8th grade language artsDiscovery MYP Unit

Narrative Writing

Standards• Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Essential Question• How does discovery affect our lives and/or the world?

• How do we understand what we are reading?

• What makes a good story?

Area of Interaction (AOI)Human Ingenuity• Human ingenuity focuses on the contributions of

humans in society. • These contributions result in the ability to

appreciate and develop the human capacity to influence, transform, enjoy and improve the quality of life

• Understand the relationships among subjects through examining, experiencing and reflecting on the creative process

Making the Connection• How does story-telling relate to Human

Ingenuity? (Think about stories that have shaped/influenced a culture, community, or even within your own family).

• By yourself: In your journal, spend three minutes brainstorming stories that you feel represent Human Ingenuity; be ready to share with others as well as EXPLAIN your reasoning.

For Example• For those who celebrate Christmas, the story of St. Nick only giving presents to ‘good little boys and girls’ is meant to inspire children to be on their best behavior, especially in December!

• In Europe, there is another story, but this one is a little darker. Krampus is St. Nicholas’ counterpart, or opposite partner; he is the one who gets to punish children who are naughty, not nice. Again, this story/legend was created/is told to help influence people to lead more positive lives.

Human Ingenuity and Stories• _________________ is a

story/legend/myth/fairy tale/fable that shows Human Ingenuity because _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

• Remember, you want to focus on stories that were created to transform, inspire, influence and/or somehow cause a change in humans.

Time to Share• Room is split into quadrants: story that affects only you or your family; story that affects just your surrounding community (as in Hillsboro); story that affects an entire culture (La Llorona); story that affects the entire world (the Bible).

• Decide which category your story fits into, and then walk over to the appropriate corner of the room.

• Share your story with the rest of the group.

• Each group will then share one story to the entire class.

Time to Share

Learner Profiles

• In this unit we will focus on the following learner profiles:

– Open minded– Risk Takers– Reflective

How do these qualities help people to discover?

Persistence

• What does persistence mean?

• Working hard, not giving up even when times are tough.

• How do you practice persistence in your own life?

• Why is persistence important in school and in life?

Persistence

100 Questions

• Write down 100 questions that you have about the world, life, or anything you are curious about.

• You will need to use persistence! • Write your questions in your language arts

journal.

100 Questions

Elements of Narrative

Narrative Writing

• What is narrative writing?

• How do you know that you are reading or writing a narrative story?

• Have you ever written a narrative story?

Narrative Stories

• What are some characteristics of narrative stories?

Think-pair-share

• One minute to think of everything you know about narrative stories or examples of narrative stories you have read or heard about.

• ______________ is an example of a narrative.

• A defining characteristic of narrative stories is _______________.

• The key components of the narrative genre are _______, _______, _______, _______, ________, and ________.

Get ready to take notes• Use your Cornell notes

format:–Two columns–First column write the

topic–Second column write

the details and important information

Summary

Topic:

Questions/Main Ideas:

Name:Period:Date:

Notes:

Narrative Elements

• Plot • In a _____, there are five key elements: _______ and ______, _______, _________, _______, and ______.

Plot

Setting, mood, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution

Setting & mood

Rising action

Climax

Falling action

Resolution

Setting• Time– Historical period– Time of year– Season– Time of day

• Place– Geographic region– Environment– Community

Point of View

• 1st person

– “I”, “Me”, “My”– The audience

sees the world from the perspective of the main character only.

– The audience only knows the thoughts of one person.

CharacterizationTOAD

• T= thoughts of the character

• O= opinions of the character and opinions that others have of the character.

• A= actions of the character• D= dialogue

Conflict• 7 major types of

conflict

– Man vs. nature– Man vs. self– Man vs. technology– Man vs. society– Man vs. man– Man vs. supernatural– Man vs. unknown

Summarizing Your Notes

• The notes on_______________ explain the key elements of the genre (type of writing). The main components of this category include the following: ________, __________, _______, __________, and ___________. It is ___________ that these elements exist in order to make a writing piece considered ____________.

The Great Rat HuntBy Laurence Yep

Take Notes on each Vocab Word

• Each group writes a sentence for each word.• I will be the judge – best sentence wins!

1) Perpetual (adj): lasting for an indefinitely long

time; continuing without interruption

• Example Sentence: Ms. Talbot’s classroom is in perpetual darkness.

2) Fumigate (verb): to use smoke or fumes in order to kill off rodents or insects; to disinfect

• Example Sentence: A person must leave a building that is being fumigated for insects, because it is impossible to breathe when the room is full of smoke.

3) Rationalize (verb): to make self-satisfying but incorrect explanations about

one’s behavior• Example Sentence:

John rationalized flunking in all of his 8th grade classes because middle school ‘didn’t matter’; when he got to high school and flunked his freshman year, he wasn’t feeling so satisfied as he grumbled through summer school.

4) Brusquely (adverb): in an abrupt, sudden manner

• Example Sentence: Enrique brusquely stopped picking his nose when he noticed the gorgeous Natalie staring at him in disgust.

5) Reserve (noun): self-restraint in the way one looks or acts

• Example Sentence: Politicians have to have a lot of reserve while facing protesters and hecklers.

6) Ineptitude (noun): incompetence,

clumsiness, displaying a lack of

judgment

• Example Sentence: The player showed his ineptitude by hitting the ball with his face instead of the bat.

7) Mug (noun): the face

• Example Sentence: A mug shot is a picture of one’s face that is taken when one is sent to jail.

8) Barricade (noun): a structure set up to block a passage

• Example Sentence: Every Saturday in Hillsboro, there are barricades put on opposite sides of Main Street for the Farmers’ Market so that people can shop in the streets without cars being in the way.

9) Improvise (verb): to put together or act with little or no preparation or planning

• Example Sentence: When the student tried to improvise his speech, not surprisingly, he earned an ‘F’.

10) Ravage (noun): serious damage; widespread destruction

• Example Sentence: Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ravages.

The Great Rat HuntNarrative Analysis

1. What is the setting of the story, The Great Rat Hunt? Be as specific as you can with time and place.

2. What point of view is the story told from? Give specific examples from the story to prove your point.

3. What are two conflicts in the story? Which categories are they in (man vs.)?

4. Describe the character Yep through TOAD. Give at least one example of his thoughts, opinion, actions, and dialogue.

5. What did Yep discover about his family throughout this story?

6. How did what he discovered about his family affect him?

Challenge Enhancement• Yep describes his failures in dramatic and exaggerated

terms. Look for three examples in which Yep uses overly strong language to describe his failures. – Copy down the three quotes– Give a reason why you think that Yep uses such dramatic

language to describe his failures.

• Yep believes that his father would rather have Eddy’s help than his. Do you agree with Yep’s interpretation of his father’s silence? Give specific examples (2) from the text to explain your answer.

Ticket Out The Door

• “The Great Rat Hunt” is set in ____________. The first major event is __________________. Next, ________________________________. Then, _________ occurred, which led to ____. The climax of the story is when _____________________________________. In the end, Yep discovered _______________.

Life Map

• Think of a minimum of 10 significant events in your life (ex: birth of brother or sister, broken arm, moving to a new house or school, death, learning how to ride a skateboard or a bike).

• Chart these events along with images, either drawn or pasted from magazines, computers, or photos. The final project should be a representation of your life up to this point.

• You may be as creative as you want in this project remember to have at least ten important events and a picture to go along with each event.

Raymond’s Run

Vocab

Ticket Out the Door

• The main conflict in “Raymond’s Run” is __________________________________________________________________________.

“When I was Puerto Rican”

Dialogue Lesson

• Yellow Spiral Book

“When I Was Puerto Rican”1. What is the setting of the story, When I Was Puerto

Rican? Be as specific as you can with time and place.2. What point of view is the story told from? Give specific

examples from the story to prove your point.3. What are three conflicts in the story? Which categories

are they in (man vs.)?4. Describe Esmeralda through TOAD. Give at least one

example of her thoughts, opinion, actions, and dialogue.

5. Create a plot diagram of the story – be sure to include exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Dialogue Formative Assessment

• Construct an imaginary conversation between you and one of the characters from any of the previous stories we have read.

Dialogue Frame

State of Being Verb vs Action Verbs

The Barn

• As you read the story, each person will search for one of the following:– State of being verbs (blue)– Action Verbs (green)– Adjectives (red)– Transitions (black)

Adjective Activity

• Each group will have two minutes to list as many adjectives (descriptive words) for the picture at the table.

• After two minutes, each group will rotate to the next picture.

• Continue to list adjectives, but you may NOT use any of the previous groups’ words!

• Go back to your original table group. • Ticket out the door: write a descriptive

paragraph about the picture, using any of the adjectives on the list.

Emotions

• Make a list of as many emotions that you can think of.

Emotions

• Think of a time in your life when you felt that emotion.

Writing Rubric

Emotions• In your journal write down as many emotions as

you can think of.

• Be ready to share

• Take five of the emotions and think about a time when you intensely felt one of these emotions.

• Write down some details about each of those experiences. One of these might be a good story to write about.

Pre-writing• Decide on an experience that you will write

about.– The experience should be something that actually

happened to you and that was somehow important to you.

• Create a plot map BEFORE you begin writing. Decide what your climax is and work from there.– Make sure that you have an exposition, rising

action, climax, falling action, and a resolution.– Once you have that, you should begin a rough draft.

Dialogue

“I think I’ve hooked a big one,” screamed

Jeff as he grabbed the pole and tugged hard. “This thing must weigh a ton.”

“Make sure the drag is set properly,” directedhis father. “If there is too much tension on the line a heavy fish like that will snap in no time.”