Reader response in Hypertext: Making personal connections to literature
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=782
A lesson plan for Grade 11 English III
This multi-genre lesson that focuses on setting, plot, and metaphor, uses novels that contain a strong sense of place, focus on closeness of characters, and are metaphorical in character.
In this lesson students will
- demonstrate their understanding of setting, character, metaphor, and theme by writing responses based on each literary element.
- show their personal connections to a piece of literature by keeping quotation journals.
- write short papers in various genres (description, character sketch, extended metaphor poem, persuasive essays) showing personal connections to the novel.
- publish their project to a personal or school Web site or to a disk or CD.
Readwritethink provides plenty of web-based and print resources for completing this lesson and suggests alternatives for final projects.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 11 — English III
- Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
- Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
- elaborating upon a significant past episode from the student's current perspective.
- projecting the student's voice in the work through reflective interpretation of relationships to people and events.
-writing for a specific audience and purpose. - Objective 1.02: Reflect and respond expressively to texts so that the audience will:
- discover multiple perspectives.
- investigate connections between life and literature.
- explore how the student's life experiences influence his or her response to the selection.
- recognize how the responses of others may be different.
- articulate insightful connections between life and literature.
-consider cultural or historical significance.
- Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
- Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.
- Objective 2.01: Research ideas, events, and/or movements related to United States culture by:
- locating facts and details for purposeful elaboration.
- organizing information to create a structure for purpose, audience, and context.
- excluding extraneous information.
-providing accurate documentation. - Objective 2.03: Respond to informational texts by:
- using a variety of strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
- paraphrasing main ideas and supporting details present in texts.
-explaining significant connections among the speaker's/author's purpose, tone, biases, and the message for the intended audience.
- Objective 2.01: Research ideas, events, and/or movements related to United States culture by:
- Goal 4: The learner will critically analyze text to gain meaning, develop thematic connections, and synthesize ideas.
- Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
- examining the functions and the effects of narrative strategies such as plot, conflict, suspense, point of view, characterization, and dialogue.
- interpreting the effect of figures of speech (e.g., personification, oxymoron) and the effect of devices of sound (e.g., alliteration, onomatopoeia).
- analyzing stylistic features such as word choice and links between sense and sound.
- identifying ambiguity, contradiction, irony, parody, and satire.
- demonstrating how literary works reflect the culture that shaped them. - Objective 4.02: Develop thematic connections among literary works by:
- connecting themes that occur across genres or works from different time periods.
- using specific references to validate connections.
-examining how representative elements such as mood, tone, and style impact the development of a theme.
- Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
- Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret the significance of literary movements as they have evolved through the literature of the United States by:
- analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, and how the selection of genre shapes meaning.
- relating ideas, styles, and themes within literary movements of the United States.
- understanding influences that progress through the literary movements of the United States.
-evaluating the literary merit and/or historical significance of a work from Colonial Literature, the Romantic Era, Realism, the Modern Era, and Contemporary Literature. - Objective 5.02: Analyze the relationships among United States authors and their works by:
- making and supporting valid responses about the text through references to other works and authors.
-comparing texts to show similarities or differences in themes, characters, or ideas.
- Objective 5.01: Interpret the significance of literary movements as they have evolved through the literature of the United States by:
- Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
- decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
- discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
- revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
- contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
-analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events. - Objective 6.02: Discern and correct errors in speaking and writing at a level appropriate to eleventh grade by:
- reviewing and refining purposeful use of varying sentence types with correct punctuation.
- reviewing and refining correct pronoun usage, antecedents, and case.
- refining subject/verb agreement and choice of tense.
- extending effective use of phrases and clauses. - discussing parts of speech as they relate to writing.
-editing for correct spelling and mechanics.
- Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:



