Looking Deeper: Literary Analysis of 7th Grade Lit file · Web viewUp until this point of the year we have been reading both out loud and silently in class and having discussions

Looking Deeper: Literary Analysis of 7th Grade Lit Golzynski

I. Looking Deeper: Literary analysis of 7th Grade Literature

II. Introduction

A. The Teaching ContextThis unit plan is for Middle School, specifically 7th grade,

English Literature students in a Michigan Public School. Students in my classroom should be able to read and write at least at a 6th grade level at the beginning of the year. This unit will come in the 3rd quarter of the year when we start digging into some harder literature to read and comprehend.

By the time we reach this unit it would be my goal to have all students in the class at least at a 7th grade level in both reading and writing which would allow them to complete this unit with some ease. That is not to say that the amount of work would not be a challenge, but I do not feel that the amount of work would be too much for any of the students in my classroom to handle. The most difficult aspect of this unit for the students is that the majority of the reading that needs to be done for the remainder of the school year will be done on their own time, which is how most of their reading assignments for the rest of their academic life will take place.

Up until this point of the year we have been reading both out loud and silently in class and having discussions on what they are reading. I am now focusing mainly on using class time for the discussion of what they have been reading at home. Hopefully by this point in the school year I have made my classroom a safe environment for my students and they will feel it is a place that they can express their thoughts about the literature that they are reading and tie it to something personal in their lives.

B. Rationale for UnitThe focus of this unit is to give middle school students, specifically 7th grade students, the ability to analyze a piece of literature or written work and to start looking for and making connections to deeper meanings in literature.

1. What the students will learnStudents will learn that all written works have a meaning and that meaning can be both the one that is written on the page and one that may be influenced by outside sources from the text including but not limited to history, social circumstances, ideology, or theology.


2. How students will be assessedStudents will be assessed over the course of the unit by 3 major criteria.

a) Participation in class discussions and in-class activities

b) In Class Writing Assignments

c) Character Analysis Paper from one of the Primary Texts used for this Unit

3. What Students will doThe students will be able to look at any written work and gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of the work than what is just written on the page. They will also be able to take this knowledge and express it both in the written form and orally so that we will be able to discuss it in class.

4. How Students will learnStudents will learn in a Socratic communal setting where I as

the instructor will lead classroom discussions about the books that we have read. I will be trying to get the class to direct the learning to what they need as a group to gain an understanding of our readings. There will also be in-class and take home writing assignments that I will use to gauge their

understanding of the works that we are reading. There will be weekly grammar lessons that will work on improving the students writing skills by teaching them how to build more complex and interesting sentences.

C. Texts: Central and SupportingTo Kill A Mockingbird by Harper LeeHatchet by Gary PaulsenGrammar for Middle School: A Sentence-Composing Approach by Don and Jenny Killgallon

D. Why Literary AnalysisI believe that the students at this level need to start looking deeper

into everything that they read, whether it be a book in class or an article in a magazine and newspaper and be able to make connections to themselves or the world around them. I want the students to be able to understand that what is written is influenced by things other than what is in the writers mind when they sit down and put pen to paper or fingers to keys.


III. The Unit Itself

A. Schedule

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday FridayOverview of Literary Analysis

Start Reading To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird Discussion

Journal Writing

Read To Kill A Mockingbird

Grammar Lesson

Chunking To Imitate from Grammar for Middle School by D. and J. Killgallon



Journal Writing



In Class Writing Assignment

More Literary Analysis

Go over in Class Writing Assignment from Friday using L.A. skills



Journal Writing


Grammar Lesson

Sentence-Composing Tools: Opening Adjective-Killgallon

Read To Kill A Mockingbird Be prepared to read your favorite passage out loud to the class to initiate class discussion.

To Kill A Mockingbird Discussion prompted by student-read passages

Journal Writing

Finish Reading To Kill A Mockingbird

Final To Kill A Mockingbird Discussion

In-Class/At-Home Writing Assignment

Go over In-Class/At-Home Writing Assignment using L.A. Skills

Start Reading Hatchet

Hatchet Discussion

Journal Writing

Read Hatchet

Grammar Lesson

Sentence-Composing Tools: Delayed Adjective-Killgallon

Read Hatchet

Hatchet Discussion

Journal Writing

Finish Reading Hatchet

Final Hatchet Discussion

Start Character Analysis Unit Assignment

Character Analysis

1st Draft Peer Editing of

Grammar Lesson

Turn in Character

Watch To Kill A Mockingbird


Writing Workshop

Finish 1st Draft of Character Analysis Assignment

Character Analysis

Work on Final Draft of Character Analysis Assignment

Sentence Composing Tools: Opening Adverbs-Killgallon

Finish Character Analysis Assignment

Analysis Assignment

Watch To Kill A Mockingbird

B. 3 Daily Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan #1

Title: Chunking to Imitate

Lesson Overview:This lesson will make students aware that sentences are made up of chunks of meaningful thoughts. They will learn that their writing will improve by following these same ideas when they are constructing sentences in their writing assignments.

Lesson Objectives: Students will learn how to break apart sentences from established authors to

understand how the sentences were constructed. Students will then be able to take these skills and use it in the construction of

their own sentences and their writing assignments.

Materials/Resources Needed: Grammar For Middle School Workbook by Don and Jenny Killgallon

Activities/Procedures:I will start the lesson with a quick overview of sentence structure that has been covered throughout the year and lead into the Chunking lesson that we are covering today.

5 Minutes

Part 1:In this part of the lesson students will pick the sample sentence from their workbook that is “chunked” correctly.

The students will look at 3 sets of sentences that have been broken

8 Minutes


apart and will need to pick the one that is “chunked” correctly and explain why it is chunked correctly in class.

Part 2:In this part of the lesson students will have a Model Sentence in their workbook that has been “chunked” and 2 other sentences that have not.

The students will need to pick the correct sentence that can be “chunked” in the same manner as the Model Sentence.

10 Minutes

Part 3:In this part of the lesson students will copy both the Model Sentence and the sentence that imitates the model sentence and then “chunk” them accordingly.

10 Minutes

Part 4:In this part of the lesson students will, like Part 3, copy both the Model Sentence and the sentence that imitates the model sentence and then “chunk” them accordingly. Then the student will have to write their own sentences that imitates both sentences and “chunk” that sentence as well.

15 Minutes

At the end of the lesson I will go over what we did in class today and remind them that writing complex, in depth sentences is something that they will need to do to become better writers.

I will assign the next portion of the reading that is to be done for the next class and will answer any questions that they have about the story to this point in their reading.

7 Minutes

Assessment:Students will be assessed on their participation in the class discussions and their engagement during the grammar lessons that we complete in class. Their workbooks and writing from class will be collected and gone over to make sure that the assignments were completed correctly and that the concepts that were discussed are understood by the class as a whole. If I determine that the grammar concept was not understood, we will address this again in our next session of grammar until we get the concept down, so that the students will be able to transmit what they learned in this lesson to their writing that we will be doing the rest of the school year.


Lesson Plan #2

Title: Who are the leaders in your neighborhood?

Lesson Overview:Leadership is an aspect that Lee uses in To Kill A Mockingbird, the students will discuss and write on the theme of leadership and what role they feel that leadership has in the story and in their lives.

Lesson Objectives: Students will discuss on the theme of leadership between the characters in

To Kill A Mockingbird. Students will analyze how the characters exemplify and use their positions

for leadership and how they are leaders in the story.

Materials/Resources Needed: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Student Writing Journals

Activities/Procedures:I will write on the board the following definition of “leadership” from Webster’s online dictionary:

The capacity to lead.

We will take a few minutes to discuss what this definition means to them and I will write some key points on the board.

5 Minutes

The students will be asked to write in their journals to the following prompt:

“At this point in the novel we have encountered many different characters. I want you to tell me who you think are the strongest leaders and why you think they are a strong leader. Then I want you to describe a situation in which the character you picked showed their leadership qualities.”

I will take some time to allow the students to share their responses with the rest of the class if they feel comfortable doing so. One of the students or I will write down their responses on the board as they are said aloud adding tick

15 Minutes writing

10 Minutes for responses/discussio

n


marks to those that are repeat responses of other class mates.

Once all of the responses have been listed, we will then discuss the characters that the students have listed and find out the reasoning for their picks.

I will then ask another student to come up to the board and to start a list of the people in our school community who they feel are leaders. After this first input to the list I will invite the class to offer their suggestions to the list. The one thing that each student will have to do to be able to add a name to the list is to give their reasons for their belief that this person is a leader in our school community.

5 Minutes

We will then take a close look at both lists that have been created trying to make connections to the characters from the novel and our school community using their leadership qualities and styles. I will open the discussion with the following prompt for them to write in their journals:

“What 2 leaders from the lists that we have created are alike and why? Would you like the leader that you picked take over the role of the leader you picked from our school? Why?”

5 Minutes/Writing

10 Minutes/Discussion

I will wrap up the lesson by briefly discussing that leadership can be judged in many different ways and can change from situation to situation.

I will collect student writing journals and assign the next portion of reading that the students will need to do for class tomorrow.

5 minutes

Assessment:Students will be assessed on their participation in the class discussions. Their journals will be collected and gone over to make sure that they wrote on the prompts that were given to them. Journals are going to be graded on a pass/fail basis based on whether or not the student answers the prompts for that class period. If a student journal falls in the fail parameter, I will take the time to meet with the student individually to determine what can be done to get the student on track.


Lesson Plan #3

Title: How Deep is My Understanding?

Lesson Overview:This is the cumulative lesson of the unit. This lesson will bring together everything that the students have learned about literary analysis by writing a character analysis of one of the characters from either To Kill A Mockingbird or Hatchet.

Lesson Objectives: Students will be able to construct a clear and in depth character analysis of

one of the characters from the 2 books that were read during this unit. Student papers will be written, dissected, peer reviewed, and re-written

before they are turned in for a final assessment by the instructor. The papers will follow a very general format and length requirement. The only requirement that will be strictly enforced is that the papers will be written to the best of the student’s abilities.

Materials/Resources Needed: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Grammar For Middle School Workbook by Don and Jenny Killgallon Whatever writing materials each student needs

Activities/Procedures:We will start the lesson by finishing our discussion of Hatchet and tie up any questions that students may still have about either To Kill A Mockingbird or Hatchet.

20 Minutes

I will give an overview of what we have learned about literary analysis and how we can use what we have learned to work on this cumulative lesson.

I will also review the grammar lessons that we worked on during this unit to remind the students to use these lessons to enhance their writing and to make their writing stronger.

I will hand out the Literary Analysis Assignment

20 Minutes

We will then go over the Literary Analysis Assignment as a class and make sure that we are all on the same page and understand

15 Minutes


what is required and expected from this assignment. The assignment sheet is attached to this lesson plan.

Students will be expected to come to class the following class period with at least a detailed outline or a rough draft of their Literary Analysis to be worked on during the writing workshop that will happen during the next class period.

Assessment:Students will be assessed on their participation in the class discussions and their engagement during the discussions in class. The Literary Analysis Assignment will be assessed at 3 phases of the writing process. First, students will be assessed on the work that they bring to the writing workshop the following class period and their active participation in the workshop. Second, the students will be assessed on their peer editing portion of the writing assignment. Each student will receive a peer editing sheet to use during their editing session that will be turned in with the final paper packet at the end of the assignment. Finally, students will be assessed on not only the final paper that was turned in, but on the packet as a whole that should include what they brought to the writing workshop, a peer reviewed rough draft, a peer review sheet from their classmate that reviewed their paper, and the final paper. I will be looking for a progression from that initial paper to the final work giving personal feedback on what I think worked and where I feel they could/can improve their writing. As with all of the major writing assignments in this class, each student will have 2 days to revise their writing once I have returned my assessment to them for a possible revised assessment.

I will not be using rubrics to grade these writing assignments. I will be comparing each students writing to prior writings looking for growth in them as an individual writer.


Sample of a Character Analysis:

Good Things Come Out of a Plane Crash

The main character in Hatchet, Brian Robeson, is a thirteen-year-old boy from New York City. This book primarily deals with themes of man and nature as well as his learning and understanding of himself through his experiences of living alone in the wilderness. Brian’s parents have just recently divorced, and this conflict between them has deeply affected Brian and his sense of stability, which is why he is making this plane trip to Canada at the beginning of the book. His sense of himself has been disrupted by his parents’ separation and he has the knowledge of “The Secret,” that his mother is having an affair with another man. Brian’s experiences in the wilderness change him both physically and mentally taking him from being an older boy at the beginning of the story to a young man by the end of the book.

Brian is a complex and exciting character. He shows us his fears, frustration and anger at the beginning of the book. Many of these characteristics are changed by the end of the book with his experience in the Canadian wilderness. He learns lessons and adopts qualities that are appropriate not only to wilderness survival but also to life as a whole. The whole experience that Brian has in the wilderness has him develop patience, observation, an appreciation for the natural world, and a newfound connection between mind and body. These things all make Brian grow into a young man by the end of the book.

Brian matures through his new ability to be patient. Challenges that would have stopped the “old Brian,” later become controllable. He learns to control his temper when he realizes that his frustration and hopelessness do not help his family situation. When he works to complete a specific project, such as hunting or building a shelter, he learns by trial-and-error. If he isn’t able to complete a certain job, Brian learns from his mistakes instead of letting them hold him back. He changes how he tries to solve the problems of surviving in the woods and tries again and again until he is successful.

Brian also develops a better sense of observation, using his senses not only to survive, but also to see the beauty of nature and its sights and sounds. Living in the city his whole life has never really allowed Brian to notice nature. Now he is stuck in the silence of the woods and this allows him to hear and to pick up on millions of sounds. He now has to learn how to hear them in order to survive. The scenery of the woods and the lake seem at first “a blur,” but later he sees them as really beautiful. Brian is also able to use these “new” senses that he has developed to help him survive in the wilderness. For example, at first the “foolbirds” just jump out of nowhere and scare him. These birds are a source of food for him and he knows that he needs to catch them in order to survive. But after he trains his eyes to spot their


outline, he is able to jump at them and kill them with his spear giving him some meat to be able to cook and eat to survive. Brian’s hearing also becomes more fine-tuned and he is able to hear the slightest noise in the woods, which keeps him aware of potential animals that are around his shelter at night that might cause him harm. Brian also develops a sort of “sixth sense” in the woods and his instincts become more perceptive. There are many instances in the book where he “senses” danger before it arrives.

Brian also develops a new appreciation for the woods and nature when he doesn’t have the conveniences of the city at his fingertips. He knew little of nature before the plane crash, and only had a limited knowledge of it from what he had learned in school or seen on TV. He learns to respect the animals that share the woods with him, and begins to think of himself as just another creature of the woods trying to survive. He realized that living in nature was a much different and more exciting experience than any book or movie.

Brian arrives in the woods an out-of-shape teenager who sits around and is pretty inactive. His diet is mostly hamburgers and his mother’s cooking. Once he is thrust into the woods his diet changes to berries, fish, “foolbirds”, and rabbit. This change in his diet makes Brian’s stomach shrink and he becomes all lean muscle. When he catches a glimpse of his reflection in the lake, he is shocked on how different he looks.

Brian’s physical appearance is not his greatest change while living in the woods. The biggest change is the change in his mind and in his outlook on life. He realizes that understanding nature and having to be concerned about surviving has brought his mind and body closer. As his English teacher used to tell him, his mind has the power to dictate his body’s behavior. As long as he remains positive and active, he can accomplish virtually anything. This connection between mind and body is a new awareness for Brian, and a sign of him becoming more comfortable with himself and his surroundings.

All these changes show Brian’s developing manhood, a major theme in the book. At the beginning of the book Brian only sees himself through his divorcing parent’s eyes, which is painful and gives him little or no confidence. He doesn’t know what the future is going to bring, but he knows that it is going to be different than his past where he has had two parents in his life. At thirteen years old, Brian does not feel quite ready to think of himself as an adult. The plane crash and his survival in the woods force him to come to terms with this new sense of identity. The challenge of survival alone in the woods leaves Brian with a choice: grow up and be tough, or die. Brian accepts the challenge and becomes a much stronger man by experiencing the wilderness and surviving; proving to himself that he can handle anything that life may throw at him in the future.


Genre Essay: Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis in a Middle School Classroom

Literary Analysis is not a genre, but a way to go about analyzing works of

literature to gain a deeper meaning to what the author has written. There are many

tools/theories that an individual can use to do this when tackling a work of

literature, whether it is a novel or a poem. There is a psychoanalytical approach, a

new criticism approach, a deconstructive approach, or a post modernism approach

just to name a handful. What all of these approaches to literary analysis or criticism

have in common is a specific way that the reader can look at a text and try to gain a

deeper meaning to the words that appear on the page. Like any type of analysis it

has changed over time just like literature has changed.

If one has an Aristotelian way of looking at a piece of work, it is going to be

completely different than looking at the same piece of work from a Marxist

standpoint. Aristotle believed that a piece of literature was a model of human

nature and that it did something good for the audience; it gave them a catharsis

(62). Marx, on the other hand, believed that literature was meaningless unless you

analyzed it based on the class of either the characters within the work of the class or

the author (406-412). Would it be possible to take the same piece of literature, like

To Kill a Mockingbird, and write an analysis of the story using either Marx’s or

Aristotle’s theories and write an analysis of the work? Of course it would be. One

could do it in the same classroom and get two completely different understandings

of the novel and fulfill the requirements of the assignment.


Analysis of literature has existed ever since someone wrote something down.

Once he/she did that they showed it to one of their friends and they had questions

about was scratched into the cave wall and why they carved it that way. Then the

friend went out and scratched his/her reply farther on down the wall and the first

literary critic was born. People want to be able to understand what they read and

put it into some context. Literary analysis allows for this to happen. The interesting

point about literary analysis is that many of the theories that are used to analyze

literature are not from the literary world. The example used in the preceding

paragraph from Karl Marx is the perfect example. Marx wrote mainly on a way of

life, communism, and the struggles of the working class against the wealthy ruling

classes throughout the world. His main idea was that of an eventual revolution by

the working class and the development of a society where everyone is equal and all

goods were shared. These ideas were then taken to analyze literature and to view

the work through a socio-economic class lens of either the work or the author. One

can do this for any piece of literature that is read. What this does is allow for

individuals or groups to discuss a piece of work from their point of view and to try

to pull out a deeper meaning of the piece of literature.

So, are middle school aged students ready to tackle Marx and Aristotle to

gain a better understanding of the literature assigned to them in the classroom?

Probably not. What they are ready for is to look at a piece of work and begin to dig

deeper into the work to try to gain a better understanding of either the characters,

the themes, the setting, or other areas of the piece of literature that are being

studied in class. When doing this, students can write about how characters interact


and develop throughout the work, they can discuss the connections between the

main plot of the story and any subplots that are going on in the work, students could

look at a story from the point of view of how the story is being told and how would it

be different if the narration were from a different point of view, just to name a few

examples. The main goal of doing the literary analysis is to engage the students in a

deeper reading of the literature being taught. As it says in How to Write a Literary

Analysis Essay from Gwynedd-Mercy College, “Examining the different elements of a

piece of literature is not an end in itself but rather a process to help you better

appreciate and understand the work of literature as a whole.”

Every good literary analysis starts off with a good thesis statement. The

thesis statement needs to be specific and is worded very carefully so as to get the

exact meaning across to the audience that will be reading the analysis. For example,

“The fate of the main characters in Antigone illustrates the danger of excessive

pride.” (How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay) There is no question as to what the

paper following that sentence is going to be about and once the reader gets to a

sentence like they can then go on to the main body of the paper. This thesis

statement comes somewhere near the end of the introductory paragraph. What the

writer will want to do in the introduction is “hook” the reader into the paper by

using a fact from the literary work or a section or dialogue that is somehow tied to

the upcoming thesis statement. The writer can also give a brief synopsis of the

literary work in this introduction but needs to keep the focus of the paper on being

an analysis and not a summary of the work.


The body of the paper is where the author will pull supporting

documentation from the work that bolsters his/her thesis that was stated in the

introduction. There is no specific length that the body of the paper should be, but it

needs to be long enough for the author to be able to give enough evidence to

support their thesis statement. In “A Guide to the Literary-Analysis Essay,” it is

stated that the following criteria be used to construct each paragraph of the body of

the paper:

1. Topic sentence/supports thesis2. Lead-in to concrete detail3. Concrete detail4. Commentary5. Transition and lead-in to next concrete detail6. Concrete detail7. Commentary8. Concluding or clincher sentence

Following this formula to construct the paragraphs will build the solid support that

is needed to prove the thesis statement that is stated in the introductory paragraph

of the analysis.

The final thing that is needed for this paper, like any other paper, is a

concluding paragraph. This paragraph is where the author again refers back to the

thesis without repeating what was said word for word. Once the author has done

this he/she then can expand upon the thesis by trying to answer the question “so

what?” or “why is that important?” It should also give the paper a sense of closure

or ending so that the reader does not go away wondering why the author didn’t

answer the important questions stated earlier. This is also an area where the writer

can go back and summarize their main points and to show how those main points

support the thesis. One thing that many young authors need to make sure they do


not do is to introduce a new topic in the conclusion. (How to Write a Literary

Analysis Essay) All that this does is muddy the waters and make the complete paper

lose the focus that the writer was trying to achieve.

To get students to have a deeper understanding of the works they are

reading in class is probably the most important thing that a secondary education

teacher can accomplish. Students need to look at the pieces of literature that they

are reading and not think of them as just good, entertaining stories. Each work has

some meaning either to the author, the reader, or to society as a whole and as I

stated earlier, that meaning can be different to everyone sitting in the classroom

depending on how they want to look at the literary work. This is not about reading

comprehension. This is about being able to place some meaning that is personal to

the reader on the piece of literature they are reading. If we are able to accomplish

this task, then we have given our students a valuable skill that they can use not only

when they are reading a literary work, but also when they are looking at anything

else that comes into their sphere of influence for the rest of their lives.


Works Cited

“A Guide to the Literary-Analysis Essay.” www-fcs.stjohns.k12.fl.us/teachers/conkinc/Downloads/literaryguide.pdf . Web. 10 Feb. 2012.

Aristotle. “Poetics.” The Critical Tradition; Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 55-81. Print.

“How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay.” www.gmc.edu/students/arc/downloads/Literary%20analysis.pdf. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.

Marx, Karl. Multiple Works. The Critical Tradition; Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 397-411. Print.

http://www.gmc.edu/students/arc/downloads/Literary%20analysis.pdf

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Looking Deeper: Literary Analysis of 7th Grade Lit file · Web viewUp until this point of the year we have been reading both out loud and silently in class and having discussions