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Lesson 2: Diction and Literary Techniques in Relation to Writing Style February 24 and 27, 2012 ________________________________________________________________________ Subject: Fundamentals

of Writing (Periods 4 and 8) Unit: Nonfiction Literary Analysis Grade: 10th Grade Time Frame: 2 class periods (approximately 45 minutes each) Rationale During this lesson, students will learn about writing style and tone through the use of diction and other literary devices. Students need to comprehend the importance of diction and other literary techniques in order to determine an authors style and tone. Once these elements are known, students can better analyze meaning, purpose, and theme. Standards to be addressed from Iowa Core RI.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. RI.11-12.3: Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas or events interact and develop over the course of the text. RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. RI.11-12.6: Determine an authors point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text. Essential Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. How does diction impact the tone and style in literature? How do we interpret tone and style? How do we identify diction in literature? How does style and tone impact purpose and theme in a story?

Learning Objectives Students will be able to: 1. Define diction and determine what it looks like in literature

2. Evaluate how diction impacts writing style and tone 3. Examine various ways writing style and tone are portrayed in literature 4. Determine how to identify writing style tone in a writing piece Objectives to be addressed from WDM Community Schools: 1. Apply reading strategies to understand and interpret literary texts. 2. Analyze authors use of literary devices in conveying purpose and theme in a literary text. 3. Apply the writing process to communicate ideas in a literary analysis. 4. Use standard expectations of content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions in writing. Technology/Resources Day One: Microsoft PowerPoint presentation: Diction and Writing Style Elmo and overhead projector Excerpt from Club Denali by John Krakauer Excerpt from Go Ahead, Panic by Dave Barry Paper Writing utensil Day Two: Microsoft PowerPoint presentation: Diction and Writing Style (reference from Day 1) Lyrics to Michael Jacksons Beat It Lyrics to Weird Al Yankovichs Eat It Venn diagram worksheet Sequencing *Literary techniques worksheets are due at the beginning of the period. I will do a quick review by calling out the literary language term where students respond as a class. This will exercise prior knowledge connections and will serve as a formative assessment strategy. Hook: I will ask students to describe their style in five words. Students should write these five words (adjectives) on paper. We will spend the first few minutes sharing descriptions in front of the class. I will stress that students understand that style is rather difficult to define, but is often recognizable. After a handful of students have shared their thoughts relating to style, I will ask students to think about labels and how they relate to style. We will spend a few minutes discussing and distinguishing the two terms.

I Do It: During the first part of class, I will present a simple overview of types of diction and how diction relates to tone and style in literature. I have provided examples within the presentation that distinguish types of diction. Then, I will encourage students to analyze the style and tone of the writer based on the form of diction demonstrated. Students must support their answers. There will be additional opportunities to practice as a class using provided examples in the presentation. We Do It/You Do It Alone: Students will practice using these new concepts with two excerpts of writing that represent very unique senses of style through the use of vivid imagery and word choice. I will read through Club Denali by John Krakauer. Then, I will walk students through the process of analyzing and evaluating the text. I will repeat these steps using the second passage, Go Ahead, Panic by Dave Barry. Students will spend the rest of the period identifying types of diction, tone and at least three additional literary language devices within the two pieces of writing. These must all be labeled on the text. This assignment will be due next week (Monday) and will be used as formative assessment data. Day Two: The second part of the lesson, to be completed the following class period, will consist of students identifying similar techniques using two sets of lyrics: Beat It by Michael Jackson, and Eat It by Weird Al Yankovich. I will briefly review writing style, tone, and diction. The purpose of this activity is for students to gain additional practice identifying tone and writing style, and to help them connect the material to a different genre of writing. Students will benefit from this lesson by understanding that tone and writing stylelike literary languagecan be applied to nearly all forms of writing and language. In this activity, students will partner up and will be expected to identify examples of diction, tone, sentence structure, literary techniques, and overall organization of each set of lyrics. We will then close the lesson by watching both music videos and analyzing how tone and style compare between the two. Assessment Objectives 1. Objectives one through four will be assessed according to the overall accuracy and thorough completion of Day 1 and Day 2 practice activities. These assignments will be turned in and used as formative assessment data. Students must identify the tone and style of these excerpts using evidence of identified types of diction and literary language. Students will also be assessed according to responses from class discussion and from working one-on-one with students. Assessment Tools 1. Observation and inquiry (Formative) 2. Question-and-answer (Formative) 3. Class discussion (Formative) 4. Accuracy and completion of Club Denali, Go Ahead, Panic, and Lyric comparison practice activities from Day 1 and Day 2 (Formativenot graded)

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