The Elements of Fiction
Grade 6 / Grade 7 / Grade 8Enduring Understandings / All of us experience highs and lows in our lives. How we choose to think about them affects the way we think about and respond to new experiences.
All of us have strengths and interests that we can choose to develop.
All of us come to develop values based on people and ideas we respect. / All of us are a part of a larger whole: Family, neighborhood, church, peer group, school, town, region, which gives our lives meaning.
We can choose to use our strengths and interests to enrich or weaken the communities in which we are a part.
Communities are strengthened when individuals have empathy.
Communities are strengthened when individuals are courageous enough to stand up for universal values. / When we act on universal values we improve the quality of life for those in our world.
Even the smallest opportunity to contribute to the well-being of others is important.
We have a moral imperative to act on our beliefs if we want to have integrity.
Individuals’ needs are based on universal rights, but culture may impact the perception of those needs.
[Maslow, self-esteem/Glasser]
Essential Questions / How do my past experiences affect who I am?
How do we decide who we are? / How do my choices affect our community?
Community or individual, which is more important? / How do we make a difference in the world?
Are we really that different?
Process Standards / Process Standards 1.5, 1.6, and 2.3
1. Students in Missouri Public Schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.
2. Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.
Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to
1.5: comprehend and evaluate written, visual and oral presentations and works
1.6: discover and evaluate patterns and relationships in information, ideas and structures
2.3: exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others. / Process Standards 1.5, 1.6, and 2.3
1. Students in Missouri Public Schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.
2. Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.
Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to
1.5: comprehend and evaluate written, visual and oral presentations and works
1.6: discover and evaluate patterns and relationships in information, ideas and structures
2.3: exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others. / Process Standards 1.5, 1.6, and 2.3
1. Students in Missouri Public Schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas.
2. Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom.
Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to
1.5: comprehend and evaluate written, visual and oral presentations and works
1.6: discover and evaluate patterns and relationships in information, ideas and structures
2.3: exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others.
Habits of Mind / Listening to Others with Understanding and Empathy: Listen to another person – to understand and empathize with another point of view or perspective / Listening to Others with Understanding and Empathy: Listen to another person – to understand and empathize with another point of view or perspective / Listening to Others with Understanding and Empathy: Listen to another person – to understand and empathize with another point of view or perspective
Unit Understandings / Capable learners are well equipped to recognize the value of the literary elements authors have chosen.
Determining the meaning in text requires a curious learner to respond personally to the author’s intent.
Confident readers are well equipped with complex reading strategies.
Curious learners listen to understand others’ thinking and seek to challenge and clarify their own thoughts. / Capable learners are remarkably persuasive when using accurate text evidence to support their beliefs and values.
Confident students strengthen their learning communities by challenging others to understand complex ideas.
Curious learners recognize an author’s craft moves and make inferences about the writer, his motives, and the context (history and culture) in which the text was written. / · Capable learners recognize when a stereotype is reinforced and when a stereotype is challenged.
Unit Questions / How does my understanding of literary elements increase my enjoyment of fiction, poetry and drama?
How is my understanding of a text deepened by my conversation with others?
How do I know which reading strategies are best to use when I’m stuck?
How does reading, reflecting, and discussing what I read help me understand who I am? / When must I speak up? How do I know whether to participate? * How is my learning community strengthened/ weakened by my participation?
How do I convince others to value my thinking?
What is the significance of determining the historical and cultural perspectives in the texts I read?
*Conversations to include being a witness, bystander, or bully. / Which texts are empowering and which are disempowering and for whom?
Knowledge / Onomatopoeia: Sound device in which the word echoes or suggests its meaning, so that sound and sense are reinforced. (eg, hiss, splash, whoosh, etc.)
Alliteration: Repetition of sounds in stressed syllables or words in a sequence
Idiom: Term or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definition and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.(eg. “I am pulling your leg.” or “You are skating on thin ice.”)
Plot: Action or sequence of events in a story with five basic elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Types of conflict: The struggle or clash between opposing characters or opposing forces.
External conflict: a struggle between a character and an outside force: man versus person, man versus society, man versus nature, man versus “fate”
Internal conflict: man versus self
Climax: A moment of great or culminating intensity in a narrative or drama, especially the conclusion of a crisis. The turning point in a plot.
Resolution: The resolution is the end of the story. Occurs after the climax and when you learn what happens to the characters after the conflict is resolved.
Setting influences characters, plot, and theme.
The point of view from which a story is told (first, second, or third person, omniscient, limited omniscient) influences the readers interactions with the text.
First person point of view: the narrator participating in the action and referring to himself as “I.”
Second person point of view: The “you” in directions, explanations or arguments (not frequently used)
Third person point of view: The narrator generally not a character in the story and referring to the characters as “he” or “she” as the event are told.
Limited omniscient point of view: The narrator relating the inner thoughts and feelings of just one character.
Omniscient point of view: The narrator as all knowing and relating the inner thoughts and feelings of all characters. Resources: limited omniscient: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Write Source 2000 for point of view (cartoons)
Understanding the author’s viewpoint/ perspective helps a reader to understand the intent of the author.
Understanding a text’s structure aids comprehension.
Characters use a range of ways to solve problems.
Using text details together with my prior knowledge is necessary when explaining the effectiveness of a character’s chosen solution.
Communication is enhanced by focused thinking and clear speaking on a chosen topic.
Communication is enhanced when the speaker uses appropriate volume, tone, rate of speech, inflections and eye contact.
Finding relevant text details and organizing them in an appropriate way helps to support thinking. / Hyperbole: A figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement for emphasis or humor. EXAMPLE: I'm so hungry that I could eat a horse. ...
Imagery: Figurative language that appeals to the five senses. Mental pictures evoked through use of simile and metaphor.
Propaganda: Methods used to make arguments more persuasive. These include; bandwagon, appeal to ignorance, broad generalization, circular thinking, loaded words, oversimplification, red herrings.
Mood: The feeling created in the reader, evoked through the language of the text.
Plot: The action or sequence of events in a story comprised of five basic elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution..
Subplot: A smaller story within a larger story
Flashback: A device by which a writer interrupts the chronological flow of a narrative to portray an event that occurred at an earlier time.
Theme: The underlying or implicit meaning concept, or message in a text.
Types of conflict: The struggle or clash between opposing characters or opposing forces.
External conflict: a struggle between a character and an outside force: man versus person, man versus society, man versus nature, man versus “fate”
Internal conflict: man versus self
Understanding complex causal relationships helps a reader to understand plot and character.
Point of view affects how we perceive events
The choices an author makes about literary devices and the time or context in which the text was written, give clues about his/her perspective/viewpoint .
Motives influence the way characters solve problems.
Accurate evaluation of the effectiveness of the solution to problems in a story is dependent on a combination of relevant text clues and the reader’s view or perspective.
Authors will offer text evidence to aid readers in better understanding the problems, gaps or ambiguities in a story.
In order to fully participate in a discussion, readers need to organize their thinking to fit into the time constraints of a discussion.
Various organizational tools exist (sticky notes, graphic organizers, and highlighting) to help us understand, organize and refine our thinking. / Language used (jargon, dialect, slang) in text leaves clues for the reader about the personality of the character and the setting of the story.
Jargon: technical terms, acronyms, and language used by people of the same profession or specialized interest group.
Dialect: representation of the language spoken by the people of a particular place, time, or social group. Regional dialect: spoken in a specific geographic region. Social dialect: spoken by members of a specific social group or class.
Slang: Informal words or phrases used in casual conversation.
Symbolism: Objects that hold a figurative meaning as well as well as a literal meaning; something that stands for something else; a representation of an abstract meaning.
Mood and theme are identified and supported by finding and using relevant details from the text.
Flashback is a literary device used to present information from an earlier time than the events currently taking place in a text.
Mood: Feeling created in the reader which is evoked through the language of the text.
Theme: Underlying or implicit meaning, concept or message in a text.
Point of view affects how we perceive events.
A character can be interpreted through their behaviors, motives, actions, and the consequences of those actions as they work to resolve the problems presented in the text.
When making an accurate judgment about the effectiveness of a solution, sufficient consideration of multiple sides of the issue must be considered and supported with details from the text.
The choices an author makes about literary devices and the time or context in which the text was written, gives clues about his/her perspective/viewpoint .
Future events can be predicted by accurately interpreting the hints or clues an author presents. (foreshadowing)
Authors will offer text evidence to aid readers in better understanding the problems, gaps or ambiguities in a story.
In responding to questions during a discussion, our body, face, and hands are powerful tools to communicate our engagement in the topic.
Judgments that are accurate are sufficiently supported with details from the text.
Skills:
R2B / I can identify and explain examples of sensory details, figurative language, and basic literary techniques in text, emphasizing onomatopoeia, alliteration, and idiom. / I can identify and explain literary techniques, in text emphasizing hyperbole, imagery, propaganda. / I can identify and explain literary techniques, in text emphasizing jargon, dialect, slang, symbolism, and analyze literary techniques previously introduced
R2Ca / I can use details from text to:
demonstrate comprehension skills previously introduced / I can use details from text to demonstrate comprehension skills previously introduced / I can use details from text to:
demonstrate comprehension skills previously introduced
R2Cb / I can use text details to identify plot including problems, conflicts, climax, and resolution in the texts I read. / I can use text details to identify plot and sub-plot, mood, flashback, theme and types of conflict. / I can use details to identify and explain flashback, mood and theme in the texts I read.
R2C / c. I can use text details to help me analyze how a setting influences the characters and plot
I can explain cause and effect. / I can analyze cause and effect
I can identify the point of view from which a story is told. / I can identify and explain point of view / I can analyze point of view.
I can identify the author’s viewpoint/perspective. / I can identify and explain author’s viewpoint/perspective / I can analyze author’s viewpoint/perspective.
I can identify the steps characters take to solve problems. / I can evaluate the problem-solving processes of characters / I can evaluate the problem-solving processes of characters
I can explain the effectiveness of a character’s choices in response to a conflict using details from the text. / I can evaluate the effectiveness of solutions. / I can evaluate the effectiveness of solutions in the text I read.
I can make inferences. / I can make inferences. / I can make inferences.
I can determine how an incident foreshadows a future event.
I can interpret the behaviors, motives, and consequences of character’s actions.
L2A
During discussions and presentations: / I can speak clearly and stay of topic and use appropriate volume, tone of voice, rate of speech, fluency/inflections and eye contact. / I can use designated time constraints, media, and organized notes. / I can use appropriate body language, incorporate media or technology, and respond to questions.
I1C / I can record relevant information using a variety of note-taking and organizational strategies. / I can record relevant information using a variety of note-taking and organizational strategies. / I can record relevant information using a variety of self selected note-taking and organizational.