (This gives you a chance to show numerous relationships while addressing the impact of money on morality, one of the aspects of the American Experience.)

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4)

After the discussion of good and bad theses, instruct students to write on the handout three or four thesis statements that address a connection between a character and an aspect of the American Experience in A Raisin in the Sun, using the above elements of a good thesis statement.

5) Divide students into groups of four students to peer edit. For each thesis statement, the following questions should be addressed to:  Does the thesis statement include the necessary three elements?  Does the thesis statement suggest a theory about a connection between a character and some aspect of the American Experience?  How could you improve the thesis statement?  So what? Why is the thesis important? 6) Ask each group to choose their two or three “best” thesis statements, copy them so they are clearly legible, and post them for others to see and share.

From A Raisin the Sun curriculum guide by Barbara Brown, Jim Peerenboom, Virginia Warfield

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Name: __________________________

Thesis Feedback Handout Each thesis should:  Include the necessary three elements  Suggest a theory about a connection between a character and some aspect of the American Experience Peers:  How could this writer improve the thesis statement?  Does it address the “So What” question? Why is the thesis important?

Thesis________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Response_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ Thesis________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Response_____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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Craft Lesson: Thesis Statements for Literary Analysis Objective:  Students will choose one of the themes from the American Experience: the immigrant experience, money and morality, race and social justice, and cultural identity in America. Write an analytical essay examining how that theme is developed through the experiences of one of the primary characters in A Raisin in the Sun. Use specific and relevant evidence from both the text and the historical context to support your interpretation.  PPS standard 11.12.1 (explore a topic and develop a thesis) Materials:  Overhead or flip chart for web  Students should have their Evidence Retrieval charts  Journals or paper  Literary Analysis Criteria Sheet Time: 45-50 minutes Procedure: 1. Explain that students will be writing a literary analysis in which they will analyzing how one of the themes from the American Experience is developed through the experiences of one of the primary characters in A Raisin in the Sun. 2. Hand out Literary Analysis Criteria Sheet (teacher note: this is the same criteria sheet students will use to color-mark their essays in the revision phase) 3. Model the construction of a potential thesis using a web. At the center of the web, write "barriers." Branching off of the center, brainstorm types of barriers: race, gender, historical, parental, socioeconomic, etc. Branching off of each type, brainstorm examples from Fences and the other texts that exemplify each type. 4. Using the essential questions of the unit (What are the roles/effects of barriers in our lives and in society? How do barriers change or remain the same over time? How do people change as a result of confronting barriers?), construct a working thesis around one of the types of barriers. 5. Give students five minutes to write a sample thesis. 6. Have students share examples. 7. Discuss what is working in each statement. 8.

Have students continue to work on thesis statements. By the next class, all students need to have a working thesis, so if they don't finish in class, they will need to create a thesis for homework.

From A Raisin the Sun curriculum guide by Barbara Brown, Jim Peerenboom, Virginia Warfield

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Literary Essay Introductions Objective: Students will read a variety of literary essay openings before creating at least two different possible openings for their essays. Students will provide feedback for their peers. 10.12.2 Organization - Engage readers with an interesting introduction or beginning. Materials: Working thesis from previous lesson, Venn diagram from previous lesson, copies of literary essay opening samples, colored pencils or highlighters. Time Allotment: 75 minutes Procedure: 1. Distribute copies of literary essay opening. 2. As a whole class, read the literary openings by type (quotes, questions, surprise, metaphor, anecdote). While reading, students color-mark the technique in one· color and the thesis in another color. 3. Discuss the technique and share out the thesis statements. Note with students how & where the thesis statement is included in the introductory paragraph. Is it stated or implied? Does it fall at the beginning or end of the introduction? Text and author introduced? 4. How does the introduction drive the essay content? In small groups, each group works with two different introductions to determine what evidence the author will need to provide in the body of the essay in order to prove his or her point. For example, with the first opening from Thousand Pieces of Gold, the author will need to provide other specific examples of how Lalu "struggles between" her cultures. Perhaps he will then offer a conclusion that shows her coming to terms with her multiple identities, finding balance between them, or choosing one over the other (students may not be familiar with the real ending). 5. Groups share out their findings to the whole class. 6. Writing: Students write two different drafts of introductions for their essays using two different styles. 7. Peer feedback on these introductions with feedback focusing on: Is the thesis clear?, Is the introduction engaging? Where will the author need to go from here to prove his/her point? Which introduction is stronger? 8.Students write first draft of body today.

From Nervous Conditions curriculum by Amy Ambrosio, Carol Dennis, Kelly Gomes, Henise TellesFerreira

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Literary Essay Openings (Developed by Linda Christensen) Quotes: Jim Jackson, Thousand Pieces of Gold "I remember one time a man bring a performing monkey to my village," Polly said. "The man divide the audience in two and give each side one end of a rope to hold, then the monkey walk carefully back and forth between the two sides, at each end, he stop a little bit, but he cannot stay, and so he walk again until he so tired, he fall." [Lalu] pointed down to Warrens, so clearly divided into two camps. "Sometimes I feel like that monkey." (179) In the novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthann Lum McCunn, Lalu/Polly, like the performing monkey, struggles between her Chinese culture and her newfound American way of life.

Ime Udoka, Their Eyes Were Watching God "So the white man throw down de load and tell de black man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his women folks." (29) Quotes that stereotype black men as lazy are typical in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, but Tea Cake breaks that stereotype. In fact, Tea Cake proves to be a role model for how men should act.

Anna Hereford, Beloved Toni Morrison says, "The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time." In her novel, Beloved, Morrison demonstrates her ability to produce the "best art." She creates horrifying images of slavery so vividly they stay with the reader forever. Her imagery is the kind that is terribly beautiful, searingly beautiful, painfully beautiful.

Questions: Tony Funchess, Their Eyes Were Watching God What skin tone was Zora Neale Hurston? What shade of black brown or yellow did she possess? Did it really matter? When it came to the character, Janie, in Hurston's novel Their Eves Were Watching God, color did matter. Chelsea Hendrichs, Their Eyes Were Watching God What makes a woman a woman? Is it a man? Or is it raising children? Must girls have a full-time mother to become a "true" woman? Are they molded by society? In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford, the main character is shaped by her need for a man to "pollinate" her so she could bear fruit and grow past her grandmother.

Surprise: In order to be successful, a man has to make his mark on the world. While women may be able to get by on their looks, men must succeed financially. In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, a man is considered successful if he has money, a decent job, and/or land. Everyone frowns on those who do not possess these qualities, everyone except the main character, Janie.

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Amanda Hall, Their Eyes Were Watching God In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is not just a simple character of a woman, she is a symbol of the way women traditionally forget themselves, and the disappointment they feel, in relationships with men.

Metaphor: Imagine a bell: Full throated, a long clapper of metal ringing out victory or alarm, calling people to prayer or announcing daybreak or dusk. Lalu's mother is a bell without a tongue. In the biographical novel Thousand Pieces of Gold, Lalu's mother observes tragedy unfolding around her, but because of the patriarchal society in China, she cannot speak, her tongue is silenced. Anecdote: Kaanan Yarbrough used his sisters' love lives to start off an essay on Their Eyes Were Watching God: After growing up in a house with three sisters, I noticed that girls can't distinguish the good guys from the bad. They dream of a prince, and he turns out to be a dog. Janie, from the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a character in a dream world waiting to be swept off her feet to happiness. Like my sisters, she has to meet a few dogs before she finds that prince.

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Embedding and Analyzing Quotes in a Literary Analysis Essay Objectives:  Students will practice correct citation of textual passages in a literary analysis essay (10.13.4)  Students will develop support for their literary analysis essay (10.9.3, 10.13.5)  Students will write body paragraphs for a literary analysis essay (10.13 .5)  Students will analyze evidence, in writing, for a literary analysis essay (10.10.1, 10.10.8, 10.10.11, 10.13.5) Materials:  "Quoting Textual Passages in a Literary Essay" handout for students  "Quoting Textual Passages in a Literary Essay" overhead transparency  Students' introductions/rough drafts of literary analysis essays Time: 1 day (based on 45 - 50 minute periods) Procedures: Pre- Writing 1. Students will take out their introductions (or rough drafts) for their literary analysis essays. 2. Pass out "Quoting Textual Passages in a Literary Essay" handout to students. 3. Using the overhead transparency, guide students through the three main ways to cite textual passages in a literary essay: Embedding, Blocking, and Paraphrasing. a. Highlight the differences in placement of parenthetical citations. b. Emphasize when to use each type of citation. c. Explain the formatting of each type of citation. 4. Discuss the importance of actually analyzing a cited passage, rather than "dropping" it in the essay without further explanation or analysis. 5. Using the blank lines in the first box (the embedded quote example), ask students to "complete" the paragraph by adding some analysis of the cited passage, as well as a conclusion. Students should do this on their own. 6. Ask students to popcorn-share their "analysis and conclusion" of the paragraph, and as a class, decide on the "best" sample. Write that sample in the lines available in the second box (the block quote example). 7. If students are drawing from a variety of sources (poetry, video, etc) for their literary analysis, the teacher should be prepared to teach students how properly to cite these different sources.

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Writing 8. Tell students that they are now going to work on a body paragraph for their essay. 9. Students should now look at their own introductions/rough drafts, and think about the type of textual evidence they need to support their ideas/arguments. 10. Point students to their journals, the character silhouettes, and the text to locate the textual passage they intend to use. Encourage them to find the "best" support for or illustration of their ideas, not just any old passage that they can find. 11. Ask students to write (or revise, if they have a pre-existing one) a body paragraph so that it includes correctly quoted textual passages, as well as analysis of the passage. Ask students to refer to the handout (Quoting Textual Passages in a Literary Essay). 12. When students are finished writing one paragraph, have them pairshare. Students should be double-checking each other's paragraphs for: a. Correctly quoted passages b. Analysis of passage c. How well does the textual passage illustrate/support the ideas in the paragraph? 13. After pair sharing, debrief the difficulties encountered and any questions students may have about embedding and analyzing quotes. 14. Assign as class work or homework: Students will finish writing the "body" of their essay, complete with correctly quoted textual passages and analysis of the passages.

From Nervous Conditions curriculum by Amy Ambrosio, Carol Dennis, Kelly Gomes, Henise Telles-Ferreira

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Quoting Textual Passages in a Literary Essay Directions: For each example paragraph, analyze each quote and then write a concluding sentence. 1. EMBEDDED QUOTES: Introduce the passage with a sentence or a phrase and blend it into your own writing so that it flows smoothly together and makes sense. The mercy killing of Candy's dog serves to isolate Candy even further. After allowing Carlson to take the dog outside to kill it, Candy refuses to join in the card game with the other men. He then physically distances himself from the others by lying down on his bunk. After they hear Carlson shoot the dog, Candy retreats even more when "he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent" (49).

Note: The quoted material is integrated into the sentence. The citation (page number) comes after the quoted material but immediately BEFORE the period.

2. BLOCK QUOTES: For long passages (more than 4 typed lines), special rules apply. Introduce the quote with a sentence and use a colon as your mark of punctuation before the passage. Indent about ten spaces (TAB twice) and write the passage out to the right margin. The citation (page number) goes AFTER the final punctuation. The mercy killing of Candy's dog also serves to isolate Candy from the other men. After allowing Carlson to take the dog outside to kill it, Candy refuses to join in the card game with the other men. He then physically distances himself from the others by lying down on his bunk. After they hear Carlson shoot the dog, Candy retreats even further: The silence was in the room again. A shot sounded in the distance. The men looked quickly at the old man. Every head turned toward him. For a moment he continued to stare at the ceiling. Then he rolled slowly over and faced the wall and lay silent. (49)

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3. PARAPHRASED CITATIONS: This type of citation is used if you just tell what the writer said in your own words. The mercy killing of Candy's dog also serves to isolate Candy from the other men. After allowing Carlson to take the dog outside to kill it, Candy refuses to join in the card game with the other men. He then physically distances himself from the others by lying down on his bunk. After they hear Carlson shoot the dog, Candy retreats even further by saying nothing. Instead he rolls over on his bed facing away from the other ranch workers (49). Candy's reaction to the loss of his only friend is silent and detached. His physical reaction, turning away from the other men in the bunkhouse, further emphasizes his loneliness. It is even greater now that his dog is gone. Without his dog, Candy is alone on the ranch and in the world.

4. QUOTING PASSAGES IN A PLAY (DRAMA)    

When quoting dialogue between two characters in a play: Indent the beginning of the quotation 10 spaces (or indent 2 times) Begin each part of the dialogue with the character's name followed by a period. Indent all following lines in that character's speech an additional quarter of an inch (or 3 spaces) When the dialogue switches to a new character, repeat the pattern as listed earlier.

Throughout the play Fences, Troy and Cory fail to understand one another. Each character refuses to see the other's point of view, especially in regards to Cory's dreams of playing football in college. When Cory puts a part-time job at Mr. Stawicki's store on hold in order to focus on football, Troy intervenes, telling Cory's coach that he will no longer be playing: Cory. Why you wanna do that to me? That was the one chance I had. Rose. Ain't nothing wrong with Cory playing football, Troy. Troy. The boy lied to me. I told the nigger if he wanna play football… to keep up his chores and hold down that job at the A&P. That was the conditions. Stopped down there to see Mr. Stawicki ... Cory. I can't work after school during the football season, Pop! I tried to tell you that Mr. Stawicki's holding my job for me. You don't never want to listen to nobody. And then you wanna go and do this to me! Troy. I ain't done nothing to you. You done it to yourself. Cory. Just cause you didn't have a chance! You just scared I'm gonna be better than you, that's all! (57-58; Act One) In this conversation, neither Troy nor Cory attempt to understand each other's actions. Cory only sees his father as being bitter and afraid of what Cory may be able to accomplish. He doesn't consider that his father might be sparing him from the same disappointment Troy experienced during his baseball career.

From Nervous Conditions curriculum by Amy Ambrosio, Carol Dennis, Kelly Gomes, Henise TellesFerreira

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Transitions Objective:  Students will understand the purpose of transitions, learn strategies for constructing effective transitions, and revise their drafts for transitions.  PPS standard 10.12.2 (Organization) Materials:  Students will need to bring drafts of their essay  Scissors  Transition handout or Write Source pages 592-593

Time: 45-50 minutes Procedure: 1. Have students take out drafts of their essays and cut them into sections, so that each paragraph is its own section.

2. Have students shuffle their paragraphs. 3. Have students exchange paragraphs with a partner. 4. Partners should attempt to put the paragraphs in order. 5. On a separate piece of paper, students should note where they found it easy and why, where they had trouble and why, and based on their answers to the previous two questions, what key words or strategies make for smooth transitions. 6. Have a brief whole-class brainstorm about transition strategies. 7. Partners discuss, and provide suggestions for revision around transitions. 8. For remainder of the class, students work individually to add transitions and restructure their essays based on feedback strategies brainstorm.

From Nervous Conditions curriculum by Amy Ambrosio, Carol Dennis, Kelly Gomes, Henise TellesFerreira

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Developing Expository Conclusions Objectives:  Students will read a variety of conclusions for literary analysis essays (10.2)  Students will read, respond to, and differentiate among a variety of conclusions (10.7.4, 10.13.5)  Students will write at least two different conclusions for a literary analysis essay (10.12.2)  Students will participate in whole class and small group discussions (10.16.1,10.16.2,10.16.3, 10.16.4, 10.6.5) Materials:  Individual students' Literary Analysis Essay rough drafts (from previous lessons)  Conclusions (with samples) handout Time: 1 - 2 days (based on 45 - 50 minute periods) . Procedures: Pre-Writing 1. Students will take out their rough drafts of their literary analysis essay. 2. Pass out copies of Conclusions handout. 3. Review different types of conclusions: summary, circle back to the beginning, possible solution, restate and emphasize thesis, further questions to think about. 4. Drawing from the sample conclusions, discuss with students the strengths and weaknesses of each type. Writing 5. With all the sample conclusions in front of them, students will experiment with writing two different conclusions for their narrative. 6. Pair-share conclusions. Partner should respond to these conclusions in the same way as they did with the sample conclusions. 7. After forming small groups, students will choose their most effective conclusions and read-around to the group at large, getting feedback/suggestions. 8. After consulting with the group and engaging in self-reflection, student will choose the conclusion that best suits their topic, purpose and audience, and complete or revise the rough draft of their literary analysis essay. Depending on time constraints or teacher preference, completion of rough draft may be assigned as homework.

From Nervous Conditions curriculum by Amy Ambrosio, Carol Dennis, Kelly Gomes, Henise TellesFerreira Literary Essay Concluding Paragraphs Sample

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Sample Literary Essay Concluding Paragraphs (Developed by Linda Christensen) Summary: Thousand Pieces of Gold. Lalu/ Polly in Thousand Pieces of Gold struggles between her Chinese culture and her newfound American way of life. While she longs to reconnect with her Chinese family, she finally must admit that in marrying a Caucasian, she is now dead to them. However, in marrying Charlie and moving to the Salmon River ranch, Polly incorporates both Chinese and American cultures by ministering to her neighbors with Chinese medicine and forging links with other American homesteaders through hard work and a determination to succeed. Circle Back to the Beginning: Beloved 'The best art is political ... and irrevocably, beautiful at the same time." In Beloved, Toni Morrison, the author of this quote, reveals Sethe's horrifying experience as a slave, suffering physical and emotional torture, brutally raped and later haunted when she kills her child to keep that child from experiencing her own abuse and suffering. Yes, Morrison's imagery is the kind that is terribly and painfully beautiful, an imagery that not only haunts the reader forever but forces the reader to face the devastating consequences of bigotry and hatred. Possible solution: Romeo and Juliet Could the tragedy in Romeo and Juliet have been avoided? Might the young lovers have been able to find love and happiness? Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet asks of society that it seek resolution to blind hatreds, unquestioned prejudices, and selfish desires. If we could do that, hope and new life might prosper. Restate and emphasize the thesis: Their Eyes were Watching God Tea Cake proves to be a role model showing how men should act. Not only does he genuinely care about Janie's desires and needs, he includes her in his daily life and activities, and considers her as his soul mate and equal. Thus Janie finds joy and fulfillment as Tea Cake's wife, which enables her to survive devastating tragedy and endure life without him. Further questions to think about: Their Eyes were Watching God Was being "pollinated" by Logan Killicks, Joe Starks, and Tea Cake, the act which helped Janie bear fruit and grow past her grandmother? Did this enable her to become a woman? I think not. Was it not, perhaps, Janie's own actions of leaving Logan, defying Joe, and killing Tea Cake in order to survive, that transformed Janie into the strong, dynamic survivor the reader encounters at the end of the novel?

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Resources for Ninth Grade Literary Analysis Topic Characterization Conflict Essay Writing and Revising Outlining Plot Point of View Quotations: Direct Quotations: Effective Use Quotations: Embedding Quotations: Set off Setting Theme Thesis Statement and Literature Thesis Statements

Write Source 322 258-294 17, 590-591

264, 286, 650 274 597 632-635

Holt 96-97 138-140 1042-1057 714, 1154-1155 2-3 170-171 710-11 717 60-61 246-247

266, 276 594-595, 599

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234, 280, 318, 322, 557, 631,1042

Support for Narrative Writing Resources found in this section: Why teach narrative?

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Definitions of personal and persuasive essays

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Narrative prompts

71

Using QAR strategy

72

Prewriting strategies

76

Writing: Using student models

81

Craft lessons for narrative writing Color-marking lesson Narrative elements Introductions and conclusions Active and passive voice Tightening writing

82 84 88 95 104

Peer Review

107

Read-around procedures

110

Assessing the narrative

111

Student samples

112

List of available resources

127

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Narrative Writing: Rationale “Students need opportunities to care about each other and the world. Narratives are a great place to start.” Linda Christensen, Teaching for Joy and Justice

Many of us begin our year with narrative writing as a way of building community and learning about our students’ lives while simultaneously gathering early writing samples for assessment. Then, as persuasive, expository, and literary analysis essays arrive, we tend to focus on these skills and drop the narratives all together, perhaps dabbling in poetry to maintain the creative outlet. However, the narrative has a place in our classrooms all year long and here is why:

    

Student narratives build community Student narratives connect students’ lives to the curriculum The study and practice of narrative skills (characterization, dialogue & blocking, flashback, interior monologue, figurative language) enables students to better recognize, comprehend, and analyze these elements in the literature studied Through narrative writing, students learn writing skills while conveying familiar information – a kind of organic scaffolding – before tackling new information and new skills A well-rounded writer is a strong writer

In this section, you will find tools for teaching narrative writing along with a variety of prompt ideas, suggestions for connections to literature, and recommendations for further resources. Our hope is that these tools will be useful for those new to writing narratives and also for those looking to refresh their perspective on narratives.

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The Narrative Essay: Something to Say One Perspective Freshmen are fresh— new school, new teachers (and more of them), new friends, new structures. By punctuating the year with narrative writing we’re able to keep it fresh. For some of us, the first serious writing assignment comes within the first week-- a letter of introduction in which students share who they are as learners. They appreciate the opportunity to write about themselves, eager to put onto paper their likes, dislikes, and requests about what the teacher can do to support their success. Almost always sincere in their efforts, this letter helps to set the tone for the year. They want to be heard, they want to be known, and they want to claim their space in their new learning community. It is our intent to continually return to this notion of making a contribution to our learning community. Together we seek to explore the power of their ideas by providing students with various prompts and forums to say something meaningful and personal. Among the writing traits that students are required to demonstrate competency in, the trait of Ideas and Content often needs development within their writing. In a superior paper, “The writing is exceptionally clear, focused, and memorable…Overall, this is an extraordinarily convincing piece.” Usually the most memorable and convincing writing is born in authenticity—we can all speak to a topic we care about and narrative writing opens the door to such topics. Big ideas may not always take flight in a prescribed assignment such as a literary analysis where students may or may not find their voice. Add to that, freshmen are sometimes slow to take off with expository or persuasive writing and need the confidence of familiar territory, such as a narrative essay, to truly launch their thinking and chart their course. Our freshmen have a lot to say about myriad issues and never fail to surprise and delight when given the option to write a narrative piece. What better way to encourage engagement than to provide them with multiple opportunities for narrative writing? Moreover, what better way to build community in the classroom by sharing our personal truths? This is what makes for memorable writing and deeper connections with each other. The student model examples in this unit are from a freshman writing prompt on social prisons given in one of our classrooms in the spring after students had read several books including Speak, Parrot in the Oven, and Romeo & Juliet followed by expository writing, a character analysis, and a persuasive paper. In preparation for reading Animal Farm and thinking about social prisons, students reflected on a time in their own lives when they felt imprisoned. They wrote easily about the limitations of stereotyping, parental restrictions, gender inequities, and so much more. Even though the year was coming to a close, they enthusiastically embraced this assignment, precisely because they had something to say about social prisons in their lives. We’ve had similar success with a wide variety of narrative writing. For more examples, see the Appendix. Narrative writing is not just for the Language Arts classroom. Ideally, students will have multiple occasions for narrative writing in all content areas. As students develop their ideas in one writing mode they instinctively extend their skills to a wide variety of writing. Narrative writing in the science, social studies, and math classrooms reap tremendous benefits for learning, engagement, and cultivating student voice. Ultimately, it invites students to have something to say about any given topic and becomes the spring board for developing their ideas.

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Narrative/Personal or Reflective Essay/Persuasive Essay: What's the Difference? When we fill a room with English Language Arts teachers, a lively discussion will ensue in response to this question. As with most anything, there are gray areas and areas of overlap between these modes of writing. In the end, as long as your students are learning the skills embedded within these writing assignments, it shouldn't make much difference. NPR's This I Believe Personal Essay Curriculum (found at www.thisibelieve.org ) has the following definitions to offer:

Personal essay Focused on belief or insight about life that is significant to the writer Personal narrative Focused on a significant event Personal memoir Focused on a significant relationship between the writer and a person, place, or object

Personal Essay

Transactive [ Persuasive included] Writing

Communicates the significance of a central idea or insight that has a deep personal meaning to the writer

Conveys information to a reader who knows less than the writer; may attempt to persuade a reader to take a particular action or believe a certain way

Purpose is more reflective, although the tone may sound persuasive

Purpose is more persuasive, an attempt to convince others to agree with the writer’s position

Development of the piece is based upon the writer’s personal experiences or anecdotes

Development of the piece is based upon research from credible sources

Written in first person; more conversational or entertaining in style

Written in third person; more issue-driven and formal or academic in style

Appears in an essay or Op-ed format

Appears in a real-world form such as a letter, an editorial, or a feature article

More subjective in tone

More objective in tone

Rarely requires documentation

Often requires documentation

More informal in tone, language, and subject matter

More formal in tone, language, and topic

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Narrative Prompts Prompts for narratives can come from just about anywhere: the exploration of a social issue, the plot or themes in a text, or a life event selected by the student. The most fruitful prompts allow for student choice within a broader topic and are embedded in the curriculum. Here are a few prompt ideas and resources that have proven successful. Life Event Narrative This type of narrative is broad and leaves much room for student choice (sometimes too much and a student may be mired in indecision). The student chooses a “defining moment” from his/her life and zooms in to focus on the substance of the event and why it remains so remarkable.

Social Prisons Narrative This prompt asks students to look at ways that they feel held captive by certain conventions of society, culture, and family. Students often choose to write about clothing, money, gender, familial expectations, musical tastes, etc. This type of narrative often contains a reflective component as the student connects his/her personal experience with the broader socio-cultural issue. (Note: The results from this prompt can tend to lean toward personal essay, so it is helpful to clarify the difference with students along the way.)

Social Issue Narrative Through anecdote and investigation, students explore a societal issue: racism, class structure, immigration, inequities in education, etc. They tell of their experience with the issue and how it impacts quality of life and community. Writing for Justice From Linda Christensen’s book Teaching for Joy and Justice, this prompt asks students to “uncover those moments in their lives when they participated in an act of injustice, and then to use those narratives to rehearse acting in solidarity with others to change the situation” (85).

Narrative Prompts to Accompany Select 9th Grade Core Novels Unit/Lesson Bless Me Ultima Secret Life of Bees

Speak

Warriors Don’t Cry

Assignment/Prompt Brainstorm various rites of passage and select one to expand Various prompts including: Under what circumstances have you kept a secret? What happened? Write about a time when you were the only one like you (age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, etc.) Write a personal narrative on secrets: one you kept; one you didn’t; one kept from you; one shared with you. What happened? In the spirit of Melba Beals’s story, think about your own life. What is the story you want to tell about yourself? Write that story.

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Writing Standard 9.12.2-4-5-6 9.13.6 9.12.2-4-5-6 9.13.6

9.12.2-4-5-6 9.13.6 9.12.2-4-5-6 9.13.6

Mining Literature for Writing Prompts Using QAR In this sample lesson, using the QAR Questioning strategy helps students to move from reading text to asking questions that spur critical thinking and supply writing ideas. In this example, questions in the Author and You and On Your Own sections might evolve into personal narratives about social restrictions or a transformative experience. LESSON: - Writing: QAR Into Personal Narrative or Essay

Literacy Strand(s):

Reading/Literature, Writing

Standard(s):

Standard 9 Literary Text/ Inferential Comprehension: Develop an interpretation when reading grade-level literary text. Standard 12 Writing Traits: Communicate supported ideas across the subject areas, including relevant examples, facts, anecdotes, and details appropriate to audience and purpose that engage reader interest.

Overview:

Students use the QAR strategy to ask critical thinking questions to begin brainstorming for an essay or narrative topic.

Grade Level(s):

6-12

Standard Descriptor(s):

9.3 Draw inferences and make logical conclusions 9.11 Planning, evaluation, revision

Essential or Topic Question(s):

How does asking questions of text deepen comprehension and generate new ideas? How can brainstorming enhance the writing process?

Learning Objective(s):

Students will ask questions about a text that will help them brainstorm about a topic for a personal narrative essay.

Assessment & Product:

Successful completion of the QAR graphic organizer, which delineates levels of comprehension of text. Successful completion of a list of brainstorming questions.

Time Frame:

1-3 class periods

Resources & Materials

Handouts: 72

Needed:

Procedure:

Work(s) Cited:

Question-Answer Relationships Web Question-Answer Relationships (QAR QAR Practice graphic organizer “Coming into Language” Jimmy Santiago Baca Teacher materials: Sample QAR for “Coming into Language” Brainstorming—Handout for Teachers

1. Review QAR handouts with students, either Question-Answer Relationships (QARs) or Question-Answer Relationships Web. 2. Model QAR strategy with students and practice with a short piece of writing. 3. Hand out Baca’s “Coming into Language” or another text and read together. 4. Hand out QAR Practice graphic organizer and guide students through creating questions for each quadrant. 5. Refer to Sample QAR questions and compare/contrast with the questions students generate. 6. Introduce students to the personal narrative essay and ask them to generate as many questions as they can from the Own My Own section for narrative essay ideas. 7. See Brainstorming—Handout for Teachers for ideas on brainstorming strategies. Adapt to fit your needs. 8. Have students use On My Own questions to launch brainstorming for a narrative essay connected to Baca’s “Coming into Language” or another text. 9. Assessment and evaluation is based on completed QAR graphic organizer and list of brainstorming ideas for narrative essay. Prison Writing, PPS Summer Literacy Project, 2000 Read, Write, Think Lesson Plans, http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=232 Greece Central School District: Reading Strategies http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/612/Reading/Reading%20strategies/QAR.htm

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QAR Practice Directions: Think of some questions that could be answered from reading the text. Write at least three questions under each QAR heading.

In the Book—Right There

In My Head—On My Own

In the Book—Think and Search

In My Head—Author and Me

After each question write the answer in parenthesis

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Sample QAR for “Coming into Language” by Jimmy Santiago Baca Right There  What was the title of the book that JSB discovered at seventeen?  When was this essay written?  Which two places is he writing about?

Think and Search  What was Mr. Baca’s attitude about his lack of literacy skills?  Why did JSB adamantly refuse to work when in prison?  How did JSB fundamentally change when he was confined to maximum security?

Author and You  How are language and identity entwined for Mr. Baca?  How is literacy liberating for JSB?  Does deep transformation always require surviving a hellish experience?

On Your Own  What kind of support programs are available in prisons?  What are ways that people might feel constrained by social forces?  What social and/or cultural prisons restrict personal freedom?

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Prewriting Time spent on prewriting is essential. It is always tempting to spend less time on this part of the process, or to assign rather than guide prewriting, but the result tends to be student indecision or stall-out. There are as many ways of prewriting as there are bodies in the classroom. Teaching students a variety of brainstorming and prewriting techniques will provide them with a prewriting toolbox for future use. The following is a variety of approaches and their explanations from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center. The document is intended for a variety of writing genres, including essays, but many of these apply or can be adapted to narratives.

Brainstorming—Handout for Teachers Source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/brainstorming.html

Introduction If you consciously take advantage of your natural thinking processes by gathering your brain's energies into a "storm," you can transform these energies into written words or diagrams that will lead to lively, vibrant writing. Below you will find a brief discussion of what brainstorming is, why you might brainstorm, and suggestions for how you might brainstorm. Whether you are starting with too much information or not enough, brainstorming can help you to put a new writing task in motion or revive a project that hasn't reached completion. Let's take a look at each case: When you've got nothing: You might need a storm to approach when you feel "blank" about the topic, devoid of inspiration, full of anxiety about the topic, or just too tired to craft an orderly outline. In this case, brainstorming stirs up the dust, whips some air into our stilled pools of thought, and gets the breeze of inspiration moving again. When you've got too much: There are times when you have too much chaos in your brain and need to bring in some conscious order. In this case, brainstorming forces the mental chaos and random thoughts to rain out onto the page, giving you some concrete words or schemas that you can then arrange according to their logical relations. Brainstorming techniques What follows are great ideas on how to brainstorm—ideas from professional writers, novice writers, people who would rather avoid writing, and people who spend a lot of time brainstorming about…well, how to brainstorm. Try out several of these options and challenge yourself to vary the techniques you rely on; some techniques might suit a particular writer, academic discipline, or assignment better than others. If the technique you try first doesn't seem to help you, move right along and try some others. Freewriting When you freewrite, you let your thoughts flow as they will, putting pen to paper and writing down whatever comes into your mind. You don't judge the quality of what you write and you don't worry about style or any surface-level issues, like spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If you can't think of what to say,

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you write that down—really. The advantage of this technique is that you free up your internal critic and allow yourself to write things you might not write if you were being too self-conscious. When you freewrite you can set a time limit ("I'll write for 15 minutes!") and even use a kitchen timer or alarm clock or you can set a space limit ("I'll write until I fill four full notebook pages, no matter what tries to interrupt me!") and just write until you reach that goal. You might do this on the computer or on paper, and you can even try it with your eyes shut or the monitor off, which encourages speed and freedom of thought. The crucial point is that you keep on writing even if you believe you are saying nothing. Word must follow word, no matter the relevance. Your freewriting might even look like this: "This paper is supposed to be on the politics of tobacco production but even though I went to all the lectures and read the book I can't think of what to say and I've felt this way for four minutes now and I have 11 minutes left and I wonder if I'll keep thinking nothing during every minute but I'm not sure if it matters that I am babbling and I don't know what else to say about this topic and it is rainy today and I never noticed the number of cracks in that wall before and those cracks remind me of the walls in my grandfather's study and he smoked and he farmed and I wonder why he didn't farm tobacco..." When you're done with your set number of minutes or have reached your page goal, read back over the text. Yes, there will be a lot of filler and unusable thoughts but there also will be little gems, discoveries, and insights. When you find these gems, highlight them or cut and paste them into your draft or onto an "ideas" sheet so you can use them in your paper. Even if you don't find any diamonds in there, you will have either quieted some of the noisy chaos or greased the writing gears so that you can now face the assigned paper topic. Listing/bulleting In this technique you jot down lists of words or phrases under a particular topic. Try this one by basing your list either * on the general topic * on one or more words from your particular thesis claim, or * on a word or idea that is the complete opposite of your original word or idea. For example, if your general assignment is to write about the changes in inventions over time, and your specific thesis claims that "the 20th century presented a large number of inventions to advance US society by improving upon the status of 19th-century society," you could brainstorm two different lists to ensure you are covering the topic thoroughly and that your thesis will be easy to prove. The first list might be based on your thesis; you would jot down as many 20th-century inventions as you could, as long as you know of their positive effects on society. The second list might be based on the opposite claim and you would instead jot down inventions that you associate with a decline in that society's quality. You could do the same two lists for 19th-century inventions and then compare the evidence from all four lists. Using multiple lists will help you to gather more perspective on the topic and ensure that, sure enough, your thesis is solid as a rock, or, …uh oh, your thesis is full of holes and you'd better alter your claim to one you can prove. 77

Three perspectives Looking at something from different perspectives helps you see it more completely—or at least in a completely different way, sort of like laying on the floor makes your desk look very different to you. To use this strategy, answer the questions for each of the three perspectives, then look for interesting relationships or mismatches you can explore. 1. Describe it: Describe your subject in detail. What is your topic? What are its components? What are its interesting and distinguishing features? What are its puzzles? Distinguish your subject from those that are similar to it. How is your subject unlike others? 2. Trace it: What is the history of your subject? How has it changed over time? Why? What are the significant events that have influenced your subject? 3. Map it: What is your subject related to? What is it influenced by? How? What does it influence? How? Who has a stake in your topic? Why? What fields do you draw on for the study of your subject? Why? How has your subject been approached by others? How is their work related to yours? Similes In this technique, complete the following sentence: ____________________ is/was/are/were like _____________________.

In the first blank put one of the terms or concepts your paper centers on. Then try to brainstorm as many answers as possible for the second blank, writing them down as you come up with them. After you have produced a list of options, look over your ideas. What kinds of ideas come forward? What patterns or associations do you find? Clustering/mapping/webbing: The general idea: This technique has three (or more) different names, according to how you describe the activity itself or what the end product looks like. In short, you will write a lot of different terms and phrases onto a sheet of paper in a random fashion and later go back to link the words together into a sort of "map" or "web" that forms groups from the separate parts. Allow yourself to start with chaos. After the chaos subsides, you will be able to create some order out of it. To really let yourself go in this brainstorming technique, use a large piece of paper or tape two pieces together. You could also use a blackboard if you are working with a group of people. This big vertical space allows all members room to "storm" at the same time, but you might have to copy down the results onto paper later. If you don't have big paper at the moment, don't worry. You can do this on an 8 ½ by 11 as well. How to do it: 1. Take your sheet(s) of paper and write your main topic in the center, using a word or two or three. 2. Moving out from the center and filling in the open space any way you are driven to fill it, start to write down, fast, as many related concepts or terms as you can associate with the central topic. Jot them quickly, move into another space, jot some more down, move to another blank, and just keep moving 78

around and jotting. If you run out of similar concepts, jot down opposites, jot down things that are only slightly related, or jot down your grandpa's name, but try to keep moving and associating. Don't worry about the (lack of) sense of what you write, for you can chose to keep or toss out these ideas when the activity is over. 3. Once the storm has subsided and you are faced with a hail of terms and phrases, you can start to cluster. Circle terms that seem related and then draw a line connecting the circles. Find some more and circle them and draw more lines to connect them with what you think is closely related. When you run out of terms that associate, start with another term. Look for concepts and terms that might relate to that term. Circle them and then link them with a connecting line. Continue this process until you have found all the associated terms. Some of the terms might end up uncircled, but these "loners" can also be useful to you. (Note: You can use different colored pens/pencils/chalk for this part, if you like. If that's not possible, try to vary the kind of line you use to encircle the topics; use a wavy line, a straight line, a dashed line, a dotted line, a zigzaggy line, etc. in order to see what goes with what.) 4. There! When you stand back and survey your work, you should see a set of clusters, or a big web, or a sort of map: hence the names for this activity. At this point you can start to form conclusions about how to approach your topic. There are about as many possible results to this activity as there are stars in the night sky, so what you do from here will depend on your particular results. Let's take an example or two in order to illustrate how you might form some logical relationships between the clusters and loners you've decided to keep. At the end of the day, what you do with the particular "map" or "cluster set" or "web" that you produce depends on what you need. What does this map or web tell you to do? Explore an option or two and get your draft going! Journalistic questions In this technique you would use the "big six" questions that journalists rely on to thoroughly research a story. The six are: Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why?, and How?. Write each question word on a sheet of paper, leaving space between them. Then, write out some sentences or phrases in answer, as they fit your particular topic. You might also answer into a tape recorder if you'd rather talk out your ideas. Now look over your batch of responses. Do you see that you have more to say about one or two of the questions? Or, are your answers for each question pretty well balanced in depth and content? Was there one question that you had absolutely no answer for? How might this awareness help you to decide how to frame your thesis claim or to organize your paper? Or, how might it reveal what you must work on further, doing library research or interviews or further note-taking? For example, if your answers reveal that you know a lot more about "where" and "why" something happened than you know about "what" and "when," how could you use this lack of balance to direct your research or to shape your paper? How might you organize your paper so that it emphasizes the known versus the unknown aspects of evidence in the field of study? What else might you do with your results? Thinking outside the box Even when you are writing within a particular academic discipline, you can take advantage of your semesters of experience in other courses from other departments. Let's say you are writing a paper for an English course. You could ask yourself, "Hmmm, if I were writing about this very same topic in a biology course or using this term in a history course, how might I see or understand it differently? Are there varying definitions for this concept within, say, philosophy or physics, that might encourage me to think about this term from a new, richer point of view?"

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For example, when discussing "culture" in your English 101, communications, or cultural studies course, you could incorporate the definition of "culture" that is frequently used in the biological sciences. Remember those little Petri dishes from your lab experiments in high school? Those dishes are used to "culture" substances for bacterial growth and analysis, right? How might it help you write your paper if you thought of "culture" as a medium upon which certain things will grow, will develop in new ways or will even flourish beyond expectations, but upon which the growth of other things might be retarded, significantly altered, or stopped altogether? Using charts or shapes If you are more visually inclined, you might create charts, graphs, or tables in lieu of word lists or phrases as you try to shape or explore an idea. You could use the same phrases or words that are central to your topic and try different ways to arrange them spatially, say in a graph, on a grid, or in a table or chart. You might even try the trusty old flow chart. The important thing here is to get out of the realm of words alone and see how different spatial representations might help you see the relationships among your ideas. If you can't imagine the shape of a chart at first, just put down the words on the page and then draw lines between or around them. Or think of a shape. Do your ideas most easily form a triangle? square? umbrella? Can you put some ideas in parallel formation? In a line? Consider purpose and audience Think about the parts of communication involved in any writing or speaking event act: purpose and audience. What is your purpose? What are you trying to do? What verb captures your intent? Are you trying to inform? Convince? Describe? Each purpose will lead you to a different set of information and help you shape material to include and exclude in a draft. Write about why you are writing this draft in this form. Who is your audience? Who are you communicating with beyond the grader? What does that audience need to know? What do they already know? What information does that audience need first, second, third? Write about who you are writing to and what they need. Closing Armed with a full quiver of brainstorming techniques and facing sheets of jotted ideas, bulleted subtopics, or spidery webs relating to your paper, what do you do now? Take the next step and start to write your first draft, or fill in those gaps you've been brainstorming about to complete your "almost ready" paper. If you're a fan of outlining, prepare one that incorporates as much of your brainstorming data as seems logical to you. If you're not a fan, don't make one. Instead, start to write out some larger chunks (large groups of sentences or full paragraphs) to expand upon your smaller clusters and phrases. Keep building from there into larger sections of your paper. You don't have to start at the beginning of the draft. Start writing the section that comes together most easily. You can always go back to write the introduction later. Remember, once you've begun the paper, you can stop and try another brainstorming technique whenever you feel stuck. Keep the energy moving and try several techniques to find what suits you or the particular project you are working on.

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Writing – Using Student Models Providing and analyzing student and professional models is key in the writing process. It enables students to visualize a final product, to better understand expectations, to identify where the narrative writing skills exist in the models, and to articulate how these skills function as parts of a whole. After analyzing samples, students are able to weave these skills into their own writing and to identify these skills in the writing of peers. Students use color-marking to code the skills in the samples (see sample lesson below). They are then able to see where they exist and how they coexist. This color-marking should be accompanied by a discussion of how these elements function to support the narrative and the author’s purpose. If a text is your springboard into a narrative, a QAR, or other questioning strategy, can be used to help students discover connections between literature and life, and/or determine author’s purpose (See sample QAR lesson on “Coming Into Language” earlier in this section). In the Appendix, you will find student model papers from multiple prompts. Of course, when your stellar narratives come in, be sure to save a few for future modeling.

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SAMPLE LESSON: - Writing: Color Marking Narrative Samples

Literacy Strand(s):

Reading/Literature, Writing

Standard(s):

Standard 13 Narrative Writing Traits: Include sensory details and concrete language to develop plot and character. Use a range of appropriate strategies, such as dialogue, interior monologue, suspense, and narrative actions. Establish situation, point-of-view, conflict, and setting.

Overview:

Students use color-marking with student or professional samples to discover narrative elements and create a model for writing.

Grade Level(s):

6-12 9.13.6 Narrative Writing

Standard Descriptor(s):

Essential or Topic Question(s):

How does color-marking deepen comprehension of narrative elements and generate writing models? How do narrative elements work together to create an engaging, purposeful narrative?

Learning Objective(s):

Students will color-mark sample narratives to identify narrative skill elements and to analyze how they work together.

Assessment & Product:

Successful color-marking of samples with key. Discussion of how the elements work and how they work together to support the telling of the narrative.

Time Frame:

1-3 class periods

Resources & Materials Needed:

Handouts: Student Writing Samples Professional Writing Samples Narrative Criteria Sheet Materials: Colored pencils, pens, or multicolored highlighters

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Procedure:

Work(s) Cited/ References:

10. Distribute student and professional samples (photocopied) to individuals or groups. 11. Students will need 7 different colors or codes (numbers or circles, underlining, boxing in, etc.) and should make a key on the sample. 12. Read first sample once through with no marking. 13. Read first sample while students color mark. Begin by modeling for one element, such as dialogue. 14. Students can mark 1-2 elements per group and then share, or all students can mark all elements, or create groups of seven students in which each marks one element and then shares, etc., as long as in the end, everyone has a complete coded paper. 15. Look at each element to determine what it adds to the narrative. Discuss. 16. Think-pair-share or some other grouping. How do the elements coexist and work together? How do they support the author’s message and purpose? 17. Whole class ideas from pair-share – Gather on chart pack or other device. 18. Repeat with other samples. Continue to add to step 8’s ideas by layering and extending with these new models. 19. Students utilize these models as they write their drafts. 20. Students later color-mark their own narratives and peers’ narratives during the revision process. Reading, Writing, and Rising Up by Linda Christensen, Rethinking Schools, 2000. Teaching for Joy and Justice by Linda Christensen, Rethinking Schools, 2009.

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Writing -- Narrative Elements The writing skills developed during narrative writing include character description, setting description (and sensory details), dialogue and blocking, figurative language, interior monologue, and possibly flashback. The following handouts can be used with the student samples and with students’ drafts as they colormark and revise these elements in their writing.

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Introductions and Conclusions In addition to narrative elements, students learn how to begin and close a narrative using various techniques (anecdote, dialogue, shock or surprise, etc.), which will translate well to the writing of essays. As mentioned in the rationale, work on these elements of craft in writing enables students to better analyze these elements in literature.

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Sample Social Prisons Narrative Student Introductions The first two student samples below begin by moving from the general to the specific. They state a larger social issue and then personalize it by providing personal anecdotes and details. Note that they do not attempt to persuade the reader to feel a certain way, only state their experience. Social Prisons Through Clothing In society there are many restrictions that bound people to certain stereotypes or groups. For me, clothing is one of those restrictions. In the world I live in, materialism rules everyday life and everyone I know. There are only a few select people who I can honestly say are not affected with the materialistic “craze”. When I wake in the morning, I’ve always decided to wear whatever I felt like. Picking out clothes usually never requires much of a thought process because I generally don’t care (or try not to) what others think of my sense of “style”. I wouldn’t say I have a style because I wear any and everything. I don’t think that a person’s outward appearance should determine the content of their character. I believe that a personality has more lasting impression than a brand of clothing. The Burdens of Being Who I Am…A Girl For as long as I can remember, women have been limited by an infinite amount of stereotypes. These comments are used in jobs, sports, home life, etc. Even back in history, women were shackled to their homes because that’s where they supposedly “belonged.” Come to think of it, not many years have passed since we were first allowed to vote. Before that happened, our voices in political affairs were thought to be useless and unnecessary. I have always disliked seeing women who are completely dependent on men or their husbands. A couple of days ago my mom and I got into a ridiculous argument, all because I told her that I would never allow myself to become dependent on a male. The following example jumps right in to the personal experience, focusing on time when things changed for the writer. While the author doesn’t state the general issue, his experience is one most of us can relate to. Parents’ Expectations My social “prison time” began when I became a teenager. Everything changed for me. My mother always reminded me of what to do and what not to do, such as: don’t wear baggy clothes, come early to dinner, come straight home, and don’t talk to strangers. This always gives me a headache and I feel treated like I was ten when I’m really fifteen years old.

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Narrative Conclusions Only you know when your story is truly finished, but it is important that the narrative does end, rather than stopping in the middle and leaving your reader wondering. Narratives that drag on for too long, and those that don't resolve, leave the reader feeling uneasy, rather than satisfied. Think about plot structure when writing a narrative, especially the basics of exposition, climax, and in this case, resolution. A satisfying conclusion often stays with the reader and can make your story a memorable one. The following examples provide some models for closing your narrative. Try to write at least two different endings for your narrative to see which way works best with your story and style. Make a Connection: In this example, from "Social Imprisonment Through Clothing," the author shows us how her mother finds some balance between the “materialistic world” and her own sense of comfort and style. Then, the author leaves us with an idea of how she, too, will find balance. My mother, as she likes to tell me on occasion, used to be like me. She would wear anything and everything she liked. She didn’t care if it was a brand name or not, or if it was on the runways last month or ever. Eventually she moved to Texas and she says she had to abandon her flannels and wear slacks and shirts with three quarter sleeves. She traded in her sandals and flip flops for Franco Sarto heels. She says that living in a capitalistic world (she was a banker at the time) forced her to resort to a different lifestyle. Still, whenever my mom came home from a long day at work she would immediately kick off her heels and switch into grey sweats, and take her hair out of her clip. She felt most comfortable wearing casual informal clothing and I relate to her completely. Eventually I know I’ll have to change my clothing to better suit my environment, and that’s fine with me. I’d just like to know that I could indulge in a casual Friday every once in a while. For now, all my days are Fridays. Look to the Future: The example above also looks forward and the writer comments on the future. The following examples, from "Christmas Narrative" and "The Hunt of the Snipe" are further examples of this type of ending. ...The minute we were done, we threw away the torn paper into the garbage, then grabbed all of our things and started to open them and play with them. Even though this Christmas was only getting started, I couldn't wait until next year! This glorious tradition, no matter how tricky and devious, will continue to be a favorite among the boys of the church now and for future generations to come. And I will always be glad to see snipe season come along and watch another group of suckers fall for the nasty trick again and again. The Circular Ending: In this example the author circles back to the general idea of limitations on females in society. In her introduction she wrote, “...not many years have passed since we

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were first allowed to vote. Before that happened, our voices in political affairs were thought to be useless and unnecessary.” She opened with global concerns about women, then showed how she is affected by sharing her personal anecdotes, then concluded with a more global perspective about women in politics. I yearn for the day when we are liberated from all limitations we experience as females. A day when we have our first female president. Men have governed this country for too long and it's time for women to be on equal ground. Natural Event Ending: Sometimes there is a place in your story or event, at which it is natural to end. In the following sample from "I Can Fly", the writer ends his story when he falls into a medicated sleep after an injury and a trip to the hospital. Finally, after a day of pain, they had injected me with a sedative, to help me sleep, because I couldn't otherwise. I remember minutes before I went to sleep, my father had come rushing into my room in the hospital, having hurried there from the office, and he carried with him my favorite toy, one from a McDonalds Happy Meal. It was the purple guy in a small plastic car with the McDonalds logo on the side. I managed to generate a limp smile. Lightly taking the toy in my other arm, I rolled it up and down the scratchy bed sheets, which smelled like disinfectant. Most of all, I remember my father's and mother's tears as they left and the heavy curtain of sleep dropped over me.

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Sample Social Prisons Narrative Student Conclusions In this example, the author shows us how her mother finds some balance between the “materialistic world” and her own sense of comfort and style. Then, the author leaves us with an idea of how she, too, will find balance. From: Social Imprisonment Through Clothing My mother, as she likes to tell me on occasion, used to be like me. She would wear anything and everything she liked. She didn’t care if it was a brand name or not, or if it was on the runways last month or ever. Eventually she moved to Texas and she says she had to abandon her flannels and wear slacks and shirts with three quarter sleeves. She traded in her sandals and flip flops for Franco Sarto heels. She says that living in a capitalistic world (she was a banker at the time) forced her to resort to a different lifestyle. Still, whenever my mom came home from a long day at work she would immediately kick off her heels and switch into grey sweats, and take her hair out of her clip. She felt most comfortable wearing casual informal clothing and I relate to her completely. Eventually I know I’ll have to change my clothing to better suit my environment, and that’s fine with me. I’d just like to know that I could indulge in a casual Friday every once in a while. For now, all my days are Fridays. This author circles back to the general idea of limitations on females in society. Her conclusion becomes a restatement of her opinion on this issue. (Hint: When stating your opinion about your topic, be careful to stay away from persuasive writing.) From: The Burden Of Being Who I Am…A Girl I yearn for the day when we are liberated from all limitations we experience as females. A day when we have our first female president. Men have governed this country for too long and it’s time for women to be on equal ground. In this example, the author summarizes how he will attempt to deal with his “prison” of parental expectations. He restates his efforts to meet their expectations and to be the son they expect him to be. From: Parents’ Expectations They way I can change this is by having a conversation with both of my parents and explain to them that I will do whatever it takes so I won’t fall into drugs and gangs. Also, I have shown them that I try my best in school. My dad knows that I like to work hard when it is needed and will help them out in anything they want. When I have to take care of my little brothers I wait for my parents to come home so I can do my homework. Sometimes I try to do it when I am watching my brothers, but it’s too hard for me to work. If I don’t do my homework, I will have to work during lunch and make it up. I just want more free time to know how to take care of myself so I can be independent and “out of prison.”

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Revisions -- Active vs. Passive Voice One of the most common errors for the beginning writer is maintaining the active voice. The following is an sample mini lesson and tools to help students revise for the active voice.

Sample Lesson: Active and Passive Voice Practice Literacy Strand(s):

Reading/Literature, Writing

Standard(s):

Standard 9 Writing Traits: Communicate supported ideas across the subject areas, including relevant examples, facts, anecdotes, and details appropriate to audience and purpose that engage reader interest.

Overview:

Grade Level(s):

One of the most common errors for the beginning writer is maintaining the active voice. The following are sample lessons with vignettes to help students revise for the active voice.

6-12

Standard 9.12.4 Word Choice Descriptor(s): 9.12.5 Sentence Fluency Essential or Topic Question:

How do I determine when to use passive or active voice in my writing?

Learning Objective(s):

Students will analyze verbs to determine whether constructions rely on active or passive voice; draw conclusions about how to match active and passive voice to their writing situation; choose verbs (active or passive) appropriate for the audience and purpose of their writing.

Assessment & Product:

Students participate in provided vignettes, complete the activities in handouts, and peer edit and edit their own writing for passive voice.

Time Frame:

2-3 class periods

Resources &

 

Guidelines for “Vignette: Teaching the Passive Voice” Class set of Active and Passive Voice Guidelines Handout

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Materials Needed:

 

Procedure:

1. Review “Vignette: Teaching the Passive Voice” and consider doing one or both of the activities with students to warm up for more passive/active voice practice. 2. Give students first handout: Active and Passive Voice Guidelines. Review the definitions for active and passive voice. Have students swap papers of a draft in progress and peer edit following the directions for Try This #1 activity. 3. Make sure students note the Student Hint advice. 4. Give students second handout: Passive Voice with a Purpose and review the audience and purpose for passive voice. 5. Complete activities that are appropriate for the class. 6. Note the Application to Personal Writing section and have students apply this to their own writing.

Work(s) Cited:

Class set of Passive Voice with a Purpose Handout Student writing samples

ReadWriteThink.org “Vignette: Teaching the Passive Voice” http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson280/grammatically_vignette.html AVID High School Writing Guide

Extensions from Read Write Think Website http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=280 * Invite students to search for examples of passive voice in environmental literature (texts they find in their community or see and read every day). You might encourage students to check billboards, newsletters, church bulletins, pamphlets, and brochures that they find in their daily activities. Some texts will rely almost exclusively on active voice, such as instructions for shipping overnight packages in a brochure at the post office. It's likely that students will find some examples of passive voice, however, if they are observant. Passive voice is frequently used in park brochures, for instance (e.g., the rock paintings were discovered by settlers in the 1850s; . . . They were probably created by Native Americans for religious ceremonies). Take advantage of the opportunity to explore why a writer has chosen active over passive voice, and vice versa. * Students can explore a collection of documents that show how style changes over time. Ask students to compare the use of active and passive voice in historical documents (primary and secondary). As they explore the reasons for the verb choice in documents, you can explore the ways that changing social and cultural attitudes can affect the way that a sentence is written (Are passive sentences more likely to be used to distance a group from responsibility for an action?).

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Active and Passive Voice—Guidelines and Activities Active Voice The subject of the sentence—what or who it is about—does the action. SUBJECT PERFORMS ACTION When the subject performs the action, then the verb is in the active voice. Active voice keeps the writing more lively and interesting. Example: Scientists discovered that a major earthquake caused the deadly tsunami.

Passive Voice The subject of the sentence—who or what it is about—receives the action or is acted upon. SUBJECT RECEIVES ACTION When the subject receives the action, then the verb is in the passive voice. This makes writing more wordy and less interesting. Example: It was discovered by scientists that the deadly tsunami was caused by a major earthquake.

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Try This #1 1. Edit a paper for a peer.  Read the paper and identify all passive sentences.  Highlight all forms of the verbs “to be” and “to have.”  Working with the writer of the paper, identify a new subject for each passive sentence.  Help your peer to revise the sentences into active voice. 2. Find and copy a prose passage that uses forms of “to be” and “to have.”  Highlight all forms of “to be” and “to have.”  Reword the sentences, eliminating forms of “to be” and “to have.”  Make the subject of each sentence the doer of the action. Student Hint: “’to be’ or not ‘to be’” An easy way to limit the use of passive voice is to limit the use of forms of the verb “to be” and “to have.” Forms of “to be” be am being is been are

was were

Also, limit the use of forms of “to have.” Forms of “to have” Have has had

Source: AVID High School Writing Student Guide

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Passive Voice with a Purpose There are many times when passive voice may be the writer’s choice. Writers of new articles may employ passive voice to maintain objectivity and to keep their sources a secret. Writers of technical documents and scientific/psychological journals may rely upon passive voice to focus the subject of their papers. Writers of prose may choose passive voice to highlight important ideas and to manipulate their reader’s focus. Look at these two examples: Passive: Victims of the terrible flood were rescued by brave firefighters. Active: Brave firefighters rescued flood victims. The first sentence places the focus on the victims, while the second places the focus on the firefighters. It is possible that a writer may choose to use passive voice to place the focus on the victims of the disaster. Try This #2 1. Find and cut out a newspaper article that uses passive voice.  Determine why the writer chose to use passive voice.  What does it accomplish? 2. Find and copy a technical paper or an article from a scientific journal.  Identify five passive sentences.  Analyze the effects of usage of passive voice.  Convert two of the sentences into active voice.  How does this change the paper? 3. Find and copy a prose passage containing some passive sentences.  Study each example.  Why did the author choose passive voice?  Convert the sentences to active voice.  How does this affect the passage?

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Application to Personal Writing 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8.

Select a current piece of your writing. Identify all passive sentences. Underline the subject of each passive sentence. Determine the performer of the action. (NOTE: The performer of the action may not always be stated.) Highlight all forms of the verb “to be.” Highlight all forms of the verb “to have.” Determine if any of the passive sentences should remain passive to achieve a desired effect. Briefly explain your decision(s) in writing. (Revise all awkward, wordy sentences!) Reword the rest of the sentences using the performer of the action as the subject; remove all forms of the verbs “to be” and “to have.”

Convert These Sentences The following passive sentences require attention. Convert them to active voice. 1. Residents of Las Conchita were warned to leave everything behind and evacuate their homes. 2. Hundreds of boxes of cookies were sent to the soldiers serving in Iraq by the Girl Scout troops in Texas. 3. Citizens from around the world were thanked by government officials for making their generous donations to the victims of the disaster. 4. It was determined by researchers a long time ago that dinosaurs were probably made extinct by natural disasters. 5. All students were told to report to the football stadium whenever a certain bell was given.

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Beware the Unnecessary Shift Sometimes writers accidently shift from active to passive voice within the same sentence. Such unnecessary shifts make writing awkward and difficult to read. Example: Steve threw Bill to the ground, and then Bill was kicked and punched several times. In this sentence, the opening phrase Steve threw Bill to the ground is in active voice. Steve = Subject  Threw The second part of the sentence and then Bill was kicked and punched several times is in passive voice. Bill = Subject  Kicked and Punched Revision: Steve threw Bill to the ground and then kicked and punched him several times. Analysis: Steve is the subject of the entire sentence. The sentence is in active voice. Steve = Subject  Threw, Kicked, Punched Try This #3 1. Write five sentences in which you deliberately create an unnecessary shift in voice. 2. Trade papers with a partner. 3. Identify and correct the shifts in voice. All revised sentences should be in active voice.

Source: AVID High School Writing Guide

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Vignette: Teaching the Passive Voice To help students understand sentence structure, some teachers get physical. Here are two ways to dramatize the passive voice. I stand at one side of the room and throw my keys on the floor, telling the class to make me a sentence about what I just did and to begin the sentence with my name. I always get “Ms. Van Goor threw her keys on the floor.” I smile and write the sentence on the board. VG: Class: VG: Class: VG:

And the subject of the sentence is? Ms. Van Goor. Right! And the verb? Threw. Right again.

Now I pick up my keys and do the same thing again, but this time I tell them they must begin the sentence with The keys. It takes only a few minutes longer for them to get “The keys were thrown on the floor by Ms. Van Goor.” I write that sentence on the board also. VG: Class: VG: Class: VG: Class: VG: Class: VG: Class: VG: Class: VG: Class: VG:

And the subject is? The keys. Right! And the verb? (This takes longer, several tries, but eventually someone says it) Were thrown. Right. Now, in the first sentence, was the subject (I underline the subject once) doing what the verb (I underline the verb twice) described? Yes. Was the subject active, doing something? Yes. OK, how about the second sentence? Did the subject (I underline it once) do what the verb (I underline it twice) described? (much more slowly!) No-oWas the subject active, doing something? No-o-. Or was the subject passive, just sitting there letting something else do something to it? (very tentatively) Passive? Yeah. The subject didn't do anything, but somebody or something did something to the subject. I don't know why we call the verb “passive”; it's actually the subject that's sitting there passively letting something happen to it, but that's the way it goes. We say was thrown is a passive verb.

Another day, I use body diagramming. I call three students up to the front of the room and give them three slips of paper. Written on one is The new outfielder; on another, hit; and on another, the ball. Then I tell these three students to arrange

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themselves so that they make a sentence and that they must somehow interact with one another in so doing. They do fairly obvious things, the subject usually hitting the verb with enough force to bump the verb into the direct object. Then I call three more students up, keeping the first three in place. These three get The ball and was hit and by the new outfielder. I give them the same instructions. It takes the students a few minutes but they usually end up with the subject and verb students out front and the prepositional phrase student a step or two behind them, with a hand holding on to the verb. Then, with both groups of three “acting,” I ask the class to tell me the real difference in what’s going on up there. Someone will eventually get it: that the action goes to the right in one group and to the left in the other. If I then ask them to look only at the verbs in the two sentences and find a difference, someone will eventually notice that the passive verb has two words. And if that class has by then memorized all the do, be, and have verbs, I'll ask what family the helping verb belongs to and wait until someone recognizes the be family. If time allows, I get other sets of students up front and ask them to make up their own short sentences with active and passive verbs and rearrange themselves as necessary. We get lots of laughs—and students find out not only how to shift from one voice to the other but also how such shifts affect the meaning and flow of the sentence and how indispensable the be verb and the past participle are. —Wanda Van Goor

From Haussamen, Brock et al. Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers (NCTE, 2003), pp. 29-32. Source: http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=280

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Revisions – Tightening Writing

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Revisions – Peer Review and Editing SAMPLE LESSON: Writing a Peer Response Letter

Literacy Strand(s):

Reading/Literature, Writing

Standard(s):

Standard 9 Writing Traits: Adequately explore a topic and develop a thesis, providing connections and insights.

Overview:

Students swap drafts of their essays and write a twopage letter response to a partner’s paper.

Grade Level(s):

6-12

Standard Descriptor(s):

9.12.2 Provide details and examples to support ideas developed into separate paragraphs. 9.12.2 Engage readers with an interesting introduction or beginning, and offer a concluding, or ending, paragraph.

Essential or Topic Question(s):

What is memorable about my partner’s essay?

Learning Objective(s):

Students will write a peer response letter to help a partner revise writing.

Assessment & Product:

Successful completion of a two-page peer response letter.

Time Frame:

1 class period 

Each student will have a completed draft of the writing assignment to share.



Class set of Peer Response: A Letter handout.

Resources & Materials Needed:

Procedure:

7. Have students come to class prepared with a completed and legible draft of their essay. Prepare students to share a peer response in a

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letter format explain how the format encourages more personalized feedback. 8. Give students Peer Response: A Letter handout and have a model essay to review together as a class. Discuss with students how they might craft a letter about the model essay. 9. Focus the discussion on giving specific feedback and using direct comments from the writing. 10. Now have students swap with a partner and write the peer response letter.

Work(s) Cited:

Christensen, Linda. Teaching for Joy and Justice, 2009 Rethinking Schools, p. 146

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Peer Response: A Letter Your name: ____________________________________________________________ Partner’s name: _________________________________________________________ Today, find a partner. Swap papers. You will write at least a two-page letter in response to your partner’s paper. In order to keep writing, writers need to know what they are doing right, as well as what they need to revise. What is delightful, memorable, outstanding about this piece? What can you say to keep this writer writing? Make this your first paragraph. 1. Help your partner keep what’s working:  What essay criteria----introduction, thesis, transitions, evidence, analysis—are included in this essay? 

Discuss each one. Tell what worked in the essay.



You might include what you learned from the essay. What new insights did your partner discuss?



Also point out specific sentences you liked, what got you thinking. For example, you might say, “I really like your statement about how a person’s appearance should not determine the content of their character. It made me stop and think.” OR: “I love how you use the word ‘revel’ when discussing the source of your clothes and the cost of your shoes.”

In other words: Be specific. 2. Help your partner revise:  You might note if you got confused anywhere and needed more information. Sometimes writers leave out important information. Again, be specific about what confused you. 

What was missing from the essay? For example, “The opening statement is very general. Consider adding something more livelily to hook the reader.”



What needs to be added? For example, you might say, “Including transition words at the beginning of each paragraph would help it flow better.”



Point out where to get information: “Your statement about high school students basing their thoughts on others based on outward appearances is a strong opinion. Perhaps you could back it up with quotes from students who confirm this perspective.”

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From Linda Christensen’s Teaching for Joy and Justice

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Assessing the Narrative In Portland Public Schools, we have been trained to score papers using the CIM (Certificate of Initial Mastery) 6 trait rubric. Even as CIM demands have shifted, many of us feel most comfortable using a tool that is known. Others who have been trained in Advanced Placement work, use the AP rubrics, and over the last few years, we have been counseled to use a 4 point hybrid for our Common Assignments. Still others use a checklist or no rubric at all. The following is an attempt to illustrate possibilities for assessing narratives in your classroom, and the rationales behind these, so that you may choose what works best for your classroom. CIM Scoring Guide/Modified CIM Scoring Guide Several of my colleagues say that scoring narratives using the CIM scoring guide works for them. Some weight certain categories more than others (ie. ideas and content and word choice), while others use a holistic approach. The benefit of this method is that you are also able to use these narratives as work samples. The difficulty with this method, is that the scoring guide does not specifically address the narrative criteria, and unless the teacher adds specific comments in those areas, the student does not get specific narrative feedback. The official scoring guide can be found at the Oregon Department of Education website at the following address: http://www.ode.state.or.us/wma/teachlearn/testing/scoring/guides/200910/asmtwriscorguide0910eng.pdf. Criteria Checklist With this method, the teacher uses the same (or similar) criteria sheet that students used when writing and peer reviewing, and evaluates the narrative based on the successful inclusion of those elements. Often, a teacher will add the evaluation of conventions, sentence fluency, and/or MLA format to the assessment. Skills Based Grading With skills-based grading, the teacher focuses the grade on the narrative criteria, as above, only in this case, the student does not pass the essay unless all of the skills are demonstrated sufficiently. Some teachers using this method grade on a scale of A, B, C, I (Incomplete); while others use M (Meets), I (Incomplete); or A, I. This necessitates that the narrative scoring be broken down into its skill components and that students must be able to revise the incomplete components until passing. The teacher may add conventions components, but the level of skill required to pass depends on where you are in your year and how much instruction students have had in this area. For example, perhaps if it is the first paper of the year, students may be required only to master beginning and end punctuation, dialogue punctuation and paragraphing, and simple sentence construction. Hybrid Skills-CIM In this scenario, the paper is graded using some combination of rubrics. A teacher might require that the narrative meet all 4's on the CIM guide AND must demonstrate the ability to write the specific narrative criteria (punctuate dialogue and blocking, setting and character description, etc.).

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Student Samples: Narrative A powerful tool to help students improve their writing is to allow them the opportunity to read other students’ writing. The samples on the following pages are narratives written by PPS ninth graders.

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Parents’ Expectations My social “prison time” began when I became a teenager. Everything changed for me. My mother always reminded me of what to do and what not to do, such as: don’t wear baggy clothes,come early to dinner, come straight home, and don’t talk to strangers. This always gives me a headache and I feel treated like I was ten when I’m really fifteen years old. I have friends that tell me their parents don’t care about what they do or what time they get home. I sometimes wish I had parents who wouldn’t care about me that much. When I put myself to think about it, it is better to have parents than not have parents. My friends sometimes invite me to go places to have fun, but the thing is I never tell them that I will get grounded if I get home late. Instead I tell them that I have to do my homework and that I feel tired. I know they are not stupid enough to believe this because they know that we really don’t have homework. I just feel left out and lonely. At the same time they might think that I don’t want to hang out with them. I am embarrassed to tell them that my mom doesn’t want me to hang out in the street. She says it’s too dangerous, there are a lot of drugs out there, and there are gang related teenagers my age. I cannot imagine all of my friends passing this on to everyone else and telling everyone that I am treated like a ten year old. Or even worse, they might say that not even a ten year old is treated this bad. The reason why she began caring so much is when my cousin was shot when he was only seventeen years old. Since that day she waited until I became a teenager and all of this began. Sometimes she would come to school and pick me up to go home. She thinks something bad might happen to me. As soon as the bell rang I would run to the door making sure that my friends didn’t see me or talk to me. It is just a nightmare for me. Overall, it is not that I will fall into these bad steps, it’s just that I want to have fun. I want to see the world from my point of view and not theirs. I want to get to open my eyes more. When the time comes for me to make my own family I don’t want to have to wait for my parents to help me in everything I need. What they don’t ask themselves is who is going to take their place when they are gone. I might not know what to do on my own. So this is affecting me in a way that they will regret. They way I can change this is by having a conversation with both of my parents and explain to them that I will do whatever it takes so I won’t fall into drugs and gangs. Also, I have shown them that I try my best in school. My dad knows that I like to work hard when it is needed and will help them out in anything they want. When I have to take care of my little brothers I wait for my parents to come home so I can do my homework. Sometimes I try to do it when I am watching my brothers, but it’s too hard for me to work. If I don’t do my homework, I will have to work during lunch and make it up. I just want more free time to know how to take care of myself so I can be independent and “out of prison.”

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Social Prisons Through Clothing

In society there are many restrictions that bound people to certain stereotypes or groups. For me, clothing is one of those restrictions. In the world I live in, materialism rules everyday life and everyone I know. There are only a few select people who I can honestly say are not affected with the materialistic “craze”. When I wake in the morning, I’ve always decided to wear whatever I felt like. Picking out clothes usually never requires much of a thought process because I generally don’t care (or try not to) what others think of my sense of “style”. I wouldn’t say I have a style because I wear any and everything. I don’t think that a person’s outward appearance should determine the content of their character. I believe that a personality has more lasting impression than a brand of clothing. Because of my views, I usually wear things that are considered out of the mainstream. I wear jeans with rips and holes in them, as I don’t see the use in spending money on a pair of new ones when the material still covers all of my skin. I wear old Converse that have been written and graffitied on more than they should have. This, of course, leads many to make fun or crack jokes at my expense. It’s easy to ignore and I take pride in the fact that my entire outfit didn’t cost a fortune, and that all of the proceeds went directly to a donation center (Goodwill). I wouldn’t know how to revel in knowing that my outfit just came straight from L.A., or that my shoes cost more than 150 dollars. People mostly always group me in a silly category such as the “punk”, “thrifty”, or “dirty kid” type and it doesn’t bother me. Comfort is the number one thing that matters most to me when choosing what to wear, and I don’t let anybody’s attitude get in the way of that. Even when my grandmother makes rude or sharp comments about my way of dress, I try to brush it off. I don’t understand why clothing has to do so much with the way one is perceived, but I don’t think I want to know. High school, especially, is a very critical place of social imprisonment and clothing is a very hot issue. In high school many people base their thoughts of others simply on their outward appearance. I believe concerns about clothing styles are one of the main obstacles to unity. If people could just put aside their clothing differences a lot more, we call could better themselves by truly getting to know each other and come together rather than stand apart. It’s insane to think that something as simple as clothing can dramatically alter a person’s life and attitude. I feel imprisoned by my clothing choices because lots of people don’t take the time to know the real me; they let my clothing speak for me. With a rip in my jeans they automatically think, “What a pity, she must be poor”, when it’s really a simple issue of comfort for me. Just last week I “changed” it up a bit and decided to wear a long, flowing skirt to school with a lacey top. I got many compliments and many people who don’t usually talk to me were all around me. This bothered me and made me want to change back to my usual jeans and sweatshirt. I wish that eventually it wouldn’t really matter what I’m wearing and that I could be appreciated for who I am. Nonetheless, the media influences us all, and as long as celebrity trends are lusted after, there won’t be equality through clothing. My mother, as she likes to tell me on occasion, used to be like me. She would wear anything and everything she liked. She didn’t care if it was a brand name or not, or if it was on the runways last month or ever. Eventually she moved to Texas and she says she 125

had to abandon her flannels and wear slacks and shirts with three quarter sleeves. She traded in her sandals and flip flops for Franco Sarto heels. She says that living in a capitalistic world (she was a banker at the time) forced her to resort to a different lifestyle. Still, whenever my mom came home from a long day at work she would immediately kick off her heels and switch into grey sweats, and take her hair out of her clip. She felt most comfortable wearing casual informal clothing and I relate to her completely. Eventually I know I’ll have to change my clothing to better suit my environment, and that’s fine with me. I’d just like to know that I could indulge in a casual Friday every once in a while. For now, all my days are Fridays.

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The Burdens of Being Who I Am…A Girl For as long as I can remember, women have been limited by an infinite amount of stereotypes. These comments are used in jobs, sports, home life, etc. Even back in history, women were shackled to their homes because that’s where they supposedly “belonged.” Come to think of it, not many years have passed since we were first allowed to vote. Before that happened, our voices in political affairs were thought to be useless and unnecessary. I have always disliked seeing women who are completely dependent on men or their husbands. A couple of days ago my mom and I got into a ridiculous argument, all because I told her that I would never allow myself to become dependent on a male. The argument on her part was completely absurd. What she said made no sense and was just out of the blue. One thing she said was, “Does that mean that you’re never going to get married because you are so against being dependent?” I responded with: “No, I’m simply trying to say that I don’t want to end up like so many females who were so dependent on their husbands, who after they left them had no idea about what to do. Oh my gosh mom I do plan on getting married someday, but I don’t plan on being a stay at home mom.” I guess she took this as an insult because she is a stay at home mom. There was, of course, a longer quarrel between us. I just don’t understand why she overreacted in the way that she did; personally I thought she was going to agree with me…I thought. Being a woman in my family is complete imprisonment. I am expected to do chores— no big deal, right? That includes cooking to perfection and being able to do a million things at once while balancing a tea cup on my head! In the meantime, while I’m in complete agony, my eleven-year-old brother is sitting on the couch, stuffing his face with food, and doing absolutely nothing to help out. When I do ask him for help he tells me that he can’t because it’s a woman’s job. I cannot believe what I am hearing. Already his mind has been poisoned by my family’s ways. Another annoying aspect of being a girl is that the guys have the liberty to leave and come back whenever they please. I, on the other hand, am not allowed such casual freedom. Don’t get me wrong, I would never want to change my gender, I simply wish that I didn’t need to go through all the burdens that I am put through because I am a girl. There are countless stories I’ve heard about women who sue men at their jobs because of the sexual harassment they’ve experienced. At the same time there are some women who use their appearance as an advantage to get further in life, or in their careers. Females are more likely to get raped than males; this fact makes it more impossible for me to “hang out” after school hours with my friends. I yearn for the day when we are liberated from all limitations we experience as females. A day when we have our first female president. Men have governed this country for too long and it’s time for women to be on equal ground.

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Narrative Resources Topic Personal narrative Details Organization Opening paragraphs Plot Rubric for narrative Prewriting Revising Story Patterns Elements of fiction

Write Source 89-128 97, 109 571 103 314-315 124-125 318 320 321 322

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Holt 78-85 155 79-80

78-80; 154-156 83-84 1041

Types of Assessments Most educators identify three main types of assessments that are designed for different purposes and are used in different ways to inform instruction. Diagnostic: these are intended to determine students’ current knowledge and skill levels and are often done at the beginning of a unit of study. These types of assessments are used to help teachers plan appropriate lessons and cooperative groups. A written diagnostic assessment in a math class preparing to study operations with fractions might ask students to write about what they already think they know about the concept. A teacher looking at the results of this type of assessment would know where s/he should spend more time preparing background or scaffolding lessons. Formative: these types of assessments are thought of as “assessments FOR learning instead of assessments OF learning.” In other words, both teachers and students should look at formative assessments as an opportunity to identify and reflect on what skills and knowledge have been gained and where improvement is still necessary. Focusing the “where am I now/where do I want to be/how do I get there?” series of questions is a way of understanding formative assessment. Students produce evidence of their learning or lack of understanding, and the teacher supports them in moving to the next level of understanding. A formative writing assessment in a health class might ask students to create a Public Service Announcement about the dangers of food-borne illnesses. When a teacher examines the results of this type of assessment, s/he will be able to target individual instruction for those who did not demonstrate their knowledge of food safety and help them students revise their thinking and perhaps give the project another try. Students, too, should have an opportunity to examine this formative assessment to reflect on their own learning of food safety and set goals for improvement. Formative assessments are given with the intent of providing specific feedback for improvement, and an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning. Summative: these are “final outcome” assessments normally given to describe a student’s skill and/or knowledge at any point in time, and often given at the end of an entire course of study. They are designed to measure a student’s overall mastery of an identified set of criteria. These are not designed to provide students with specific feedback for improvement, but are, rather, a “snapshot” of a student’s achievement. Teachers generally use summative assessments as one form of program evaluation to reflect on course syllabus, priority standards, and classroom materials. The statewide Direct Writing Assessment (DWA) is an example of a summative writing assessment.

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Understanding by Design The model that the curriculum writers used to develop the units that make up the bulk of this curriculum guide is Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. The central question of their text, and the work of this guide, is: “How do we make it more likely – by our design – that more students really understand what they are asked to learn?” (4). As writers involved in this curriculum guide, we have only skimmed the surface of the Understanding by Design model, but there are a few key terms that we tried to keep in the forefront of our minds: 1. Big Idea: is a “concept, theme, or issue that gives meaning and connection to the discrete facts and skills” (5). These are the ideas that offer students the value of their learning and helps us to prioritize what is most important in our discipline. 2. Desired results: these are the content and performance standards as identified by our “priority standards” and are the expected outcomes of the curriculum. 3. Assessment: these are the ways that we identify whether (and how well) the desired results are being achieved. This guide makes frequent use of “formative assessment,” as a way of measuring ongoing progress. “Assessment” refers to any method through which we collect evidence, and includes such classroom activities as observation, discussion, tasks, and projects. “Assessment” is not the same as “evaluation,” which tends to be summative in nature. So, before we began writing, we developed a three-stage planning template proposed by Wiggins and McTighe for each unit that guided the rest of our work by truly beginning with the end in mind. In summary, the three stages of the template are: 1. Stage 1 – Desired Outcomes: this starts with the priority standards address: the essential questions of the unit, what students will know and what they will be able to do by the end of the unit. 2. Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence: how will we know if our desired outcomes have been met? This section of the template includes a brief description of the Culminating Assessment of the unit as well as a list of other sources of evidence. 3. Stage 3 – The Learning Plan: how will we move students through the unit leading them to the desired outcomes. We wrote this section as a “Pathway” through the unit, with page numbers and priority standards, to help you to determine how best to plan your delivery. One other essential feature that found at the very beginning of every unit is a PreAssessment. This activity will help you to determine the current level of performance of your students in relation to the identified priority standards. Armed with this information, you will be able to best determine the most appropriate path for your students. On the following pages, you will see sample templates taken from the Understanding by Design text. The templates for the units of this guide appear on the first few pages of the each unit.

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Optional English 1-2 Diagnostic Assessment You may want to take a class period to give students a chance to take this diagnostic assessment, generated by the Holt Exam View Pro, early in the year to give you a quick sense of where your students are with specific reading and analysis skills. It is fully editable, so you can add, delete, or change questions.

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Grade Nine Diagnostic Multiple Choice Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question. Reading and Literary Analysis DIRECTIONS: Read the selection below, and answer the following questions. from My Grandma by Letty Cottin Pogrebin The trouble started when my friend Katy found Grandma’s false teeth floating in a glass on the bathroom sink. I guess I was so used to seeing them that I didn’t even notice them anymore. But Katy noticed. She shouted, “Yuuuck! Gross!” and started laughing hysterically, and pretending to talk to them and making them talk back. I had to get down on my knees and beg her to shut up so my grandmother wouldn’t hear and get her feelings hurt. After that happened, I started to realize there were a million things about Grandma that were embarrassing. Like the way she grabs my face in her palms and murmurs “Shaine maidl” which means “beautiful girl” in Yiddish. What would Katy say if she saw that! Or how Grandma always says her B’rachas before she eats. B’rachas are Hebrew blessings that thank God for things. All I can say is my Grandma must really be hungry because what she eats isn’t exactly worth a thank-you note. Chopped herring is gross enough but white bread soaking in warm milk could make a regular person throw up. And that’s just the problem. My friends are regular people. So when Katy or Jill or Angie are around, I have to worry about what Grandma’s going to do next. Once she took me and Jill out to Burger King, even though she doesn’t eat there herself because they don’t have kosher meat. Instead of ordering our hamburgers well done, she told the person behind the counter, “They’ll have two Whoppers well-to-do.” Jill burst out laughing, but I almost died. After a while, I started wishing I could hide my Grandma in a closet. It got so bad I even complained to my parents. My parents said they understood how I felt, but I had to be careful not to make Grandma feel unwelcome in our house. “She’s had a very tough life,” said my Dad. “Try to make the best of it,” said my Mom. I was trying, believe me, I was trying. Then, on Wednesday, something happened that changed everything. My teacher made an announcement that our school was going to be a part of a big Oral History Project. We were supposed to help find interesting old people and interview them about their lives so kids in the future will understand how things used to be. I was trying to think if I knew anyone interesting when Angie nudged me from across the aisle.

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“Volunteer your grandmother!” she whispered. “She’s interesting!” So that’s how I ended up here. The whole school is in the auditorium for a big assembly and I’m up here on stage interviewing my own Grandma. We have microphones clipped to our shirts and TV cameras pointed at us and a bunch of professors are standing off to the side in case I need help asking questions. Which I don’t. After all this time, nobody knows my Grandma’s stories better than I do. I just say the right thing to get her started. Like when I say “Grandma, why did you leave the Old Country?” she goes right into how the Nazis took over her town. I’ve heard all that before. But then she starts telling this incredible story that is brand new to me: “My parents, they sold all their furniture to buy passage to America. In the meantime, they hid me in a broken-down barn under a pile of straw. “Can you believe it?” Grandma says, looking right at me. “When I was only a little older than you are now, I was running from the Nazis. Me and my parents and my grandparents got into a big old ship, and people were getting sick during the trip and some of them even died. But we had a happy ending when we saw the Statue of Liberty.” While my Grandma talks, I see all my friends and teachers are listening to her as if she’s a great hero. And suddenly I feel so proud of my Grandma, I could burst. I can hardly wait to ask her the next question. “How did it feel when you saw the Statue of Liberty, Grandma?” “Very nice,” she says. “When that lady she held up her lamp for us to come in nice and safe, I knew everything would be okay. I knew it.” Next she talks about her life in America and I hear her saying something else that she never put in any of her stories before. She’s telling us that she loved her family very much, but she has to admit one thing: that she used to be ashamed of her grandmother. “For twenty years that woman was in this country, but she wouldn’t learn English, never,” says my Grandma about her Grandma. “Such a shame she was to me in front of my American girlfriends.” I can’t believe my ears. I feel a little stabbing pain in my heart. And right there on the stage I make a B’racha to thank God for never letting my Grandma know I was ashamed of her, too. From “My Grandma” by Letty Cottin Pogrebin from Free to Be. . .A Family by Marlo Thomas & Friends. Copyright © 1987 by Free To Be Foundation, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Free to Be Foundation. ____

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1. The narrator’s internal conflict regarding her grandmother is that she — a. secretly wants to be more like her grandmother b. wants her grandmother to love her but fears rejection c. is embarrassed by her grandmother’s words and actions d. worries that she isn’t living up to her grandmother’s expectations 2. The first half of the story serves mostly to — a. explain events leading up to the time of the assembly

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b. tell about Grandma’s experiences in the Old Country c. explain why the school is part of an Oral History Project d. predict how the narrator’s life will change after the assembly Read this sentence from the story. “I had to get down on my knees and beg her to shut up so my grandmother wouldn’t hear and get her feelings hurt.” What character trait does this reveal in the narrator? a. Bravery c. Bossiness b. Compassion d. Curiosity What experience of the narrator’s parallels an experience of her grandmother’s? a. They both hid from the Nazis. b. They both have false teeth. c. They were both ashamed of their grandmothers. d. They both crossed the ocean in a ship. What effect does the use of the first-person point of view have on the story? a. Readers see things only through Grandma’s eyes. b. Readers do not know the feelings of the characters. c. Readers see things only as the narrator’s friends see them. d. Readers learn the narrator’s private thoughts and feelings. What effect does Katy’s making fun of Grandma’s teeth have on the narrator? a. It makes her laugh at Katy. b. It makes her complain to her parents. c. It makes her ashamed of her grandmother. d. It makes her interview her grandmother. What did the Statue of Liberty symbolize to Grandma when she first saw it? a. Safety c. Courage b. Honor d. Pride What universal theme is revealed by this story? a. Honesty is the best policy. b. Volunteering to help offers many rewards. c. Family relationships are important. d. Good friends are very special. The author, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, was born in 1939 to a Jewish family in New York City. Which of the following statements about the story reflects her heritage? a. The narrator is ashamed of her grandmother. b. The grandmother has had a hard life. c. The grandmother tells stories about the Nazis invading her hometown. d. The narrator’s friends think her grandmother is interesting. The literal meaning of the word million is a specific number: 1,000,000. What is the figurative meaning of the word in “there were a million things about Grandma that were embarrassing”? a. Many c. A few b. Some d. None

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The following questions are not about the selection. Read and answer the questions. ____

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11. A word’s connotation, unlike its denotation, is based on — a. facts c. research b. feelings d. its root word 12. Chronological order is — a. the order in which objects are arranged in space b. the logical order in which ideas are presented c. a sequence that goes from question to answer d. the time order in which events happen 13. Irony occurs when there is — a. a comparison and contrast of viewpoints b. a complicated series of events c. a contrast between expectation and reality d. an unsatisfactory resolution 14. A flashback interrupts a story to — a. tell about something in the past c. explain who the characters are b. hint about what will happen later d. describe the time and place Reading Comprehension DIRECTIONS Skim or re-read the first selection below, carefully read the second selection, and answer the following questions. from My Grandma by Letty Cottin Pogrebin The trouble started when my friend Katy found Grandma’s false teeth floating in a glass on the bathroom sink. I guess I was so used to seeing them that I didn’t even notice them anymore. But Katy noticed. She shouted, “Yuuuck! Gross!” and started laughing hysterically, and pretending to talk to them and making them talk back. I had to get down on my knees and beg her to shut up so my grandmother wouldn’t hear and get her feelings hurt. After that happened, I started to realize there were a million things about Grandma that were embarrassing. Like the way she grabs my face in her palms and murmurs “Shaine maidl” which means “beautiful girl” in Yiddish. What would Katy say if she saw that! Or how Grandma always says her B’rachas before she eats. B’rachas are Hebrew blessings that thank God for things. All I can say is my Grandma must really be hungry because what she eats isn’t exactly worth a thank-you note. Chopped herring is gross enough but white bread soaking in warm milk could make a regular person throw up. And that’s just the problem. My friends are regular people. So when Katy or Jill or Angie are around, I have to worry about what Grandma’s going to do next. Once she took me and Jill out to Burger King, even though she doesn’t eat there herself because they don’t have kosher meat. Instead of ordering our hamburgers well done, she told the person behind the counter, “They’ll have two Whoppers well-to-do.” 139

Jill burst out laughing, but I almost died. After a while, I started wishing I could hide my Grandma in a closet. It got so bad I even complained to my parents. My parents said they understood how I felt, but I had to be careful not to make Grandma feel unwelcome in our house. “She’s had a very tough life,” said my Dad. “Try to make the best of it,” said my Mom. I was trying, believe me, I was trying. Then, on Wednesday, something happened that changed everything. My teacher made an announcement that our school was going to be a part of a big Oral History Project. We were supposed to help find interesting old people and interview them about their lives so kids in the future will understand how things used to be. I was trying to think if I knew anyone interesting when Angie nudged me from across the aisle. “Volunteer your grandmother!” she whispered. “She’s interesting!” So that’s how I ended up here. The whole school is in the auditorium for a big assembly and I’m up here on stage interviewing my own Grandma. We have microphones clipped to our shirts and TV cameras pointed at us and a bunch of professors are standing off to the side in case I need help asking questions. Which I don’t. After all this time, nobody knows my Grandma’s stories better than I do. I just say the right thing to get her started. Like when I say “Grandma, why did you leave the Old Country?” she goes right into how the Nazis took over her town. I’ve heard all that before. But then she starts telling this incredible story that is brand new to me: “My parents, they sold all their furniture to buy passage to America. In the meantime, they hid me in a broken-down barn under a pile of straw. “Can you believe it?” Grandma says, looking right at me. “When I was only a little older than you are now, I was running from the Nazis. Me and my parents and my grandparents got into a big old ship, and people were getting sick during the trip and some of them even died. But we had a happy ending when we saw the Statue of Liberty.” While my Grandma talks, I see all my friends and teachers are listening to her as if she’s a great hero. And suddenly I feel so proud of my Grandma, I could burst. I can hardly wait to ask her the next question. “How did it feel when you saw the Statue of Liberty, Grandma?” “Very nice,” she says. “When that lady she held up her lamp for us to come in nice and safe, I knew everything would be okay. I knew it.” Next she talks about her life in America and I hear her saying something else that she never put in any of her stories before. She’s telling us that she loved her family very much, but she has to admit one thing: that she used to be ashamed of her grandmother. “For twenty years that woman was in this country, but she wouldn’t learn English, never,” says my Grandma about her Grandma. “Such a shame she was to me in front of my American girlfriends.” I can’t believe my ears. I feel a little stabbing pain in my heart. And right there on the stage I make a B’racha to thank God for never letting my Grandma know I was ashamed of her, too.

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From “My Grandma” by Letty Cottin Pogrebin from Free to Be. . .A Family by Marlo Thomas & Friends. Copyright © 1987 by Free To Be Foundation, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Free to Be Foundation. Grandma Ling by Amy Ling

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If you dig that hole deep enough, you’ll reach China, they used to tell me, a child in a back yard in Pennsylvania. Not strong enough to dig that hole, I waited twenty years, then sailed back, half way around the world. In Taiwan I first met Grandma. Before she came to view, I heard her slippered feet softly measure the tatami* floor with even step; the aqua paper-covered door slid open and there I faced my five foot height, sturdy legs and feet, square forehead, high cheeks and wide-set eyes; my image stood before me, acted on by fifty years. She smiled, stretched her arms to take to heart the eldest daughter of her youngest son a quarter century away. She spoke a tongue I knew no word of, and I was sad I could not understand, but I could hug her.

10. tatami n. used as adj.: floor mat woven of rice straw. “Grandma Ling” by Amy Ling. Copyright ©1980 by Amy Ling. Originally published as “Grandma” in Bridge: An Asian American Perspective, vol. 7, no. 3, 1980. Reproduced by permission of Gelston Hinds.

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15. Both the short story and the poem — a. have a similar theme b. explicitly state their main ideas c. give facts and examples to support their statements d. contain the same elements as a news story

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16. The narrator of “My Grandma” and the speaker in “Grandma Ling” both — a. are embarrassed by their grandmothers c. finally appreciate their grandmothers b. complain about their grandmothers d. don’t know their grandmothers 17. What does the speaker in “Grandma Ling” mean when she says “my image stood before me”? a. She stood in front of a mirror. c. She imagined she was in two places. b. Her grandmother looks like her. d. She cast a shadow on the wall. 18. What do the two settings in the poem “Grandma Ling” tell you about the speaker’s heritage? a. She is an American with a Chinese background. b. She originally came from China. c. She has learned to speak Chinese. d. She wants to move to Taiwan. 19. In what way is the tone of the story different from that of the poem? a. The story is serious; the poem is funny. b. The story is humorous; the poem is sentimental. c. The story is sorrowful; the poem is joyous. d. The story is joyous; the poem is tragic. 20. What recurring theme do the story and poem share? a. Family members can be so c. Love can overcome great differences. embarrassing. b. Grandparents have a lot to teach us. d. It is good to come from a large family. 21. The ending of “My Grandma” is mixed with the sadness of the grandmother and granddaughter both remembering their feelings of shame. What sadness touches the ending of “Grandma Ling”? a. The great distance between the relatives b. The inability to communicate c. The grandmother and granddaughter’s age difference d. The grandmother’s illness Reading Comprehension DIRECTIONS Read the selection below, and answer the following questions. Exploring the Night Sky Stargazing can be a fascinating hobby. The wonders of our universe are waiting to be observed in the night sky, but our eyes are not powerful enough to capture the light necessary to see these objects fully. Telescopes are designed to collect an amount of light many times greater than the amount the naked eye can gather. A variety of telescopes are available for use, but choosing the right type is essential. Before choosing any telescope, keep in mind that the aperture, the diameter of the main lens or mirror, is the most important characteristic to consider. The larger the aperture, the more light it collects, and the brighter and sharper the images you see will be.

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People can choose from three basic types of telescopes: the refractor, the reflector, and the catadioptric. The oldest and most common telescope available is a refractor telescope. The refractor uses a big lens at the front to bend, or refract, light to a focus. First-time stargazers frequently purchase refractors because they provide crisp images and are ideal for viewing the moon and other planetary objects. These amateurs are also attracted by the fact that refractors require little maintenance and have tight seals to keep dust off of the lenses. However, refractor telescopes have disadvantages as well. Because refractors often have smaller apertures than other types, they fail to collect enough light to allow viewing of deep-space objects outside our solar system. Also, slight imperfections in the refractor’s lenses can cause chromatic aberration, a faint-colored halo or prismlike color error. Good-quality refractors can also cost more per inch of aperture than other kinds of telescopes. Another popular type of telescope available is commonly called a reflector. A reflector telescope uses a large curved mirror instead of a lens to gather and focus light. Reflectors are often purchased because they provide the most features in relation to cost. These simple yet high-quality telescopes deliver bright images and are ideal for viewing deepsky objects such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. Reflectors have some drawbacks, however; they are somewhat fragile, and they require regular maintenance for the best possible images. The most recently developed telescope available is the catadioptric, or compound, telescope. The catadioptric telescope uses both lenses and mirrors to gather and focus light in a compact tube. People usually purchase catadioptric telescopes because they are compact and less difficult to use than other telescopes—not because of improved visual performance. Some have special options such as advanced tracking and electronics that allow users to locate sky targets reliably. However, a catadioptric costs more than a reflector of the same aperture, its focusing mechanism can be imprecise, and its scope can be taken apart only by the manufacturer. If none of these telescopes is a possibility, no need to worry: Backyard astronomers still have tools available to assist in exploring the night sky. You might already own a piece of equipment that many astronomers insist on using to begin their nightly sightseeing tours. A simple pair of binoculars can open up a universe of unseen images to you, such as the craters of the moon and some of the satellites of Jupiter. The viewing possibilities are truly astronomical. ____

22. Any of the following questions could lead to further research on the topic discussed in this article except — a. Who invented the telescope? b. What is the farthest object seen by a telescope? c. How much does each type of telescope cost? d. How often are telescopes used in fighting crime?

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23. Which of the following would be the best source of information about the cost of the telescopes described in the article? a. A book on various constellations c. A catalog from a store selling telescopes b. A magazine article on large telescopes d. An online site about astronomy 24. From the information given on each type of telescope, you can conclude that telescope purchases should be based mainly on — a. clarity of images c. the user’s priorities b. cost of the telescope d. maintenance requirements 25. Which statement is the most accurate evaluation of the information in the article? a. The author presents a balanced view of the features of the three types of telescopes. b. The author presents biased information that favors one type of telescope over the others. c. The author offers facts, but they cannot be verified by checking in other sources. d. The author offers information that is not relevant to choosing a good telescope. 26. In the first sentence the author uses the word stargazing instead of astronomy probably because it has — a. a more serious connotation c. the opposite meaning b. a more friendly connotation d. the same denotation 27. The ideas in paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 are arranged mainly to show — a. steps in a process c. advantages and disadvantages b. problems and solutions d. opposing sides of an argument 28. The planet Jupiter is named after — a. a Roman god c. a sports car b. a candy bar d. an astronomer 29. The text defines catadioptric as — a. refractor c. aperture b. reflector d. compound 30. The last word of the article, astronomical, is used in two ways: in both its literal sense, meaning “having to do with astronomy,” and a figurative sense, meaning — a. “full of stars” c. “very small” b. “extremely large” d. “astounding”

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Vocabulary DIRECTIONS Choose the word or group of words that means the same, or about the same, as the underlined word. Then, mark the answer you have chosen. SAMPLE To prolong something is to — A. erase it B. extend it C. desire it D. replace it Correct answer: B ____

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31. Someone who is imprudent is — a. modest b. unwise 32. An obstruction is a kind of — a. confession b. reward 33. To condone something is to — a. overlook it b. punish it 34. Someone who is impartial is — a. noble b. friendly 35. Retribution is another word for — a. respect b. loyalty 36. Something that is diverting is — a. entertaining b. reassuring

c. dignified d. mischievous c. examination d. barrier c. admire it d. regret it c. unbiased d. fearless c. protection d. punishment c. appropriate d. infuriating

Vocabulary DIRECTIONS Read each sentence. Then, choose the answer in which the underlined word is used in the same way. Mark the answer you have chosen. SAMPLE He moved his lips, but he did not make a sound. A My doctor says I am in sound health. B The soldier will sound the alarm if he sees the enemy. C We could hear the sound of the distant bells. D Our plan is based on sound reasoning. Correct Answer: C

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37. It will take courage to tackle that problem. a. Let’s grab our fishing tackle and go to the lake. b. It’s a difficult job, but someone must tackle it. c. The movers used a tackle to lift the heavy piano. d. The tackle positioned himself between the guard and the end. 38. A thicket of snarled vines kept us from going forward. a. His matted and snarled hair was difficult to comb. b. “Get out of my way!” the rude salesclerk snarled. c. The threatening dog snarled at me and bared his teeth. d. I’m afraid I’ve snarled a once simple plan. 39. We tried to peer through the dense fog. a. The British peer took his seat in the House of Lords. b. That woman is a peer of mine from medical school. c. Members of my peer group will review my essay. d. As I peer into the microscope, I see the minute organisms. 40. Through the thick clouds a small patch of blue sky could be seen. a. I stitched a patch onto my torn jacket. b. A patch of snow remained on the grass. c. The telephone operator will patch your call through to me. d. The patient absorbed antibiotics through a patch on his skin.

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Grade Nine Diagnostic Answer Section 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS: ANS:

C A B C D C A C C A B D C A A C B A B C B D C C A B C A D B B D A C D A B A D B

OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ: OBJ:

9.1.4.1 (characterization) 9.1.1 (plot) 9.1.4.1 (characterization) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.2.1.2 (Identifying cause and effect) 9.2.1.2 (Identifying cause and effect) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.1.6 (theme) 9.1.8.1 (literary criticism: biographical approach) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.4 (denotation and connotation) 9.1.2 (time and sequence) 9.1.7.10 (irony) 9.1.2 (time and sequence) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.2.1.11 (making inferences) 9.2.1.4 (drawing conclusions) 9.1.7.19 (tone) 9.1.6 (theme) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.2.1.21 (generating research questions) 9.2.1.22 (researching questions / information using sources) 9.2.1.4 (drawing conclusions) 9.2.1.9 (evaluating and making judgments) 9.2.1.11 (making inferences) 9.2.2.11 (Sequence of information) 9.2.1.13 (monitoring your reading or comprehension) 9.3.3 (context clues) 9.3.6 (figurative meanings of words and phrases) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.14 (synonyms) 9.3.10 (multiple meanings) 9.3.10 (multiple meanings) 9.3.10 (multiple meanings) 9.3.10 (multiple meanings)

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