Print this OPTIONAL Data Response Sheet
and use to answer the questions for Task 4 and pre-plan for designing the
writing
lessons that go with the literature:
Title of Book:
______________________________________
1. Is the book
narrative or expository text?
2. What issues in the book are worthy of discussion?
3. What issues allow for personal reflection and
response?
4. What is the author's style of writing?
5. What story elements do all
readers need to understand for deep comprehension of this particular story/text?
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Story Elements |
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Characters
We learn to know characters by their appearance, words, actions,
thoughts, and the opinions of others about them. Round
characters have many traits, flat characters have limited
development. Stereotypes and foils serve as
background characters. Central characters are round;
they may or may not change, but any change must be convincing.1 |
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Plot
Plot is the sequence of events showing characters in action.
The plot should produce conflict, tension and action.
Narrative order is the order in which events are related. Conflict
occurs when the protagonist struggles against an antagonist
(opposing force). A story may involve a combination of
conflicts. Conflict of any kind grows out of character. Suspense,
the emotional pull that keeps us wanting to read on, involves us in
conflict up to the climax in the final pages. Dropping clues
about the outcome without destroying suspense is called foreshadowing.
Unrelieved suspense is called sensationalism. The climax
is the peak and turning point of the conflict, the point at which we
know the outcome of the action. The denouement begins
at the climax, at the point where we feel that the protagonist's
fate is known. From here the action of the plot is also called
the falling action.1 |
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Theme
Theme is literature in the idea that holds the story
together. It is the main idea or central meaning of a piece of
writing. Explicit themes are stated by the author
openly and clearly. Implicit themes are also inherent
in many stories. A good story is not meant to instruct us; it
gives us insight into people and how they think and feel, and
enlarges our understanding. Literature does not teach; it
helps us understand. Didacticism occurs when
information or instruction in a book displaces the understanding.1 |
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Setting
Setting involves time and place. Integral settings are
when an action, character, or theme are influenced by the time and
place. In an integral setting the writer must describe it in
concrete details, relying on sensory pictures and vivid comparisons
to make the setting so clear that the reader understands how this
story is closely related to this particular place. In backdrop
settings the setting is generalized and universal.1 |
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Point of View
Whose view of the story the writer tells determines the point of
view. Point of view is determined when the writer chooses who
is to be the narrator and decides how much the narrator is to know.1 |
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Style
Style is basically words ... how an author says something as
opposed to what he or she says. Style increases not
only our pleasure in words and sounds, but our belief in the
characters' reality. Style is not something applied to a
finished piece of writing; rather, it is the writing, conveying both
the idea and the writer's point of view of the idea. Connotation
is the associative or emotional meaning of a word. Denotation
is the dictionary meaning of a word. Imagery is the appeal to
any of the senses; it helps create setting, establish a mood, or
show a character.1 |
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Tone
Tone in literature tells us how the author feels about his or
her subject. The author's style conveys the tone in
literature. Tone is the author's attitude toward story and
readers. Parody relies on the reader's memory of a
known piece of writing or of a way of talking. Tone is the
effect of the writer's words. Distanced tone
occurs in folktales because the reader is dispassionate with the
events and in their reality. Didacticism, or preaching,
is expected in sermons and textbooks, not in literature. Some
writers vary the tone as the situation in the story
changes. |
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4