Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying": Crossing the River

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9 — English I

• Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
  • Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
    • scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
    • vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
    • appreciation for the significance of the account.
    • a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (individually and in groups) to a variety of expressive texts (e.g., memoirs, vignettes, narratives, diaries, monologues, personal responses) in a way that offers an audience:
    • an understanding of the student's personal reaction to the text.
    • a sense of how the reaction results from a careful consideration of the text.
    • an awareness of how personal and cultural influences affect the response.
• Goal 2: The learner will explain meaning, describe processes, and answer research questions to inform an audience.
  • Objective 2.01: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print informational texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
    • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
    • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
    • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
    • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
    • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
    • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
    • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
    • making connections between works, self and related topics.
    • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
    • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
    • identifying and analyzing elements of informational environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
• Goal 3: The learner will examine argumentation and develop informed opinions.
  • Objective 3.01: Study argument by:
    • examining relevant reasons and evidence.
    • noting the progression of ideas that substantiate the proposal.
    • analyzing style, tone, and use of language for a particular effect.
    • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical, or cultural influences contexts, or biases.
    • identifying and analyzing rhetorical strategies that support proposals.
  • Objective 3.03: Support that informed opinion by:
    • providing relevant and convincing reasons.
    • using various types of evidence, such as experience or facts.
    • using appropriate and effective language, reasons, and organizational structure for the audience and purpose.
    • demonstrating awareness of the possible questions, concerns, or counterarguments of the audience.
• Goal 4: The learner will create and use standards to critique communication.
  • Objective 4.02: Read and critique various genres by:
    • using preparation, engagement, and reflection strategies appropriate for the text.
    • identifying and using standards to evaluate aspects of the work or the work as a whole.
    • judging the impact of different stylistic and literary devices on the work.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
    • using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
    • recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
    • interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
    • understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
    • explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
    • explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
    • determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
    • explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
    • making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
    • producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.

Grade 10 — English II

• Goal 4: The learner will critically interpret and evaluate experiences, literature, language, and ideas.
  • Objective 4.02: Analyze thematic connections among literary works by:
    • showing an understanding of cultural context.
    • using specific references from texts to show how a theme is universal.
    • examining how elements such as irony and symbolism impact theme.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of selected world literature through interpretation and analysis.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze selected works of world literature by:
    • using effective strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
    • building on prior knowledge of the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, and exploring how those characteristics apply to literature of world cultures.
    • analyzing literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, situational irony, and imagery and explaining their effect on the work of world literature.
    • analyzing the importance of tone and mood.
    • analyzing archetypal characters, themes, and settings in world literature.
    • making comparisons and connections between historical and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.

Grade 11 — English III

• 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.
• Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.
  • 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.

Grade 12 — English IV

• Goal 4: The learner will analyze and critique texts from various perspectives and approaches.
  • Objective 4.02: Develop critiques that give an audience:
    - an appreciation of how themes relate among texts.
    -an understanding of how authors' assumptions, cultural backgrounds, and social values affect texts.
    -an understanding of how more than one critical approach affects interpretation.