- Unit 1
- Level 1
- 1 days
- Word Choice, Text Analysis, Close Reading, Identify Textual Evidence
- Download Lesson
Standards Addressed:
- RL.9-10.1
- RL.9-10.4
Lesson Materials/Resources
Objectives
In this lesson, students read the first section of Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” In this story, feral girls with werewolf parents attend a Jesuit boarding school founded to socialize the girls by teaching them human behaviors. Students listen to a masterful reading of pages 225–229 of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” (from “Stage 1: The initial period is one in which everything is new” to “her tranquilizer dart. ‘It can be a little over stimulating’”). Students read and analyze the title and epigraph, and examine how Russell uses specific word choices to evoke a sense of place.
Assessment/CFU
Student learning is assessed via a Quick Write at the end of the lesson. Students respond to the following prompt, citing textual evidence to support analysis and inferences drawn from the text.
Identify two specific word choices in the title and epigraph and explain how these words evoke a sense of place.
A High Performance Response should:
Identify two specific word choices in the epigraph and title (e.g., “students” and “interesting” (p. 225)).
Explain how those word choices evoke a sense of place (e.g., “Students” suggests St. Lucy’s is a place where the girls will be educated, and “interesting” suggests that the girls may be curious about St. Lucy’s or that it is unlike the girls’ home (p.225).
Opening/Warmup/Connecting Prior Knowledge
Begin by outlining the goals for this module and unit. Explain to students that the first module of the year focuses on developing their ability to read closely and to use evidence from what they read in their writing and discussions. This unit focuses on introducing these skills.
Review the agenda and the assessed standard for this lesson: RL.9-10.4. In this lesson, students develop their close reading skills as they encounter Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” for the first time. Students consider how Russell’s specific word choices evoke a sense of place, and then complete the lesson with a Quick Write.
Distribute copies of the 9.1 Common Core Learning Standards Tool. Explain that students will work throughout the year to master the skills described in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Inform students that in this lesson they begin to work with two new standards: RL.9-10.1 and RL.9-10.4. Ask students to individually read these standards on their tools and assess their familiarity with and mastery of them.
Students read and assess their familiarity with standards RL.9-10.1 and RL.9-10.4.
Instruct students to talk in pairs about what they think standard RL.9-10.1 means. Lead a brief discussion about the standard.
Student responses may include:
o Use quotes from the text to explain what the text means.
o Figure out what the text says directly and indirectly.
o Show where things are unexplained in the text.
o Read between the lines.
In preparation for a discussion about standard RL.9-10.4, provide students with the following definitions: figurative language is “language that expresses an idea in an interesting way by using words that usually describes something else,” connotative meaning is “a suggested or associated meaning in addition to a word’s primary meaning,” cumulative means “including or adding together all of the things that came before,” evokes means “brings (a memory, feeling, image, etc.) into the mind,” and tone is “an author’s attitude toward his or her subject.”
Students write the definitions of figurative language, connotative meaning, cumulative, evokes, and tone on their copies of the text or in a vocabulary journal.
Instruct students to talk in pairs about what they think the standard RL.9-10.4 means. Lead a brief discussion about the standard.
Student responses may include:
o Figure out what words and phrases mean based on the words around them.
o Think about how words might have different or multiple meanings depending on how they are used in the text.
o Show how a combination of word choices contributes to the meaning and tone of a text.
o Think about how words and phrases create a setting.
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