Aim: How can active reading be applied to interpret writers' choices that
create a narrative voice?
Do Now:
What does it mean to you when you hear the phrase: "to come of age"?
This lesson started off with a class discussion about what it means to come of age. Our answers varied, but they all had a similar concept, maturity(both physically and mentally).
The Double-Entry Journal
In preparation for the passage and main portion of the lesson, we learned about note taking strategies and in particular the double entry journal. The double entry journal is a way of actively reading a text, a way to share our thoughts while reading a certain excerpt. It is a way to trace the character's development.
We then watched a video about Narrative Voice, in the video, we learn about choices the writer makes, the main one being the perspective in which the story is being told, first,
second, and third person.
After watching the video, we used a double entry journal to analyse a short except from the book Speak.
The story was about a girl, who we can assume is coming of age, she is in highschool and we get her twisted, skewed perspective on what is happening in her life. We then got into groups, wrote about 4 things that stuck out to us, and commented on our partner’s writings.
“The book says…” | I say… | Comments from your partner Partner’s Name: zihan lin |
It is easier not to say anything. . . . . Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.
| I dislike this part because I’ve thought about this a lot and it is sad to see. This mindset is horrible and I experienced it when I was in 5th grade, I still have it today and I don’t share much with anyone. | I agreed on this since when I first came to America I am the one in class who doesn’t know anything, classmates just make fun of me since I don’t know how to speak English and no one knows what I have to say. |
“I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you. . . . No more warnings. You just earned a demerit for wandering the halls without a pass.”
| This part really makes me angry at Mr. Neck because he didn’t even try to figure out what was happening, he was inconsiderate of the new student’s situation, but still punished her. | I sometimes just wonder why some people just don't know what is really going on and just say that someone is wrong. Similar to social media when someone did something that someone seems wrong and posted on social media and that person just has no justice since he is being cyber bullied for people only seeing the bad side and having theories about what happened and not to understand what really happened. |
I could sit across from her. Or I could crawl behind a trash can. Or maybe I could dump my lunch straight into the trash and keep moving right on out the door.
| I can relate to the protagonist because I really do not want to interact with anyone, especially strangers, I think that by bring myself into their life, I am ruining it, so it is better to just mind your own business and not interact with anyone. | I personally don't like to make friends since I experienced something that made me don’t want to meet new friends. So I just don’t interact with strangers. Only if they come up to me and try to make friends with me. If I feel like they are trying to get something else from me I will just ignore them. |
I know enough not to bring lunch on the first day of high school. There is no way of telling what the acceptable fashion will be. Brown bags—humble testament to suburbia, or terminal geek gear? Insulated lunch bags—hip way to save the planet, or sign of an over involved mother?
| The feeling of facing something unknown is something everyone has to face and I did as well in middle school. I was told it would be completely different and I believed it, my friends weren’t going to the same school and it was unpleasant to say the least. | Something unknown is sometimes really scary for me since it makes me fear. But some people that are adventurous will go for the unknown. So it depends on your personality, so I can infer that Melinda is shy. |
To conclude the lesson, we had an individual activity, we had to choose 3 quotes and answer 2 bullets(listed below).
Summary
I thought the lesson flowed well and everything we learned could be applied to something else in the lesson. The concept of coming of age is present in the excerpt from Speak, where the main character is doing just that. The turmoil and changes she has gone through shapes her view of the world, the main character has changed, before she would talk back, but eventually she decided that staying silent was the better choice. We utilized the double entry journal to document this.
Reflection
In this lesson, I learned what a double entry journal is and how to utilize it to track how a character’s progression. We summarized the last lesson and used it to assist our double entry journal. The double entry journal is one of the main takeaways from this lesson and we will definitely use it in the future, the journal’s main use is to track the development of characters and during the hero’s journey, faced with countless adversities, we will see character development and this note taking strategy will help immensely. The other part of the lesson, narrative voice is an essential part of any story and we might use it to identify the author’s purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment