We tell ourselves stories in order to live. ~ Joan Didion
Thematic Overview
What have I come to believe about the world around me?
Objectives
- Students will analyze the writing styles of exemplar narrative writers using annotating techniques.
- Students will understand and utilize learned rhetorical strategies within their own writing.
- Students will construct an original narrative essay, which displays an understanding of conventions and grammar rules of the English language.
Readings
- Why I Write, George Orwell
- Why I Write, Joan Didion
- The Waiting Room, Elizabeth Bishop
- The Stunt Pilot, Annie Dillard
- Excerpts from Walden, Henry David Thoreau
- The Silent Season of a Hero, Gay Talese
Rhetorical Strategies: metaphor, simile, imagery, syntactical inversion, allusion, antithesis, paradox, alliteration (alliterative phrase), hyperbole
Assessment: Students will construct a narrative essay that details a pivotal event in their life. Students will study Burke’s Pentad in order to understand the narrative process and the act of shaping an event in writing. The essay will undergo several stages including rough draft, peer review, teacher review, revision, and editing.
Standards
RL.2, RL.3, RL.5, RL.6, W.3, W.4, W.5, W.6, W.10, SL.1, L.1, L.2, L.5
