...Using Narrative Text in the Secondary Classroom Once upon a time, in a school, very much like your own, American History and all its contents were studied alongside tales of triumph, and defeat. In this history class, the students supplemented curriculum delivered through lectures and textbooks, with materials from sources such as diary entries, editorials, and historical fiction. This is an example of how narrative text can coexist with expository information found in content area classrooms in today's high schools. While the need for expository text is vital to the success of a student to understand the content (i.e., Social Studies) curriculum, narrative literature and various other texts are a great way to supplement the learner with information from which they can draw a better understanding of the state standards. Explained below is a definition of narrative literature, advantages and disadvantages of using narrative text in the high school Social Studies classroom, and five possible uses for using narrative texts in the high school classroom. Narrative Literature Narrative literature can be both fiction such as novels, as well as non-fictional works such as memoirs (Burke). Often, narrative literature includes many of the following: a plot, character, problems, and themes. In fictional work, one generally finds a setting, with a beginning, a reaction, and an ending (Roe, Stoodt-Hill, & P. C. Burns, 2004). Narrative literature can, and does exist on its own in...
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...Gothicism in Detective Fiction The Hound of the Baskervilles By Yue Zhao Submitted to the School of Foreign Studies in Partial Fulfillment to the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English (International Trade) Under the Supervision of Ms. Tang Jun June, 2012 Acknowledgement I would like to pay tribute to all those people who have given me a hand in the process of writing this thesis. Without their gracious help, the accomplishment of this thesis would not be so smooth. First and foremost, I deeply appreciate my supervisor, Ms. Tang Jun, who has provided me with so many valuable comments and constructive advice all the way through. But for her constant and invariable patience and kindness in guiding me, it would be more difficult for me to go through all the confusions and find a right direction. My thanks also go to the teachers who has given me suggestions, which benefit me a lot when I make the original plan, in the opening defence. With their help, I get to know where I should go next. Last but not the least, I extend my thanks to my classmates and my dearest parents for their encouragement and support. Wheneve I feel frustrated with my work, they are always there. Gothicism in Detective Fiction The Hound of the Baskervilles Abstract: As one of the most influential people who are never alive, Sherlock Holmes, written by Arthur Conan Doyle, attracts researches. The Hound of the Baskervilles...
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...in this novel “links” between his art and his life. The New York Times selected the book The Things They Caried as one of the best works of war fiction for the year, and Chicago Tribute awarded the novel its Heartland Prize. According to O'Brien, in using these interrelated sections of facts, story, confession, commentary, and narration of other people's experiences, he forced himself to invent a new form that blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, short story and novel, memory and imagination. Tim O’Brien, who describes himself as “strict realist”, who dismisses critics labels of “surrealist” or “magical realist”, but admit, that he is “war writer”. Tim O’Brien uses a mixture of facts and fictions (truth and reality) to reveal the complexities of war. Tim O’Brien mixes truth and fiction in his stories. O’Brien explores the way stories are told throughout his work . In his stories he demonstrate the way truth always seems to be around the next story. Tim O’Brien himself revised his stories. In his novel are revision, after revision of what could happened, what might have happened, what did happened and what did not happened. The things they carried as a complete work is different from reading the stories. O’Brien calls the book simply “A Work of Fiction” One of the main characters Rat Kiley, often tells stories, and it is hard to know whether they happened or...
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...four children. Her father, George Wofford, worked primarily as a welder, but held several jobs at once to support the family. Her mother, Ramah, was a domestic worker. Morrison later credited her parents with instilling in her a love of reading, music, and folklore. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens. "When I was in first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only black in the class and the only child who could read," she later told a reporter from The New York Times. Dedicated to her studies, Morrison took Latin in school, and read many great works of European literature. She graduated from Lorain High School with honors in 1949. At Howard University, Morrison continued to pursue her interest in literature. She majored in English, and chose the classics for her minor. After graduating from Howard in 1953, Morrison continued her education at Cornell University. She wrote her thesis on the works of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, and completed her master's degree in 1955. She then moved to Texas to teach English at Texas Southern University. In 1957, Morrison returned to Howard University to teach English. There she met Harold Morrison, an architect originally from Jamaica. The couple got married in 1958 and welcomed their first...
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...Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind, whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party. Point of View The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes. First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts...
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...report misses the complexity of literacy development in young people– at least from my secondary perspective. Of course he covers some bases and on the surface suggests a balanced approach. He is also right that teachers need to be better educated about reading practices. However, the emphasis on phonics which has been widely reported in the media appears disproportionate to its usefulness. Some students can manage to read and spell without phonics so why do we need to occupy their brains with phonemes or phonic practices. Others need them. The informed primary teacher differentiates accordingly. What Ken Rowe does not focus on is the literacy needs of young people in secondary schools where decoding is less of a problem than comprehension. For many students reading is meaningless – particularly fiction. The Four Resource Model of Allan Luke and Peter Freebody[2] outlines what students need to do as they read: Effective literacy draws on a repertoire of practices that allow learners, as they engage in reading and writing activities, to: • break the code of texts: recognising and using the fundamental features and architecture of written texts including: alphabet, sounds in words, spelling, conventions and patterns of sentence structure and text • participate in the meanings of text: understanding and composing meaningful written, visual and spoken texts from within the meaning systems of particular cultures, institutions, families, communities,...
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...Chapter 1 Introduction Background of the Study In the world of reading, our interest is one of the most salient factor that needs to be consider. It depends on the reasons why we read a certain material. We read because we are force to do so, for school requirements or we read we like it. If we like to read, reading materials matters most. Among the four macro skills in learning, Reading is the most important that a person needs to acquire because it is a vehicle that can be used to know and discover the world of learning and experiences. Reading defined as the process of decoding the printed materials. It is the very important aspect in education. It is basic tool of all subject areas. As stated by Santiago (2003) of Department of Education, National Capital Region. Reading is the mother of all skills. Reading is one of the myriad vehicles that provide readers with opportunities to anchor their spaceship of eagerness and interests – to know and discover the secrets behind the wonderful planet of vision and ideas. (Violesa S. Adrian) However, students nowadays, reading is taken for granted. They access to almost anything electronic such that old habits like playing street games or even reading have almost gone extinct. And one important educational issue is to increase the amount of interesting reading that students engage in. The bulk of the research in this area examined text characteristics that contribute to making reading materials more interesting. Gregg Schraw...
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...comedy and stark tragedy, Woolf examines such themes as family, culture, and the individual in this remarkable portrait of modern life. Its unique and lyrical style, which has garnered the novel praise since its first publication, adds an artistic dimension to this surprisingly current novel. Indeed,The Voyage Out is a beautiful and telling work about self and society that rings as true today as in 1915. 1919, Night and Day [pic] [pic] Originally published in 1919, Night and Day contrasts the daily lives of four major characters while examining the relationships between love, marriage, happiness, and success. Like Virginia Woolf's first novel The Voyage Out, Night and Day is a more traditional narrative than her later novels. Unlike her first novel, however, Night and Day relies much more on its characters' internal struggles to push the its plot forward. What results is a character study of a very quiet group of people who are actually in the throes of deep anxiety and indecision. 1922, Jacob’s Room [pic] Who is Jacob Flanders? In Virginia Woolf’s 1922 novel, Jacob’s Room, we follow the life of a promising...
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...Phillip Woods Sandra Simonds ENG102 April 26 2016 Langston Hughes and The Weary Blues Langston Hughes was recognized as a significant literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance" because of the number of emerging black writers. After graduating from high school, Hughes went to Mexico to visit his father, in hopes to convince his father that he should pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City. On his way to Mexico on the train, while thinking about his past and his future, Hughes wrote the famous poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." After arriving in Mexico, the tension between Hughes and his father was strong. Hughes wanted to be a writer; his father wanted him to be an engineer. After Hughes sent some of his poetry to what was known as the “Brownies” Book and “Crisis” magazines, it was accepted. his father was impressed enough to agree to pay for a year at Columbia University. It was there at Columbia University were he begin releasing more poems that he had written. Hughes embraced crafting blues music into his poetry because it expressed the worries of the common man in a simple and direct manner. Blues songs feature heavy repetition, and singers often seem to be laughing and crying at the same time. One of his best works was the poem “The Weary Blues” which came in first place in a section of a literary contest in an Opportunity magazine published in 1925...
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...Not only does the unfortunate Mr. Nuttel fall victim to the story's joke, but so does the reader. The reader is at first inclined to laugh at Nuttel for being so gullible. However, the reader, too, has been taken in by Saki's story and must come to the realization that he or she is also inclined to believe a well-told and interesting tale. Style “The Open Window” is the story of a deception, perpetrated on an unsuspecting, and constitutionally nervous man, by a young lady whose motivations for lying remain unclear. Structure The most remarkable of Saki’s devices in “The Open Window” is his construction of the story’s narrative. The structure of the story is actually that of a story-within-a-story. The larger “frame” narrative is that of Mr. Nuttel’s arrival at Mrs. Sappleton’s house for the purpose of introducing himself to her. Within this narrative frame is the second story, that told by Mrs. Sappleton’s niece. Symbolism The most important symbol in “The Open Window” is the open window itself. When Mrs. Sappleton’s niece tells Mr. Nuttel the story of the lost hunters, the open window comes to symbolize Mrs. Sappleton’s anguish and heartbreak at the loss of her husband and younger brother. When the truth is later revealed, the open window no longer symbolizes anguish but the very deceit itself. Saki uses the symbol...
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...LITERACY NARRATIVE Literacy Narrative Tyler Francis English 191 September 12, 2012 I've loved to read and write ever since I was taught my ABC's for the first time. It's been a huge part of my life in a lot of different aspects. I learned how to read when I was three years old because I went to a daycare where I was the youngest kid and the only one who couldn't read. Reading and writing just stuck with me after that. After I started reading better than my older daycare-mates, school was ready for me to conquer. The school put me with older kids right away and I was in English class with 3rd graders when I was in kindergarten. It helped me out with making friends and I always got along with older kids better than my own classmates. Elementary school is my favorite time of my life so far, because of all of the little things I learned from school and the kids that were around me and I don't think it would have been even close to how fun it was if it weren't for me being able to read so young. My love for reading stayed with me through junior high and high school too. I started reading more historical and biographical books than adventure and story books as I got older. My favorite books went from the “Harry Potter” series to Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln biographies. Starting in high school too, I got more into writing than before. I would try writing stories when I was in 4th or 5th grade, but I could never write more than two pages without me changing the whole...
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...3 July 2014 Final Exam Two excellent examples of young adult literature that consider the themes of race, ethnicity, and culture are Day of Tears, by Julius Lester and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. These award-winning novels illustrate the fact that the viewpoints of authors who are members of the minority groups about which they write have a unique perspective that can be universally appreciated. That these works of literature have universal appeal is a testament to the writing skills of both authors, as well as to the way in which each of them has blended historical fact and fiction, to paraphrase Mr. Lester in his Author’s Note in Day of Tears (175). Although both novels furnish us with multiple examples of how African-Americans and Native Americans were, and in the case of Diary, still are being mistreated at the hands of the white majority, they nevertheless serve to affirm the fact that the resilience of the children exposed to these horrors transcends a mere discussion of race because resilience is part of the human spirit. Both books are replete with examples proving this thesis. These novels are of recent vintage. Day of Tears was first published in 2005, while Diary was copyrighted in 2007. Both authors are “insiders,” that is to say, they are members of the minority groups that are the subjects of their writing. The book jacket of the paperback edition of Diary proclaims that the work is “inspired by...
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...Two excellent examples of young adult literature that consider the themes of race, ethnicity, and culture are Day of Tears, by Julius Lester and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. These award-winning novels illustrate the fact that the viewpoints of authors who are members of the minority groups about which they write have a unique perspective that can be universally appreciated. That these works of literature have universal appeal is a testament to the writing skills of both authors, as well as to the way in which each of them has blended historical fact and fiction, to paraphrase Mr. Lester in his Author’s Note in Day of Tears (175). Although both novels furnish us with multiple examples of how African-Americans and Native Americans were, and in the case of Diary, still are being mistreated at the hands of the white majority, they nevertheless serve to affirm the fact that the resilience of the children exposed to these horrors transcends a mere discussion of race because resilience is part of the human spirit. Both books are replete with examples proving this thesis. These novels are of recent vintage. Day of Tears was first published in 2005, while Diary was copyrighted in 2007. Both authors are “insiders,” that is to say, they are members of the minority groups that are the subjects of their writing. The book jacket of the paperback edition of Diary proclaims that the work is “inspired by his [Alexie’s] own experiences growing...
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...sway over more than eighty-five percent of the rest of the globe by the time of the First World War, having consolidated power and control over several centuries. One of the ways by which colonialism maintained power was by writing its own histories. These histories were conceived within grand narratives of progress, expansion and enlightenment. Inevitably, they both systematically and accidentally recast, ignored and silenced other competing histories from the places and cultures with which they came into contact. Post - colonial studies has consequently set itself the task of examining and challenging those narratives, developing other ways of telling histories, and re – evaluating other ways of remembering. If post- colonial literature means the interrogation of the subaltern to the “center”, no other book is representative of the post-colonial theory and practice as Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. The novel won the 2001 Frankfurt e – book Award of fifty thousand dollars Grand Prize for Fiction. Abreast of the contemporary academic debates about colonialism and culture, Ghosh is well-equipped in challenging the institutionalized perspectives of the colonial history. He is certain of his human and historical insights. He belongs to a nation that was once conquered and ruled by Imperial Britain...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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