Short Fiction II · ⁨القصة القصيرة II⁩

Enduring Understanding (CHR-1): Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.

Learning Objective 1.A: Identify and describe what specific textual details reveal about a character, that character’s perspective, and that character’s motives.

• CHR-1.O The significance of characters is often revealed through their agency and through nuanced descriptions.
• CHR-1.P Characters’ choices—in speech, action, and inaction— reveal what they value.

Enduring Understanding (CHR-1): Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.

Learning Objective 1.C: Explain the function of contrasting characters.

• CHR-1.Q The main character in a narrative is the protagonist; the antagonist in the narrative opposes the protagonist and may be another character, the internal conflicts of the protagonist, a collective (such as society), or nature.
• CHR-1.R Protagonists and antagonists may represent contrasting values.

Enduring Understanding (CHR-1): Characters in literature allow readers to study and explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms represented by those characters.

Learning Objective 1.D: Describe how textual details reveal nuances and complexities in characters’ relationships with one another.

• CHR-1.S Conflict among characters often arises from tensions generated by their different value systems.

Enduring Understanding (SET-1): Setting and the details associated with it not only depict a time and place, but also convey values associated with that setting.

Learning Objective 2.B: Explain the function of setting in a narrative.

• SET-1.C A setting may help establish the mood and atmosphere of a narrative.

Enduring Understanding (SET-1): Setting and the details associated with it not only depict a time and place, but also convey values associated with that setting.

Learning Objective 2.C: Describe the relationship between a character and a setting.

• SET-1.D The environment a character inhabits provides information about that character.

Enduring Understanding (STR-1): The arrangement of the parts and sections of a text, the relationship of the parts to each other, and the sequence in which the text reveals information are all structural choices made by a writer that contribute to the reader’s interpretation of a text.

Learning Objective 3.A: Identify and describe how plot orders events in a narrative.

• STR-1.R Some patterns in dramatic situations are so common that they are considered archetypes, and these archetypes create certain expectations for how the dramatic situations will progress and be resolved. Note: For the exam, students are not expected to identify or label archetypes.

Enduring Understanding (STR-1): The arrangement of the parts and sections of a text, the relationship of the parts to each other, and the sequence in which the text reveals information are all structural choices made by a writer that contribute to the reader’s interpretation of a text.

Learning Objective 3.D: Explain the function of contrasts within a text.

• STR-1.S The differences highlighted by a contrast emphasize the particular traits, aspects, or characteristics important for comparison of the things being contrasted.
• STR-1.T Contrasts often represent conflicts in values related to character, narrator, or speaker perspectives on ideas represented by a text.

Enduring Understanding (NAR-1): A narrator’s or speaker’s perspective controls the details and emphases that affect how readers experience and interpret a text.

Learning Objective 4.A: Identify and describe the narrator or speaker of a text.

• NAR-1.J Narrators may function as characters in the narrative who directly address readers and either recall events or describe them as they occur.

Enduring Understanding (NAR-1): A narrator’s or speaker’s perspective controls the details and emphases that affect how readers experience and interpret a text.

Learning Objective 4.B: Identify and explain the function of point of view in a narrative.

• NAR-1.K Narrative distance refers to the physical distance, chronological distance, relationships, or emotional investment of the narrator to the events or characters of the narrative.
• NAR-1.L Stream of consciousness is a type of narration in which a character’s thoughts are related through a continuous dialogue or description.

Enduring Understanding (NAR-1): A narrator’s or speaker’s perspective controls the details and emphases that affect how readers experience and interpret a text.

Learning Objective 4.C: Identify and describe details, diction, or syntax in a text that reveal a narrator’s or speaker’s perspective.

• NAR-1.M The narrators’, characters’, or speakers’ backgrounds and perspectives shape the tone they convey about subjects or events in the text.
• NAR-1.N Descriptive words, such as adjectives and adverbs, not only qualify or modify the things they describe but also convey a perspective toward those things.
• NAR-1.O The attitude of narrators, characters, or speakers toward an idea, character, or situation emerges from their perspective and may be referred to as tone.

Enduring Understanding (LAN-1): Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Learning Objective 7.B: Develop a thesis statement that conveys a defensible claim about an interpretation of literature and that may establish a line of reasoning.

• LAN-1.D A thesis statement expresses an interpretation of a literary text, and requires a defense, through use of textual evidence and a line of reasoning, both of which are explained in an essay through commentary.
• LAN-1.E A thesis statement may preview the development or line of reasoning of an interpretation. This is not to say that a thesis statement must list the points of an interpretation, literary elements to be analyzed, or specific evidence to be used in the argument.

Enduring Understanding (LAN-1): Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Learning Objective 7.C: Develop commentary that establishes and explains relationships among textual evidence, the line of reasoning, and the thesis.

• LAN-1.F A line of reasoning is the logical sequence of claims that work together to defend the overarching thesis statement.
• LAN-1.G A line of reasoning is communicated through commentary that explains the logical relationship between the overarching thesis statement and the claims/evidence within the body of an essay.
• LAN-1.M The body paragraphs of a written argument develop the reasoning and justify claims using evidence and providing commentary that links the evidence to the overall thesis.
• LAN-1.N Effective paragraphs are cohesive and often use topic sentences to state a claim and explain the reasoning that connects the various claims and evidence that make up the body of an essay.

Enduring Understanding (LAN-1): Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Learning Objective 7.D: Select and use relevant and sufficient evidence to both develop and support a line of reasoning.

• LAN-1.H Writers use evidence strategically and purposefully to illustrate, clarify, exemplify, associate, amplify, or qualify a point.
• LAN-1.I Evidence is effective when the writer of the essay uses commentary to explain a logical relationship between the evidence and the claim.
• LAN-1.J Evidence is sufficient when its quantity and quality provide apt support for the line of reasoning.
• LAN-1.K Developing and supporting an interpretation of a text is a recursive process; an interpretation can emerge from analyzing evidence and then forming a line of reasoning, or the interpretation can emerge from forming a line of reasoning and then identifying relevant evidence to support that line of reasoning.

Enduring Understanding (LAN-1): Readers establish and communicate their interpretations of literature through arguments supported by textual evidence.

Learning Objective 7.E: Demonstrate control over the elements of composition to communicate clearly.

• LAN-1.O Coherence occurs at different levels in a piece of writing. In a sentence, the idea in one clause logically links to an idea in the next. In a paragraph, the idea in one sentence logically links to an idea in the next. In a text, the ideas in one paragraph logically link to the ideas in the next.
• LAN-1.P Writers achieve coherence when the arrangement and organization of reasons, evidence, ideas, or details is logical. Writers may use transitions, repetition, synonyms, pronoun references, or parallel structure to indicate relationships between and among those reasons, evidence, ideas, or details.