1. Writer’s Workshop Literary Analysis - Session #3

2. Goal: I can develop my thinking into an idea that is big enough to become my essay’s central idea (CLAIM). When we write about a character we should work hard to come up with a claim that captures the whole of that character from beginning to end of the story.

3. Let’s review the claim we made for “The Three Little Pigs” Claim: The third little pig is an admirable character because he works very hard and because he out-wits the wolf. This is the claim that we chose to go with…was it the best choice? Could you come up with another claim we could make about the 3 rd little pig?

4. Active Engagement: Creating a Strong Claim Look at the claim we came up with for the third pig and ask yourselves these questions: 1.Does the claim encompass the character from the beginning to the end? 2.Does the claim cover all sides of the character? 3. Do you need to rework or reword your claim?

5. Active Engagement – Continue Think of the 3 stories we have read: STORYCHARACTERTRAIT #1TRAIT #2 “All American Slurp” Narrator “What do fish have to do with Anything?” Willie “What do fish have to do with Anything?” Mrs. Markham “What do fish have to do with Anything?” Mr. Markham “Thank you Ma’am” Roger “Thank you Ma’am” Mrs. Luella Bates “Thank you Ma’am” Washington Jones Now we are going to start working on preparing a claim for your Character Analysis… With your writing partner come up with TWO character traits for each character in the chart.

6. Active Engagement: Creating a Strong Claim Next Steps: 1. Look at your Character list…Which character do you want to focus on for the analysis you are about to write. 2.You will now move to a table with classmates who have chosen the same character. 3. As a group share the character traits you came up with and ask yourselves the following: Do the traits encompass the character from the beginning to the end? Do the traits cover all sides of the character? Example: “Throughout the story, Palacio portrays Via to be a protective sister who can sometimes be a bit resentful of the time her brother takes away from their parents. Example: “The Third Little Pig is an admirable character because he works hard and because he out-smarts the wolf.”

7. Active Engagement – Continue Now that you have chosen a character from the chart, and have decided on TWO traits, write a claim statement that you could use in your character analysis. With your partner decide if it is a good claim. Keeping the following in mind: 1.Does the claim encompass the character from the beginning to the end? 2.Does the claim cover all sides of the character?

8. Active Writing Time-Character Analysis Flash-draft Now that you have talked through your claim you are to fill in your INTRODUCTION section of your outline. After you have plugged in details to your outline, go ahead and write the introduction in your notebook. Remember that the introduction should include: Author and title identification Background Information Claim (last sentence of the introduction) After writing your intro paragraph, begin completing the outline for the two body paragraphs. Review your handout taped in your Writer’s Notebook called “Things to Look for when Annotating a Mentor Text” for the items to include in your INTRODUCTION. **Remember every sentence in a literary essay has a specific job and purpose!

9. Mid-Workshop Moment Using quotes well! ** Be sure to quote ACCURATELY! By quoting incorrectly it can totally change the meaning of the actual text. **Only use the part of the quote that supports your point. You may need to use an ellipsis … (This would replace the portion of the quote you want to leave out) Example: "Then you'd blast off... on screen, as if you were looking out... of a spaceship.“ **Use single quotation marks for dialogue within a piece of text you are quoting. Example: “ ‘I can't move.’ Maria whispered, ‘I am too scared.’ “

10. Share Read your partner’s introduction. Note the things your partner did well and offer areas in which they can improve. Did you partner include the items from the “Things to Look for checklist…?” Make sure they did not summarize the story too much. Did they include the author and title of the text? Did they have a strong CLAIM sentence?

11. Writer’s Workshop Homework Fill out the box and bullets outline for your Literary Essay Body Paragraphs. Be sure under the evidence box you include EXACT text from the story!