This page has lesson plans for Unit 4 class sessions.

November 3 - November 21

(approx 12 sessions)

Week of November 6

Week of November 13

AP Literature Skills Focus for Unit 4: Short Fiction

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

• Which words, phrases, and details contribute to a character’s characterization?

• How is a character described physically, emotionally, and/or psychologically?

• Which aspects of a character’s background contribute to how the character perceives his or her world?

• What drives the character to think, feel, and/or act in the manner he or she does?

• The significance of characters is often revealed through their agency and through nuanced descriptions.

• Characters' choices--in speech, action, and inaction, reveal what they value.

CHR 1.C Explain the function of contrasting characters. 

• How do comparable traits of two or more characters contrast?

• What do the differing traits between characters reveal about them individually, their relationships with one another, and their relationships with other characters?

• How does considering the significance of a contrast between characters contribute to meaning in the text?

• The main character in a narrative is the protagonist.

• The antagonist in the narrative opposes the protagonist and may be another character, the internal conflicts of the protagonist, a collective (such as society), or nature.

• Protagonists and antagonists may represent contrasting values.

CHR 1.D Describe how textual details reveal nuances and complexities in characters' relationships with one another. 

• Conflict among characters often arises from tensions generated by their different value systems.

• Which particular images, character speech, and textual details are relevant for examining characters’ relationships?

• How do images, character speech, and other textual details reveal how characters interact?

• How do diction and the details that a narrator or speaker offers (or does not offer) convey a particular perspective, ambiguity, and/or inconsistency and convey nuances and complexities in character relationships?

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

• What are the  relationships between a text's setting and other literary elements?

• How does a setting affect readers of that text?

• How do a text's various settings contribute to meaning and its overall effect?

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

• What is the relationship between the aspects (e.g., location, time of day, geography) of a setting and a character?

• What is the relationship between a setting’s historical time period and a character?

• What is the relationship between the society or culture of a setting and a character (e.g., what is the character’s role in the society/culture, to what degree is a character accepted by his or her society/culture, to what degree does the society/ culture esteem a character)?

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

•  To what degree does a plot’s ordering of events reflect a chronological sequence?

• Which plot event(s) seems to break an established chronological sequence, and where does this event fit into the chronology of other events?

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

• What are some striking contrasts in a text?

• How do you identify contrasts, shifts, and juxtapositions in a text?

• How might a contrast indicate a conflict of values?

• What ideas, traits, or values are emphasized in a contrast?

• How does a contrast contribute to complexity in a text?

• How does a contrast contribute to meaning in a text?

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

• Who is the narrator or speaker of a text?

• Which details from the text indicate the identity of the narrator or speaker?

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

• What is the difference between a first-person point of view and third-person point of view, and how does the particular point of view used in a text affect the details and information presented to a reader?

• How does a narrator’s distance from the events of a narrative affect the details and information presented to a reader?

• How does a shift in point of view contribute to the development of a literary element (e.g., character, conflict, tone, theme) and contribute to meaning?

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

•  What is a narrator’s or speaker’s tone toward a particular subject, and which diction, imagery, details, and syntax in the text contribute to that tone?

• What is the relationship between a narrator’s or speaker’s tone toward a particular subject and their perspective, more generally?

• How does a narrator’s or speaker’s background and perspective shape a tone toward a particular subject?

• How do the diction, imagery, details, and syntax in a text support multiple tones?

• How might a change in tone toward a particular subject over the course of a text indicate a narrator’s or speaker’s change?

LAN 7.B Develop a thesis statement that conveys a defensible claim about an interpretation of literature and that may establish a line of reasoning.

• How do you write a thesis statement that clearly articulates a claim about an interpretation of literature?

• How do you preview the reasoning of your argument in your thesis statement, perhaps by considering how your reasoning is organized?

LAN 7.C Develop commentary that establishes and explains relationships among textual evidence, the line of reasoning, and the thesis.

• What are the logical reasons, inferences, and/or conclusions that justify your claim?

• How do you develop commentary that does more than restate plot details?

• How do you develop commentary that explicitly articulates your critical thinking and relationships among ideas rather than leaving it to readers to make inferences or connections on their own?

• How do you develop commentary that carefully explains your reasons, inferences, and/or conclusions; how textual evidence supports your reasoning; and how your reasoning justifies your claim?

• How do you develop commentary that conveys your complex argument about an interpretation of literature?

LAN 7.D Select and use relevant and sufficient evidence to both develop and support a line of reasoning.

• How can an interpretation of a text emerge from analyzing evidence and then forming a line of reasoning or from forming a line of reasoning and then identifying relevant evidence?

• Which information from a text can serve as evidence to develop and support your line of reasoning?

• How do you know when evidence is relevant to your reasoning?

• How do you introduce evidence into your argument and indicate the purpose of the evidence as it relates to your argument?

• How do you know when your evidence is sufficient to support a line of reasoning and justify your claim?

• How do you address evidence that contradicts your reasoning or your claim?

LAN 7.E Demonstrate control over the elements of composition to communicate clearly.

• How do you revise an argument’s grammar and mechanics so that they follow established conventions of language to ensure clear communication of ideas?

• How can you select organizational patterns (e.g., chronological, compare-contrast, cause-effect, general to specific, order of importance, part-to-whole) to organize your reasoning and support?

• How do you organize clauses, sentences, and paragraphs to create coherence?

• How do you select and place transitions in sentences to create particular relationships between ideas and create coherence?

• How do you write sentences that convey equality/inequality of importance or balance/imbalance between ideas?

• How do you select words that clearly communicate ideas?

• How do you use punctuation to indicate clear relationships among ideas?