Sandra K. Friday
As I mentioned in the Rationale, my unit will incorporate the questions that invariably appear on the Language Arts component of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. Students will have numerous opportunities to practice answering these questions which could be construed as, "Teaching to the test." However, these questions provide an excellent guide in exploring literature, including questions such as: How does a character change from the beginning to the end of the story, and what do you think causes the change? Students are expected to back up their observations with evidence from the story, which is always a useful skill. Another of the questions that my students will be asked to practice answering is: Do you consider this story to be good or effective, based on its literary characteristics? For this students will refer to characteristics such as: conflict, character change, action, message or theme, details, realism, surprise ending, imagery, intrigue, effective dialogue, etc. Students need to learn the terminology in order to answer this question competently.