LAFS.1112.RL.2.5
Description:
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
Maps to Reading Plus skills:
5A, 5B, 5C
Exemplars
5C: Examining Genre
5C: Examining Genre
Description:
Examining Genre
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-33
K-33
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2751 words
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Synopsis: When a man thinks he sees a snake under his bed, his fear and anxiety grow with each passing moment.
Excerpt:
Over the course of his life, Bierce famously contributed to a variety of prominent and diverse newspapers and magazines and wrote all types of literary works, from short stories to poems. Much of his works were realistic pieces that examined the human condition. They were inspired by the atrocities he encountered while serving as a soldier in the American Civil War.
Question:
Author Ambrose Bierce is best known for writing stories that fall in which two of the following genres?
- war stories
- thrillers
- romantic stories
- fables
- science fiction
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
What literary elements must a selection have to be classified as historical fiction? Use details from a selection you have read to illustrate and explain your answer.
Evaluator
Organization:
Curriculum Design Institute
5B: Examining Sequence
5B: Examining Sequence
Description:
Examining Sequence of Ideas and Events
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-23
K-23
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2412 words
Author: Anton Chekhov
Synopsis: A wager between a banker and a lawyer yields an unexpected result.
Excerpt:
During the first year of solitary imprisonment, the lawyer, judging from his frantic short notes, suffered terribly from loneliness and boredom; from his cell day and night came the sound of the piano. He was sent books of whimsical character: novels with complicated yet preposterous love interests, stories of crime and fantasy, comedies, and so on.
In the second year the piano was abandoned and the lawyer requested only classic literature.
In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoner began zealously to study languages, philosophy, and history; in the space of four years about six hundred volumes were purchased at his request.
Later, after the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table and read only the New Testament; the banker found it peculiar that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes should have spent nearly a year examining one book, easy to understand and by no means thick.
In the second year the piano was abandoned and the lawyer requested only classic literature.
In the second half of the sixth year, the prisoner began zealously to study languages, philosophy, and history; in the space of four years about six hundred volumes were purchased at his request.
Later, after the tenth year, the lawyer sat immovable before his table and read only the New Testament; the banker found it peculiar that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes should have spent nearly a year examining one book, easy to understand and by no means thick.
Question:
Place these characterizations of the lawyer's years of solitary imprisonment in order, from first to last.
- He played the piano as he suffered from loneliness and boredom.
- He requested only classic literature.
- He intensively studied languages, philosophy, and history.
- He read only the New Testament.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Describe how the author of a selection uses details to advance the plot.
Evaluator
Organization:
Curriculum Design Institute
5A: Examining Text Structure
5A: Examining Text Structure
Description:
Examining Text Structure
SeeReader
✓ standard met
Selection:
K-4
K-4
Grade level: 11
Word count: 2496 words
Author: Diane Lang
Synopsis: A skilled snowboarder takes a big chance when he cruises the slopes in avalanche territory.
Excerpt:
"Hey! Over there, about 30 degrees to the left of the snowslide -- footprints!" The helicopter glided westward and sure enough there were footprints leading to a rough structure tucked in between a stand of evergreens.
Question:
In the last part of the selection, which sentence signals a major change in the action?
- About 30 degrees to the left of the snowslide -- footprints!
- Over there; he shouldn't die, he saved me.
- The two men were taken out by stretchers.
- That's a good omen for us, young lady.
Writing
✓ standard met
Writing prompt:
Explain an author's use of description in a selection, and how the description shaped the way you viewed and understood the person, object, or event described.
Evaluator
Organization:
Curriculum Design Institute