Author’s Intent
Unit Plan
Author’s Intent
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Grade Levels
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Related Academic Standards
- Assessment Anchors
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Eligible Content
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Big Ideas
- Comprehension requires and enhances critical thinking and is constructed through the intentional interaction between reader and text
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Concepts
- Acquiring and applying a robust vocabulary assists in constructing meaning
- Essential content, literary elements and devices inform meaning
- Textual features and organization inform meaning
- Textual structure, features and organization inform meaning
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Competencies
- Analyze and evaluate author’s/authors’ use of literary elements within and among genres
- Analyze connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
- Analyze the context of literal, figurative, and idiomatic vocabulary to clarify meaning
- Analyze the impact of societal and cultural influences in texts
- Articulate connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
- Evaluate the characteristics of various genre (e.g. fiction and nonfiction forms of narrative, poetry, drama and essay) to determine how the form relates to purpose.
- Evaluate the context of literal, figurative, and idiomatic vocabulary to clarify meaning
- Evaluate the effects of inclusion and exclusion of information in persuasive text
- Evaluate the presentation of essential and nonessential information in texts, identifying the author’s implicit or explicit bias and assumptions
- Evaluate the relevance and reliability of information, citing supportive evidence and acknowledging counter points of view in texts
- Identify and analyze the characteristics of various genre (e.g. poetry, drama, fiction) and explain the appropriateness of chosen form for author’s purpose
- Identify and evaluate essential content between and among various text types
- Interpret and analyze the effect of literary devices within and among texts (e.g. personification, simile, alliteration, metaphor, symbolism, imagery, hyperbole, foreshadowing, flashback, allusions, satire, and irony)
- Summarize, draw conclusions, and make generalizations from a variety of mediums
- Use connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
Objectives
In this unit, students analyze the role of author’s purpose in literature, particularly as it is expressed through the use of humor and persuasion. Students will:
- identify and analyze ways in which humor is expressed in literature.
- analyze the author’s purpose for using humor in particular literary selections.
- identify the use of literary devices, including figurative language, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, symbolism, and irony.
- practice analyzing the effects of these literary devices in particular selections.
- identify and analyze author’s purpose for using persuasion in particular literary selections.
- identify the persuasive techniques employed by the author.
- analyze the use of persuasion to raise social and political awareness.
Essential Questions
- How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?
Related Unit and Lesson Plans
Related Materials & Resources
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Materials haven't been entered into the unit plan.Formative Assessment
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Multiple-Choice Items
1. Which example is an emotional appeal?
A a request to vote for a well-qualified, experienced candidate
B a request to support a referendum to fund school improvements
C a request to donate canned goods to a local food pantry
D a request to make a terminally ill child’s dream come true
2. Which example is an appeal to reason?
A
As a serious student, I always try to do my best.
B
The piano was a distressing loss because we had no replacement for it.
C
Ted is the better candidate because he has had five years of experience.
D
Believing in oneself is essential to achieving success.
3. What must a speaker do to have ethical appeal?
A
appeal to the ethics of the audience
B
appear to be sensible
C
appear to be amusing
D
appeal to the emotions of the audience
Multiple-Choice Answer Key
1. D
2. C
3. B
Short-Answer Item:
Materials:
- Coach Herman Boone’s Gettysburg speech from Remember the Titans
(http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechrememberthetitans.html)
You may wish to substitute another example of a persuasive speech for students to analyze.
Watch Coach Herman Boone’s Gettysburg speech from Remember the Titans and then read the text of the speech. Write a paragraph analyzing the use of persuasion in this speech.
- Identify three examples and explain how each uses persuasion.
- Explain what the author wanted to accomplish in this speech.
Short-Answer Key and Scoring Rubric:
Points
Description
3
Student writes a paragraph that includes all of the following requirements:
- identifies and explains three examples of persuasion
- explains what the author wanted to accomplish in the speech
2
Student writes a paragraph that includes two of the requirements.
1
Student writes a paragraph that includes one of the requirements.
0
Student does not meet the requirements or does not attempt to complete the task.
Performance Assessment:
Assess whether the student completed all individual writing assignments for the unit.
Performance Assessment Scoring Rubric:
Points
Description
4
Student satisfactorily completes all of the following assignments:
- analysis of humor in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavares County”
- analysis of persuasion in Martin Luther King’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech
- analysis of “Speaks Out on Child Labor and Woman Suffrage”
- analysis of “We Wear the Mask”
3
Student satisfactorily completes three of the required assignments.
2
Student satisfactorily completes two of the required assignments.
1
Student satisfactorily completes one of the required assignments.
0
Student does not satisfactorily complete any of the assignments or does not attempt to do the assignments.
DRAFT 06/13/2011
