+ Honest Truths Take a minute and write for me one simple truth of the way the world works (ie. Love is all you need). Explain it, and tell me why you believe these to be absolutely true (or mostly always true).

+ Literature, Themes, and Making Sense of Fiction. A smorgasbord of fun!

+ “Leveled” Reading Making-Meaning

+ Let’s Read a Story!

+ Please do now Talk to someone close to you about the patterns you see in the plot of The Giving Tree. Try to list some of them in the “Level 2” box on your chart. Questions to help: What are some reoccurring ideas in the text? What big topics might this book be “about?” In other words, is this a book about community, friendship, honesty, etc.?

+ Leveled Reading Level 1 – Surface Reading / Plot Summary Describing, paraphrasing, or summarizing plot Unproductive personal connections Level 2 – Interpretation of Plot / Characters / Narrative / Pattern Critical interpretation of plot and/or characters This is the pattern is occurring within the text based on your level 1 observations. Level 3 – Interpretation & Proof of Connection to Theme What is the theme, and what is the PROOF FROM THE TEXT that shows the theme (message/moral)

+ What is the point of writing about literature? Figure out what the author is trying to tell us. A message A moral A “truth” about the world Always a full sentence. The message is never about the book. The world People in general A message about a topic. When we write an essay, we try to prove what the author’s message is by using the details of the story.

+ How do Topics and Themes fit in? Topics are the “subjects” of books. They are what the book is “about.” Examples: War, death, love, loss, growing up, redemption A theme is the point an author is making about that topic. Example: War never solves conflict. We can’t understand the message without knowing the topic. The content of the book itself tells us what the author’s point is about it’s topic (the theme). SO… we can’t determine the message without reading and tracking how these topics are discussed.

+ Can you tell the difference? Technology is a curse and a blessing Leadership Love Violence never solves conflicts Education Censoring literature deprives students of educational opportunities

+ The Giving Tree Level 1 – Surface Reading / Plot Summary Level 2 – Interpretation of Plot / Characters / Narrative / Pattern Level 3 – Interpretation & Proof of Connection to Theme

+ Leveled Reading Of TGT Level 1 – Surface Reading / Plot Summary Level 2 – Interpretation of Plot / Characters / Narrative / Pattern Level 3 – Interpretation & Proof of Connection to Theme

+ Order of Making Meaning in Literary Study 1. Read 2. Collect Details Post-its connected to topics 3. Determine Topic – Must be significant to the text Answers: What is the book “about?” I do this part for you in advance. It often requires re-reading and is one of the more difficult steps to determine the first time through the book. 4. Return to the details. Details are combined and form a pattern. The pattern tells us something about the topic. o Example: Whenever we see technology used, someone is hurt or killed. Interpreted to determine the author’s purpose in discussing the topic which is the THEME. 5. Author’s Theme (message about a big idea) Technology hurts people. 6. Your Thesis = Author uses [X – the pattern] to reveal [Y – the theme].

+ Book I Big Topics Education Leadership

+ Please do now Take any patterns you found in your discussion earlier in the period and write them on the boards around the room. We don’t have to be RIGHT. We just want to start to search for patterns. Education on the front board Leadership on the side board

+ Introducing The Once and Future King T.H. White

+ Context for O&FK A little Arthur chat A little history lesson A little epistle, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down. … if you’re catchin’ my drift. … if you’re feelin’ the vibe, daddy-o

+ Based on… A book by a guy named Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte D’Arthur 1485

+ Le Morte D’Arthur And so long they fought that tidings came to King Arthur, and anon he graithed him and came to the battle, and saw his knights how they had vanquished the battle, he embraced them knight by knight in his arms, and said, Ye be worthy to wield all your honour and worship; there was never a king save myself that had so noble knights. Sir, said Cador, there was none of us failed other, but of the prowess and manhood of Sir Launcelot were more than wonder to tell, and also of his cousins which did that day many noble feats of war. And also Sir Cador told who of his knights were slain, as Sir Berel, and other Sir Moris and Sir Maurel, two good knights. Then the king wept, and dried his eyes with a kerchief, and said, Your courage had near-hand destroyed you, for though ye had returned again, ye had lost no worship; for I call it folly, knights to abide when they be overmatched. Nay, said Launcelot and the other, for once shamed may never be recovered.

+ Why is this important, Mr. Stadnycki? The Sword in the Stone (1938) The Sword in the Stone The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939, originally titled The Witch in the Wood) The Queen of Air and Darkness The Ill-Made Knight (1940) The Ill-Made Knight The Candle in the Wind (1958) The Candle in the Wind

+ SO GLAD YOU ASKED, Mikayla!

+ Think historically! What might be important about the dates of his first three books? The Sword in the Stone (1938) The Sword in the Stone The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939) The Queen of Air and Darkness The Ill-Made Knight (1940) The Ill-Made Knight

+ On the History ! Let's take a Ride...

+ Well, Mr. Stadnycki, what did T.H. want us to think about the book? Did he tell us?

+ Not specifically, Steven, no, but I can tell you’re a bright young man, and those are the right kinds of questions! But here’s something you might be interested to hear!

+ And he gave us an epigraph… Epigraphs: An epigraph is a brief bit of text, usually borrowed from another writer, found before a [piece of writing], but after the title.... It gives a reader, or listener, something else to hold in mind as the poem is read. Neither part of the [writing], nor wholly separate from it, an epigraph can be used for various purposes: it can be necessary information to understand a poem, for example, or it can be something with which the poem disagrees. Source:

+ Did he write this? Book 1: “She is not any common earth Water or wood or air, But Merlin’s Isle of Gramarye Where you and I will fare.” Rudyard Kipling’s “Puck’s Song”

+ …but what does it all mean, Mr. Stadnycki? Ahh… Good! Now you’re thinking. That’s the point! Partner-up and decide! Think of the timeline. Think of his letter. Think of what you’ve read so far. What type of text are we reading? What is this 600-something page book?

+ So, how do we know what’s important? …an “eddication” on picking out relevant details for interpretation.

+ How do author’s communicate important details? 1. Objects/places/people that are repetitively used or mentioned within the text. Places People Ideas Scenes/moments from earlier in the novel 2. The author takes a lengthy time to describe it in detail or explain it. Scenes People Actions of a Character Character’s mentality 3. Objects/scenes/dialogue with particular relationships or connections to a particular character. Potential symbols Characters talking about other characters Something a character does when they’re alone 4. Almost all dialogue is highly relevant. What they say How they say it Descriptions of characters AS they speak (BIG ONE!)

+ The devil’s in the details… so that’s where we have search. Specific words and WHY the author chose them (think Key Word and Phrase quotation) “the governess was always getting muddled with her astrolabe” The word “muddled” means confused/messed up, and it’s important for us to see because she’s their guide. The word “muddled” tell us that, not only is the educator muddled, she’s bound to be “muddling” Kay and Wart as well. Word Choice, Tone and Context “[Kay] was too dignified to have a nickname and would have flown into a passion.” It’s possible here that Kay actually is dignified. But, he’s a kid. And it’s a nickname. Kids get nicknames. Instead, Kay may not actually be too dignified, and being “too dignified” has a feeling of arrogance about it. So, Kay is arrogant, and he believes he’s more important than he may be. The fact that he “flies into a passion” as a result of this shows that he doesn’t have much maturity, and he’s —why care so much about a simple nickname? He places his social station above other’s feelings if he’s willing to get so angry about such a small thing. What is said vs. what’s not said (implied) “Kay was not bladed, although he often went wrong” So, Kay isn’t punished, but that implies that Wart often is (there are only two of them). So, Wart is punished, and it also doesn’t say that Wart “often” does wrong. So, we can assume that Kay isn’t learning from his mistakes, but the Wart might be learning from them.

+ Find the devil! On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition and Astrology. The governess was always getting muddled with her astrolabe, and when she got specially muddled she would take it out of the Wart by rapping his knuckles. She did not rap Kay's knuckles, because when Kay grew older he would be Sir Kay, the master of the estate. The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name. Kay had given him the nickname. Kay was not called anything but Kay, as he was too dignified to have a nickname and would have flown into a passion if anybody had tried to give him one. The governess had red hair and some mysterious wound from which she derived a lot of prestige by showing it to all the women of the castle, behind closed doors. It was believed to be where she sat down, and to have been caused by sitting on some armour at a picnic by mistake. Eventually she offered to show it to Sir Ector, who was Kay's father, had hysterics and was sent away. They found out afterwards that she had been in a lunatic hospital for three years. In the afternoons the programme was: Mondays and Fridays, tilting and horsemanship; Tuesdays, hawking; Wednesdays, fencing; Thursdays, archery; Saturdays, the theory of chivalry, with the proper measures to be blown on all occasions, terminology of the chase and hunting etiquette. If you did the wrong thing at the mort or the undoing, for instance, you were bent over the body of the dead beast and smacked with the flat side of a sword. This was called being bladed. It was horseplay, a sort of joke like being shaved when crossing the line. Kay was not bladed, although he often went wrong.