Saturday, September 13, 2008

Book-of-the-Month Club Assignment

Book-of-the-Month Club Assignment

You need to have your Book-of-the-Month read by September 25 for B-Day students and by September 26 for A-Day students. Be prepared to bring it to class this day and/or on the next class period. We will be doing an assessment on the book.

Watch for these aspects (Literary Elements) of your book:
What are the time and and place of the setting of your book? What do you find out about this in the exposition?
Who are the main characters? What does the narrator tell us about them -- about their ., thoughts, words, speech patterns, and actions?
Who is the narrator of the book? Who is telling the story?
What is the point of view of the narrator?
What conflicts do you find in the book? What is the main conflict?
See September 9/10 for the types of conflict. Notice which types are in your book, and notice examples of those types.

We've already been learning about conflict. Here is some information on point of view:

Point-of-view
What is it?
The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.


1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses "I")

3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters. He or she limits information to what one character sees and feels.

3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know" and describe what all characters are thinking.

A second person point of view is a story that is told from the perspective of "you." It is much less common than first and third. Do you remember children's books like the "Animorphs" series or the "Choose Your Own Adventure" tales? They went something like this: "You turn, and standing there before you is a wolf. You have to decide to approach it or run away."

Here's a handy key for you:

First person: I
Second person : You
Third Person: He, She, They

[adapted from definitions found at http://www.enotes.com/literary-terms/q-and-a/what-second-person-point-view-2208
and http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2715.html ]

Links to the State Core:
Standard 1 Objective 1.3 (Comprehension of Literary Text): Comprehend literature by evaluating the contribution to meaning of several literary elements within a work of literature.
a. Identify narrative plot structure -- in this case, exposition and conflict (rising action. . . .)
b. Describe a character’s traits as revealed by the narrator (e.g., thoughts, words, speech patterns, and actions).
d. Identify descriptive details and imagery that establish setting.