Note: At the beginning of this unit, assign the Student Reading List and Independent Research Projects. Written note-taking must be stressed and, if necessary, graded. Students should be encouraged to draw from both written and oral commentary.
Section I: Technical Analysis of the Short Story (3-4 days)
(A) Review the major elements of the short story.
Each student must have a working knowledge of the “parts” of the short story before he/she can begin to analyze the stories. The following terms should be reviewed and defined, refining and expanding these definitions as the stories are discussed:
Point of View/Narration
Characterization
Setting
Theme
Plot
Tone
Climax
Conflict
Sample Exercise
: Select a
familiar
short story (e.g. Poe’s “The Black Cat” or Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”). Encourage oral reading, using your own “dramatic” sense to highlight important passages. In writing, each student must identify and explain the elements of the selection using specific examples from the text.
(B) Introduce important literary devices that are of particular interest in the required reading. Again, definitions and examples should be generated through discussion:.
Dialect
|
Stereotype
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Symbolism
|
Humor
|
Irony/dramatic irony
|
Local color
|
Metaphor
|
Simile
|
Dialogue
|
Scapegoat
|
Sample Exercise
: Using a passage from a Chesnutt story, give the students an opportunity to work through written dialect together. An accurate recording would be very helpful. Students must begin to feel comfortable with dialect in order to fully appreciate the stories.
Sample Exercise
: Contemporary Dialect: Have your students compose a list of currently popular phrases that may not be understood by adults or peers outside of their environment. Give examples from
your
high school years and then discuss the differences and
value
of subdivisions in our rich language.
Section II: Independent Research Projects (One Week)
Objective: Each student must contribute information to the class on one subject from each area. The class then becomes a group of “authorities,” which can in turn create self-motivation within the class.
Note: This is a perfect opportunity to get students to go to the school or public library if you have not already done so. Familiarize students with both Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress catalog systems. Review available reference materials.
Strategy: Distribute a list of topic areas at the beginning of the unit (with deadlines). Allow 2-3 nights for each mini-paper (250Ð300 words). The limited length forces students to select only those points of information that will be of greatest significance to the class. Be sure all topics are assigned.
Topics
(Suggestions only-add and delete topics as needed)
A.
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Biographies of Writers
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Joel Chandler Harris
|
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George Washington Cable
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Thomas Nelson Page
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
|
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Edgar Allan Poe
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Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Charles W. Chesnutt
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Washington Irving
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Thomas Dixon
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B.
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Literary History of the Period
|
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Plantation Tradition
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Magazine Expansion
|
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Romanticism
|
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William Dean Howells, editor
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Regionalism and the Local Colorists
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Creole social structure
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Poe’s “Single Effect” theory
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Images of the Negro (1850-1900)
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Disfranchisement and education
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Section III: Literary and Historical Background Leading into the Post-Reconstruction Era (2Ð3 days)
Note: These lectures should be presented at the beginning of the unit if it is an isolated short story analysis. An example of each type of writing should accompany each lecture.