Today, we discussed and explored Joan Bauer's short story, "The Truth about Sharks" in greater depth, and created visual and symbolic artwork that powerfully displays a line from the text that we thought was most powerful.
I enjoyed hearing each of your reactions to the story, and what you each found to be the most powerful line. When Beth, the protagonist, says on page 43, "I am teenager, hear me roar," we begin to get a sense of her empowerment as a character. She will no longer swallow her own voice in the face of wrongful accusation.
Our word of the day was--lo and behold!--EMPOWER, which means to give authority to, to imbue with power, or to give voice. We can empower others, but we can also empower ourselves--just as Beth does in Bauer's story.
Tomorrow, we have our third vocabulary quiz. The five words on this quiz are: CHARACTERIZATION, PROTAGONIST, ANTAGONIST, OMNISCIENT, and EMPOWER. Look back at our previous posts in case you need the definitions, or have forgotten your English binder at school.
For tomorrow's quiz, be ready to read a very, very, very (very) silly and goofy story that I have written for you. And your mission will be to annotate the story using our five new words. Warning: there are aliens; there is Jell-O; there is a scene involving a shield made of gold (and some hay particles) and a desperate, earth-shattering roar.
On that note, have an awesome evening.
Showing posts with label Joan Bauer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joan Bauer. Show all posts
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
All Powerful! All Knowing! All--Wait...Wait...Really?
Today we explored the kinds of POINT OF VIEW that authors use when they craft a story. As we read short fiction from all different genres, we see that each story is told through a different lens...
Some authors use 1st person point of view, whereby a character in the story is the narrator, and the "I" voice is how we see all other characters and events. A great example of 1st person POV is that lovely first line from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders: "When I left the movie house that night, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."
Some authors (though rarely) use 2nd person point of view, whereby the "you" voice is is how we see all the events and characters within the story. A great example of this is Jay McInerney's famous novel Bright Lights, Big City (which was made into a film starring Michael J. Fox). The entire novel is told in the "you" voice, so the narrator is always describing action, thoughts, and emotions by saying things like, "Your heartbreak is just another version of the same old story."
Other authors use 3rd person limited point of view, whereby we learn about events and emotions through the eyes of one or 2 characters within the story. The writing voice, here, uses "she / he / they." However, the narrator doe snot know what EVERY CHARACTER in the story thinks or feels--only one or two characters. An example would be Margie from our short story, "The Fun They Had." Asimov writes, "Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days."
Finally, we have 3rd person omniscient point of view, where the narrator of the story KNOWS EVERYONE'S EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS, AND VIEWS. The narrator here can take turns telling the story from different perspectives, in order to access every character's vision. It is still told in the "she / he / they" voice, but the narrator can use ANY "she / he / they" within the story, not just one or two!
After exploring POV and sharing some funny examples, we dove into a new short story by Joan Bauer entitled, "The Truth about Sharks." We read and annotated and tomorrow will do an activity with the story.
Our word of the day was omniscient, which means ALL KNOWING!
Our quote of the day was from Dr. Seuss: "I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living."
Our homework for tonight is to finish reading and annotating the short story, "The Truth about Sharks" by Joan Bauer.
Some authors use 1st person point of view, whereby a character in the story is the narrator, and the "I" voice is how we see all other characters and events. A great example of 1st person POV is that lovely first line from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders: "When I left the movie house that night, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman, and a ride home."
Some authors (though rarely) use 2nd person point of view, whereby the "you" voice is is how we see all the events and characters within the story. A great example of this is Jay McInerney's famous novel Bright Lights, Big City (which was made into a film starring Michael J. Fox). The entire novel is told in the "you" voice, so the narrator is always describing action, thoughts, and emotions by saying things like, "Your heartbreak is just another version of the same old story."
Other authors use 3rd person limited point of view, whereby we learn about events and emotions through the eyes of one or 2 characters within the story. The writing voice, here, uses "she / he / they." However, the narrator doe snot know what EVERY CHARACTER in the story thinks or feels--only one or two characters. An example would be Margie from our short story, "The Fun They Had." Asimov writes, "Margie was thinking about how the kids must have loved it in the old days."
Finally, we have 3rd person omniscient point of view, where the narrator of the story KNOWS EVERYONE'S EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS, AND VIEWS. The narrator here can take turns telling the story from different perspectives, in order to access every character's vision. It is still told in the "she / he / they" voice, but the narrator can use ANY "she / he / they" within the story, not just one or two!
After exploring POV and sharing some funny examples, we dove into a new short story by Joan Bauer entitled, "The Truth about Sharks." We read and annotated and tomorrow will do an activity with the story.
Our word of the day was omniscient, which means ALL KNOWING!
Our quote of the day was from Dr. Seuss: "I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living."
Our homework for tonight is to finish reading and annotating the short story, "The Truth about Sharks" by Joan Bauer.
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