Hi all! Today I’d like to share a bit with you about what we’re doing in Literature and Language class for 9th grade here at Kuei Shan..
The focus of our unit has been on how characters and setting in a story are very important when it comes to telling the author’s story, specifically their theme.
For those who might need a refresher, theme is the message or moral that a story is trying to teach us. For example, the theme of “Little Red Riding Hood” might be, “Don’t trust someone who is suspicious”; the theme of Pinocchio might be, “Lying can get you in a lot of trouble”, etc.
We studied characters and setting and the different ways an author presents these ideas to us: through description, through characters’ actions/thoughts, through dialogue, and characters’ actions/reactions. We read “The Most Dangerous Game”, “The Necklace”, and “The Raven”, among other texts.
We are currently studying The Great Gatsby, the classic early 1900s American novel studied widely in U.S. high schools. Again, we are focusing on the setting and characters in the novel and asking ourselves, “What is the author trying to tell us about life through these characters/settings?”
The students have just finished up the written part of their summative, in which they chose a text we haven’t read in class and analyzed the characters, setting, and theme (among other elements of literature such as symbolism and motivation). On Wednesday, they will begin their class presentations, in which they will analyze The Great Gatsby with the same elements, but in PPT form.
Coming up next semester, we’ll focus more on theme and effective ways that authors share their opinions beyond character.setting with a look at more short fiction, with our main focus being Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (another classic American novel studied throughout the U.S.)
I really enjoy working with this 9th grade class (both sections A and B). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through the KSS email system at chriscarpenter@kss.tp.edu.tw. See you next time!