WEEK THREE: Day Five
Literary Unit Theme:
Stages of Life
Essential Question:
What turning points determine our individual paths to adulthood?
Unit Skills and Concepts:
Students will site lessons/concepts they learn about humankind and themselves by studying the lives of others in literature.Students will identify thematic elements of the "stages of life" in short stories, drama, and poetry.
Students will demonstrate the ability to understand and analyze significant details of plot development.
Students will demonstrate understanding of the climax in plot structure.
Students will analyze characters in fiction and drama - their words, actions, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.
Students will identify and explain how tone, figurative language, and sensory devices in poetry effect a thematic look at a stage in life.
Today's Skills or Concepts:
After a review of the discussion of Erik Erikson's "Developmental Stage - Youth," the student will be able to discuss the stage's crisis, positive possible outcome, or negative possible outcome in Frank O'Connor's "The Drunkard."
After a review of the discussion of Erik Erikson's "Developmental Stage - Old Age," the student will be able to record the stage's crisis, positive possible outcome, or negative possible outcome in Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall."
Mini-Lesson Outline:
A. The teacher will guide a class discussion of "The Drunkard," based on students' responses concerning their reading logs and written answers to critical thinking questions.
B. Students will read Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," pages 442 - 449 in the text. As they read, students will complete the "Stages of Life - Old Age" reading log by utilizing the Erikson Stage of Old Age.
C. In their notebooks, all students will answer the following questions:
- What connotations does the name "Weatherall" have in the context of the story?
- How is it a suitable name for the main character, Granny?
- Cite examples to show that life has not been "too much for her."
- Identify the following characters and tell whether they are related primarily to Granny's present or to her "past": Cornelia, John, Doctor, Harry, George, Father Connolly.
- What roles do these characters play in Granny's life and her thoughts?
- What is the significance of Granny's seeing Hapsy again?
- Where is Hapsy?
- "She had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up again." Explain how, in light of the end of the story, this sentence is not true.
- Why is the jilting so important to Granny?
- How is the jilting related to the last paragraph of the story?
- In the story figurative language is often used to convey Granny's state of mind. For example, to Granny "Doctor Harry floated like a balloon around the foot of the bed." Find three other examples of figurative language used to convey a state of mind.
E. For homework, students will complete any questions that remain unfinished in the previous exercise.
