Mrs. Albanese’s Blog

Notes on ThemeReader’s Handbook, 376-382 – reference. Test on Friday.  Study  Questions:

1. What are three steps in the plan for understanding theme?
2. What is a topic?
3. What is a theme?
4. What are three examples of common topics?
5. What are the three characteristics of a good theme statement? 

Answers

What are three steps in the plan for understanding theme?

• Finding the “big ideas” or general topics in the work
• Finding out what the characters do and say that relates to the general topics
• Coming up with a statement of the author’s point or message about the topic

What is topic?The topic is simply what the piece of literature is about. What is theme?The author’s point of view about the topic. What are three examples of common topics?Childhood, courage, death, faith, family, freedom, growing up, hate, hope, identity, independence, justice, love, loyalty, nature, patience, patriotism, prejudice, race relations, self-improvement, self-reliance, success, trust, truth, unhappiness, violence, and war.   What are the three characteristics of a good theme statement?Complete sentence that makes a point. It should be as precise as possible concerning what particular message about life that the writer is trying to get across.  Third, the theme statement should relate to people in general not just to specific characters in the story. 

Plot is the series of events that connects the beginning of the story to the end.

Parts of Plot

1. Exposition – opening
2. Rising Action – author describes the problem
3. Climax – the turning point in the story
4. Falling Action – how the problem is solved
5. Resolution – the ending

Reading Strategies

1. Use a graphic organizer for tracking plot. See the storyboard on page 371 in the Reader’s Handbook.
2. Flashback – a jump back in time. Use a timeline to help with this.
3. Subplots – a less important plot that has some elements in common with the main plot. Use a story organizer for this.
4. After Reading – Create a summary of the plot for each chapter.  Create a plot summary graph that gives details for each part of the plot. 

 We are studying Reading Skills to help increase our success on AR, STAR and DSTP! 

Make a choice to BE A BETTER READER!   

Notes on Dialogue in a Story

Taken from the Readers Handbook 360-367.

1.  What is the purpose of a speech tag? To identify a character and give clues about the speaker’s tone of voice
2.  How do writers handle dialogue from several speakers? Writers usually begin a new paragraph for each speaker.
3.  How does dialogue affect characters and the plot of a story? Characters reveal a lot about themselves by what they say and how they say it.  Dialogue can advance a plot, give readers clues about what will happen,  and it can also explain what happened before. 
4.  How can dialogue affect the mood of a story? You can tell the mood of a piece of literature – sad, funny, joyous by what is said and how it is said.
5.  What is one reading tool that is useful for reading dialogue – explain. Double entry journal (364).    Thinking Tree (367) Both of these tools help the reader to think about the meaning behind the dialogue.

Taken from the Readers Handbook

Questions to Ponder!

1. What are two kinds of setting clues?
2. What is one reading strategy that is useful for understaniding settings? Explain.
3. How does setting relate to a story’s mood and characters?
4. How can a story’s setting affect the plot?
5. What is one reading tool that is useful for understanding settings? 

Reading Skills – Fiction Notes taken from Reader’s Handbook

Elements of Fiction   

• Protagonist and antagonist – conflict exists in fiction usually between the protagonist (main character) and the antagonist (person, thing or force that works against the antagonist). 
• Author’s Purpose – to explain, inform,  entertain, persuade, enlighten or reveal an important truth. This is the reason for creating a work.
• Character – a person, an animal, or an imaginary creature that takes part in the action of the story.  A character can be directly identified and described or hinted at with clues.  Minor characters are less important. Static characters stay the same.  Dynamic characters change from the beginning to the end
• Dialogue and dialect – dialogue is words spoken by characters in a literary work. Dialect is a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people. 
• Genre – the category or type of literature
• Mood – the feeling that a literary work gives to the readers.
• Point of view – the vantage point from which a story is told. First person the story is told by one of the characters. Third person the story is told by a narrator who stands outside the story and observes.

• Plot  - the action or sequence of events in a story. The plot diagram shows the five parts of a plot: 1- exposition, 2 – rising action, 3- climax, 4- falling action, 5-resolution. Five types of Conflict – person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature, person vs. self, person vs. fate ( a problem that seems to be uncontrollable).
• Setting – the time and place in which the action of a literary work occurs.
• Style – the way the author uses words, phrases and sentences to express ideas.  Style includes the author’s word choice, sentence structure, and use of literary devices.
• Symbol – a person, place, thing or event used to represent something else.
• Theme – statement about life that the author wants to convey to the reader.  Sometimes this is clear; other times it must be inferred or guessed at.