Content Area: Language Arts Literacy

 

Index: 3.1G Grade 8 CPI 4

 

Standard: 3.1 Reading

 

Strand: G - Comprehension Skills & Response to Text

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4 -  The student will locate and analyze the elements of setting, characterization, and plot to construct understanding of how characters influence the progression and resolution of the plot.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·       After reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, students research Victorian social customs in 19th-century England. Small groups are then assigned portions of the Dickens text to examine for historical accuracy. Each group reports its findings to the class.

 

·       After reading a short story or trade book, students grade a character’s traits that are important in the story, such as concern for others, honesty, and dependability. For each trait, the students assign a grade (e.g., B for honesty) and then explain the particular grade using textual support.

 

·       During a unit on mystery and horror, students analyze the role of characters, settings, and events in a literary work. Small groups of these students construct story maps based on selected Edgar Allan Poe stories. Later, they compare Poe’s stories to stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne that the teacher has read aloud in order to note similarities and differences between the two authors’ construction of these elements.