Analysis Unit Plan
Show Analysis Step 1 power point – take Cornell notes
General literature examples (I use Dr. Seuss, A Clockwork Orange, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime) to discuss general style issues
Diction practice – have students select appropriate words to fill in the blanks. The top is Walter Van Tilbury Clark and the answers are narrow, curved, still, mute, rapidly, unpredictable, matted, isolated. The bottom is John Steinbeck and the answers are wild, sloping, brown, hissing white, stone, clinging, little, rattling rotting, damp. I use this as a discussion about sometimes the simple word being the best option.
Do the diction and euphemism power point – have students continue to take notes
Do levels of diction worksheet, answers are euphemism, semiformal, jargon, bureaucratese, informal, technical, inflated, formal
Then do diction analysis worksheet (this one is listed as diction/syntax practice both are together. Answers are juxtaposition, rhetorical question, litote, personification, metonymy, metaphor, hyperbole, periphrasis, simile, synecdoche, anthimeria, onomatopoeia, irony
Then do syntax power point with notes
Do syntax practice (see above) answers are anastrophe, apostrophe, anaphora, epistrophe, antithesis, polysyndeton, asyndeton
My students all read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the year before they have me so I do the first analysis on a passage from that novel. Use whichever passage you want. See the handout for things to look for.
Tone – I decorate the room in a spooky way to discuss tone. I write “Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow” on the board and hand out slips (via volunteers) with various tone options like scared, timid, angry, shy, sad, nervous, seductive, excitement, happy, sarcastic on them and have the volunteer say the line in that tone while the rest of the class guesses the tone. I then have two letters to the editor (one from a student, one from a teacher) and we analyze tone in them. I could get you copies if you want or you could use anything political.
I do a brief reminder of figurative language types and to put the lesson all together I read and we analyze Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “March on Washington” address. See the analysis handout.
We then in groups have kids do an analysis on a provided passage.
Finally I have each student write an analysis of “The Plastic Pink Flamingo” – an AP English Language prompt. Any passage would work.