Standards

1.A Identify and describe what specific textual details reveal about a character, that character’s perspective, and that character’s motives.

1.B Explain the function of a character changing or remaining unchanged.

1.C Explain the function of contrasting characters.

1.D Describe how textual details reveal nuances and complexities in characters’ relationships.

1.E Explain how a character’s own choices, actions, and speech reveal complexities in that character, and explain the function.

Subskills

• Characters develop through dialogue, actions, and descriptions (1.A)

• Characters embody real-life values (1.A)

• Characters have perspectives shaped by their interactions with others (1.A)

• Characters show biases through their thoughts and actions (1.A)

• Narrators impact how we encounter characters (1.A)

• Dynamic and static characters (1.B)

• Characters use agency to make meaningful decisions (1.A)

• Foil Characters (1.C)

• Epiphanies (1.D)

• Tragic hero and tragic flaw (1.D)

• Analyze minor characters (1.C)

Standards

2.A Identify and describe specific textual details that convey.

2.B Explain the function of setting in a narrative.

2.C Describe the relationship between a character and a setting.

Subskills

• Setting can display values (spring = renewal) (2.B)

• Settings may be characters (2.C)

• Setting includes social, cultural, and historical factors (2.A)

• Setting shapes the mood, tone, and atmosphere (2.B)

• Pathetic Fallacy: setting matches the psychological state of a character (2.C)

• Contrasting settings (2.C)

• Romantic vs. Realistic

Standards

3.A Identify and describe how plot orders events in a narrative.

3.B Explain the function of a particular sequence of events in a plot.

3.C Explain the function of structure in a text.

3.D Explain the function of contrasts within a text.

3.E Explain the function of significant event or related set of significant events in a plot.

3.F Explain the function of conflict in a text.

Subskills

• Parts of a plot (3.A)

• Tensions arises between characters creating conflict (3.F)

• Unresolved endings contribute to meaning (3.F)

• Unexpected twists bring a resolution to conflicts (3.D/F)

• Lines and stanzas (3.C)

• Textual Juxtaposition (3.D)

• Suspense is built in lead up to a conflict (3.B/E)

• Conflict/tension can be internal or external (3.B)

• Inconsistencies show a conflict of values and perspectives (3.F)

• Archetypal stories (3.A)

• Open and closed-form poetry (3.C)

• Foreshadowing, in medias res, and flashback (3.A/B)

• Parallel plots (3.A/D)

• Narrative pacing evokes an emotional response (3.B)

• Frame Story (3.A/B)

• Repetition and incongruities (3.D)

• Irony (3.D)

• Paradox, antithesis, oxymoron (3.D)

• Suspense and Catharsis (3.F)

• Anachromism, antecedent, invisible character

Standards

4.A Identify and describe the narrator or speaker of a text.

4.B Identify and explain the function of point of view in a narrative.

4.C Identify and describe details, diction, or syntax in a text that reveal a narrator’s or speaker’s perspective.

4.D Explain how a narrator's reliability affects a narrative.

Subskills

• 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person and their effect on the story (4.A/B)

• Narrator’s perspective shapes their telling of a story (4.B)

• Narrative distance (4.B)

• Stream of consciousness (4.B)

• Narrator’s choice of words reveal bias and perspectives (4.C)

• Reliability of a narrator (4.D)

• Fourth wall and asides (4.A)

• Alternate personas (4.B)

• Personas and chorus

• Shift in perspective and multiple points of view

Standards

5.A Distinguish between the literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases.

5.B Explain the function of specific words and phrases in a text.

5.C Identify and explain the function of a symbol.

5.D Identify and explain the function of an image or imagery.

Subskills

• Antecedent and referents (5.B)

• Alliteration (5.B)

• Ambiguous referents (5.B)

• Hyperbole (5.B)

• Motif (5.D)

• Allegories (5.C)

• Settings and Characters as symbols (5.C)

• Ambiguity

Standards

6.A Identify and explain the function of a simile.

6.B Identify and explain the function of a metaphor.

6.C Identify and explain the function of personification.

6.D Identify and explain the function of an allusion.

Subskills

• Extended metaphors (6.B)

• Personification (6.C)

• Allusion (6.D)

• Conceit and allusion

• Prosopopoeia and apostrophe (6.C)