Analyzing Chapters Week 4, Day 2

Connection We have learned to analyze a life experience to identify pivotal moments from which we learned a life lesson. Pivotal: of vital or critical importance: a pivotal event.

Teaching Point Today we will learn how to analyze a series of chapters in a story to explain how the chapters fit together to provide the overall structure of the text and how a character responds to a challenge. Understanding how the chapters fit together will help us to interpret a theme in the story.

Teaching A strategy we can use to analyze chapters in a story is to ask ourselves if there are moments when a main character experiences strong emotions or makes critical choices. When we have responded to these questions for each chapter, we can think about how these ideas fit together. We use pivotal moments to see if we can determine the structure of the story. How does this structure help us identify a possible life lesson?

Let’s continue to look at the book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. We have read this book together during read aloud.  Let’s read the next two chapters. At the end of each chapter we will stop and discuss pivotal moments. Did the main character experience strong emotions or make critical choices? After we analyze each chapter, we’ll think about how they fit together. By thinking about how chapters fit together, we can determine the structure of a story. By doing so, we can determine what themes are prevalent in it.

Link As you read stories on your own, take time to think about how the chapters fit together. How does this structure contribute to your overall understanding of the story?