Aug 27

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:

• SET1.A- Setting includes the time and place during which the events of the text occur.
• FIG-1.X When a material object comes to represent, or stand for, an idea or concept, it becomes a symbol.
• FIG-1.Y A symbol is an object that represents a meaning, so it is said to be symbolic or representative of that meaning. A symbol can represent different things depending on the experiences of a reader or the context of its use in a text.
• FIG-1.AH Symbols in a text and the way they are used may imply that a narrator, character, or speaker has a particular attitude or perspective.
• FIG-1.AB A setting may become symbolic when it is, or comes to be, associated with abstractions such as emotions, ideologies, and beliefs.

Agenda:

IPN Review: What did you write for A & P?

Notes on Thesis:

• Thesis can go anywhere but should be easily identifiable (ideally in the first body paragraph).
• Thesis could be two sentences.
• Thesis point reads: "Responds to the prompt with a defensible thesis that presents an interpretation and may establish a line of reasoning."
  • Part 1: Responds to prompt
  • Part 2: establishes a line of reasoning/interpretation that is defensible
• What is a MOTWAAW?
  • (like a theme).
  • This should be built from the beginning of the text to the end. It can't just be in one spot. There might be an illuminating place that reveals the MOTW, but the MOTW should not ONLY be found in one place.
• In your IPN: Based on your thesis for your IPN, what is the MOTWAAW for "A & P?"
• Literary Journey: One more model, rubric review. Questions? Concerns?
• Vocabulary Unit 1 List Introduction
• A lesson in symbols

Notes to Remember from How to Read Literature:

• "Most important, there's context. Where in the text does the image reside? How does the author use the image? What does he seem to mean by it? In other words, what are the words, read carefully, telling us? (245).
• "...every work teaches us to read it as we go along" (248).
• "The meaning of the cave isn't lying on the surface of the novel. Rather, it waits somewhere deeper, and part of what it requires of us is to bring something of ourselves to the encounter. If we want to figure out what a symbol might mean, we have to use a variety of tools on it: questions, experience, preexisting knowledge. What else is the author doing with caves? What are other outcomes in the text, or uses of caves in general that we can recall? What else can we bring to bear on this cave that might yield up meaning?" (107).
• "We will bring our individual history to our reading, a mix of previous readings to be sure, but also a history that includes, but is not limited to, educational attainment, gender, race, class, faith, social involvement, and philosophical inclination. These factors will inevitably influence what we understand in our reading, and nowhere is this individuality clearer than in the matter of symbolism" (110).
• "The other problem with symbols is that many readers expect them to be objects and images rather than events or actions. Action can also be symbolic" (112).
• "...start breaking down the work into manageable pieces. Associate freely, brainstorm, take notes. Then you can organize your thoughts, grouping them or meanings as they seem to apply" (113).
• "Ask questions of the text: what's the writer doing with this image, this object, this act; what possibilities are suggested by the movement of the narrative or the lyric; and most important, what does it feel like its doing?" (113).
• "We tend to give writers all the credit, but reading is also an event of the imagination; our creativity, our inventiveness, encounters those of the writer, and in that meeting we puzzle out what she means, what we understand her to mean, what uses we can put her writing to" (114).
• "The White Quail": A Lesson in Symbols
  • Pick one symbol for your group that you believe permeates throughout the text and creates meaning.
  • Come up with a Meaning of the Work as a Whole.
  • Respond to this prompt as a group: A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. In "The White Quail," focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Homework and Upcoming:

• Literacy Journeys due Sept 3.
• Read the handout on Narrative Point of View. Read “The Breakfast” and “The Snake” by Thurs, Sept 29
• Vocabulary Unit 1 Test: Wednesday, Sept 11