LITERATURE CIRCLE ESSAYDUE: May 27
Purpose: you will use many of the reading and writing skills you learned this year…
- To demonstrate your understanding of character, theme, and summary
- To develop and explain an opinion about the text
Instructions:Write one four-paragraph essay based on your literature circle book.You may use any notes/assignments from your book, as well as notes in your notebook about reading and writing strategies to do the following:
Paragraph ONE: Summarize the book. Use 4-Step Summary format. Include events from beginning, middle & end.
Paragraph TWO: Describe how the hero grows and changes. Consider 1-2 key personality traits. Use 2-chunk paragraph format.
Paragraph THREE: Explain the theme. Think about how the hero’s growth/change helps to identify a theme. Use 2-chunk paragraph format.
Paragraph FOUR: Evaluate the quality of this book. Your opinion must include if you recommend reading it and why.
Beginning (1) / Approaching (2) / Meeting (3) / Exceeding (4)Organization / The paper lacks a sense of organization making it confusing or difficult for a reader to follow. / Ideas, details, or events seem loosely strung together. / The organizational structure allows the reader to move through the text without undue confusion. / The order, presentation, or internal structure of the piece is compelling and guides the reader purposefully through the text.
Voice / The writer seems definitely distanced from topic, audience, or both; as a result, the text may lack life, spirit, or energy. / The writer seems sincere and willing to communicate with the reader on a functional, if distant level. / The writer engages with the topic in an interesting and clear manner. / The writer’s energy and passion for the subject drive the writing, making the text lively, expressive, and engaging.
Conventions / The writer demonstrates limited control even over widely used convention; errors interfere with understanding. / The writer has a grasp on basic conventions, but the paper still has significant errors. / The writer shows reasonable control over most conventions, creating text that is adequately readable. / The writer shows excellent control over a wide range of standard writing conventions and, when appropriate uses creativity to enhance meaning.
Scoring:Remember that you have a more detailed rubric for each item in your notebook
Brandon Dahlquist
ELA 5
5/26/15
North
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton features Ponyboy, a greaser who lives with his two older brothers. His parents are dead and his oldest brother now provides for him. The Greasers are a “gang,” but Ponyboy and Johnny, another greaser, have been questioning the reasons for fighting. Ponyboy and Johnny are on their way home one night and they end up cornered by some Socials—also known as Socs—who pull a knife and try to drown Pony. Johnny loses it and kills one of the Socs, which sends Johnny and Pony into a nearby town, where they hide in an abandoned church. The only other person who knows is Dally, the greaser that Pony trusts the least. Dally comes to see them, and the church they were staying in catches fire, with several children inside of it. Johnny runs in and saves the kids, but ends up mortally wounded. He is hospitalized, but eventually dies. When he dies, Dally goes off the deep end and robs a store, hoping that the police will kill him, and he gets his wish. Ponyboy finally realizes that his family isn’t as bad as he thinks and decides to turn his grades around. Using Johnny’s copy of Gone with the Wind, he writes down the story of Johnny and Dally and the other Greasers.
Ponyboy, the main character, goes from a selfish child to a more mature young man. He starts off the book ungratefully whining about how his brothers aren’t any fun (Hinton 9). He never thinks about what they have sacrificed for him. Ponyboy is moved by both Johnny and Dally’s deaths: he is finally able to see that people behave the way they do for a reason. Johnny sees that the good in the world will fade and wants Pony to fight against that by staying good, or gold (110). Pony realizes that this transfers to his relationship with his brothers. Dally’s death is a harder lesson for Ponyboy. Pony and Dally have never really gotten along, but Pony learns that Dally loves Johnny and feels that Johnny is worth protecting (120). When Johnny dies, Dally feels that there isn’t anything left for him to protect—there is nothing good left. Pony puts the two lessons together and realizes that he needs to be good both for himself and others. This transfers to Ponyboy’s treatment of his family and helps him to become more gracious in his dealings with both family and friends.
Ponyboy’s growth represents the hero’s journey because Pony is a group-oriented hero. When Pony flees the rest of the gang, he has to figure out who he is, separate from his brothers and the other greasers (56). With only Johnny around, he has a lot of time to contemplate what it means to be a hero because Johnny is easily far more heroic than Ponyboy (it is Johnny who runs into the burning church). Also, without his brothers, Pony has a chance to view them as an outsider would, helping him to see that his brothers are working really hard to keep him safe and fed. Pony’s vision is complete when he sees his brothers preparing for the fight (98). He is surprised by how Darry and Soda look to his unaccustomed eyes: he begins to see them as people rather than as the semi-parental figures he was used to before his journey into the unknown world of the church. This demonstrates Pony’s ultimate boon because he is able to bridge the gap that has been growing between himself and Darry since his parents died. This leads to the theme of Learning to look at another’s perspective as an important part of growing up.
This book is a staple of teen literature. The book was written when the author was sixteen, and published by the time the author was eighteen. Almost everyone loves this book. People who read it in middle school thirty years ago still talk about how good it is. However, I found this book to be less than it was hyped-up to be. It is an easy read if you’re looking to be a slacker, and some disinterested readers might find the fighting to be more interesting than what they would normally read. I can see how most people would like it, but this book is not one I would recommend to my well-read friends; I would instead recommend this to my reluctant reader friends.