TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD9th Grade Periods 2,3, and 6

Mr. Chao

THINGS YOU DID WELL Overall Structure Using Quotes (5 Areas) Using Plot Summary to show

understanding of the book Creativity

This was a MUCH HARDER task than the last essay. The prompts were more difficult and required more thoughtful analysis. Most of you wrote better papers than the last few even if your rubric score doesn’t reflect this improvement.

High Five!

THINGS TO IMPROVE Topic Sentences (Strengthen) Addressing the Prompt Writing Strong Supports Using SPECIFIC examples Including ANALYSIS Using ACTIVE voice

There were more papers that MISSED or DID NOT ADDRESS THE PROMPT FULLY.

USING ANALYSIS What is Analysis?

Analysis is YOUR PERSONAL INSIGHT into what the book has to say about a given topic. Analysis often follows TEXTUAL EVIDENCE in the form of explaining significance. Strong Papers follow up examples with analysis of how those examples PROVE THE ARGUMENTS THAT THEY MADE IN THE SUPPORTS.

Where do I include analysis? After breaking down an example from the text. It’s important to

use analysis because otherwise the example might not fit with your argument.

Why include Analysis? Without Analysis, your examples do nothing else beside

summarize the plot. With analysis, your paper shows your thinking and demonstrates how YOU read the novel.

EXAMPLES VS. ANALYSISWhen Scout is in a giant ham costume for her school play, it may look to be just a random memory but older Scout proves to us that it is not. “Jem said he would take me. Thus began our longest journey together” (340). We can determine that this event is going to be a crucial part of the story simply because older Scout lets us know ahead of time that something of great importance is going to happen. The perspective of younger Scout would have meant nothing because young Scout had no idea what was about to happen to her. She did not realize, until looking back, that this moment would change her life.

Note the difference between BLUE (Summary) and RED (Analysis). Analysis opens the door for your own ideas not mentioned explicitly by the author.

STRUCTURE

I may need to re-evaluate my outline sheet after this paper:

Topic Sentence: Main idea AND outlines supports

Support #1 Specific Argument (TELLING) Example #1 Specific Example (SHOWING) Examples #2 Specific Example (SHOWING) ANALYSIS Addresses prompt

Support #2 Specific Argument (TELLING) Example #1 Specific Example (SHOWING) Examples #2 Specific Example (SHOWING) ANALYSIS Addresses prompt

Support #3 Specific Argument (TELLING) Example #1 Specific Example (SHOWING) Examples #2 Specific Example (SHOWING) ANALYSIS Addresses prompt

Concluding Sentence Summary + ANALYSIS

TOPIC SENTENCES Common Issues

Topic Sentences that don’t actually say ANYTHING. Remember, Topic Sentences need to state ARGUMENTS.

Topic Sentences that DON’T CLEARLY OUTLINE SUPPORTS “Lee uses symbolism through the characters as a way to

express deeper meaning or ideas”

“The inadequacies in the court and education systems are examined by Lee.”

What is actually being said here? What arguments are presented? Is this strongly worded? What are the supports in this paragraph?

TOPIC SENTENCESWeak Topic Sentences

“Harper Lee displays discrimination in this story by showing people acting out against someone or something. There are three main occasions.”

“Lee uses symbolism in inanimate objects and surroundings such as the tree outside of Boo Radley’s house, the snowman that Jem and Scout build, and the fire at Ms. Maudie’s house.”

TOPIC SENTENCES“Harper Lee criticizes how others can turn a blind eye to the truth by thinking they are benefitting the subject when they are really hurting them, by using excuses to avoid the truth, and by ignoring a problem until it can’t be ignored.”

THE BREAKDOWNTopic Period

2Period

3Period

6 Total

Social Criticism 8 5 4 16

Character Grows Up 4 1 7 14

Symbols 2 7 6 14

Theme 3 1 1 5

Perspective 0 2 0 2

ADDRESSING THE PROMPTIn order to ADDRESS THE PROMPT: For SOCIAL CRITICISM, the paper needs to mention how Lee

CRITICIZES ALL OF SOCIETY using either characters, symbols, or themes.

For SCOUT OR JEM GROWS UP, the paper needs to explain how a character CHANGES from in one of THREE areas from ONE PART OF THE BOOK TO ANOTHER.

For SYMBOLS, the paper needs to explain how the author/book uses symbols TO PRESENT A MESSAGE (THEME) by BREAKING DOWN THE SYMBOL’S TRAITS.

For THEME, the paper needs to DEFINE OR NARROW the main themes using clear ARGUMENTS

For PERSPECTIVE the paper needs to explain how the author/book uses perspective TO PRESENT A MESSAGE (THEME) or AFFECT THE WAY THE PLOT IS PRESENTED.

The prompts said WHAT?!?!?

SOCIAL CRITICISMCommon Errors Leading to Missing the Prompt:

Social Criticism is a Criticism of SOCIETY. NOT a criticism of ONE INDIVIDUAL.

Criticisms that aren’t actually criticisms “Maycomb has a social hierarchy”

Nonspecific wording “Racism is addressed by local town

gatherings mentioned in this book” Unclear criticisms

“In Harper Lee’s town black people are criticized exclusively in three ways…”

SUPPORTS: SOCIAL CRITICISMEffective Supports

Lastly, we are shown that different religious groups can use their strength in numbers to assess different cultures and people, and force ideas unto that community or a single person.

Additionally, Lee uses Mrs. Merriweather to represent people who want to help, but do not put forward enough effort to accomplish their goal.

Being the small, tight-knit, Southern community that Maycomb is, community involvement is very important. Everyone in Maycomb has duties or responsibilities expected of them, and those who fail to follow these codes are rejected, basically socially shunned.

SUPPORTS: SOCIAL CRITICISMWeak Supports

“Aunt Alexandra is very focused on social hierarchy. She believes that her social status is very important.”

“Another instance of social class, is about Mr. Dolphus Raymond.”

The Ewell family is also toward the end of social classes, which makes people look down upon them.

A man’s job is a direct way people are judged in the county.  Atticus is a lawyer; therefore he is smart and is from a good family

GROWING UPCommon Errors Leading to Missing the Prompt:

To show growth you need to COMPARE Scout or Jem’s growth from the beginning to the end and show how they’ve CHANGED. Explaining which lessons a

character LEARNS does not by itself reveal change. Change is revealed by a character doing something at the end that they didn’t/couldn’t do at the beginning

Saying a character LEARNED is different from the character SHOWING us.

SUPPORTS: GROWING UPEffective SupportsEffective Supports show change by COMPARING and CONTRASTING the progress towards a lesson in the beginning, middle, and end.

Trait Support 1Beginning

Support 2Middle

Support 3End

Selfishness Scout doesn’t understand others and what they say

Scout tries to look in others’ perspectives. However, she can’t always see past her views

Scout is truly grown up. We first see this by her full understanding of others and helpfulness when needed

Being a Lady Scout unintentionally hurts others feelings; although she may not realize it, it affects others

Scout starts to do the right things showing growth, plus half the time she does it intentionally

Scout acts like a lady and is courteous to all

Fighting with her Head

In the beginning, Scout just beats up anyone who stands in her way

Scout tries to hold her temper in check in the middle, but ultimately is unable to follow through

Scout applies Atticus’ lesson by backing down from a fight; for the first time ever she fights with her head

SUPPORTS: GROWING UPIssues: “Scout realized that just because Aunt Alexandra is

family, it doesn’t mean that what she says is always right.”

“Jem grew immensely from learning from the people around him. He does this by learning about bravery, why things are the way they are, and Atticus’ life lessons.”

SYMBOLSCommon Errors Leading to Missingthe Prompt:

Not explaining what the symbols REPRESENT

Not explaining the LITERAL objectNot explaining the FIGURATIVE object Not including textual evidence that SHOWS

how the symbol is usedUsing things that aren’t symbols

(like characters)

SYMBOLS How to Break Down Symbols:

“Maycomb’s Usual Disease”

1. Explain what the symbol representsa) i.e. The Disease represents prejudice

2. Explain how the symbols physical traits tell us something about what it represents a) i.e. Diseases spread rapidly and you don’t really know you have it until

it’s too late.  Similarly, prejudice can take over regular ordinary people and make them do terrible things without even realizing what they are doing

3. Provide an example from the text and analyze how the symbol teaches a messagea) i.e. The mob is composed of regular everyday people who are normally

quite decent (they help Miss Maudie with her fire) but are compelled by racism to do evil acts like trying to kill Tom Robinson.  Which shows us how racism can affect even the best of us. (THEME)

SYMBOLS“The final example that symbolizes social criticism in TKAM is the nut grass, which is one of the earliest displays of offhanded criticism towards certain aspects of society.

(Explains what the symbol represents through TELLING)

The open-minded, liberal-thinking… Miss Maudie presents to readers the nut grass. She explains that nut grass is the only creation on Earth that she despises, for the reason that it, though looking unassuming and harmless, can suddenly conquer an entire garden bed or lawn and suck it dry. Every bit of the plant population is infected and replaced with nut grass if it is not eliminated down to the taproot.

(Explains physical traits through PLOT SUMMARY)

Literally that is what nut grass is, but in a figurative sense, nut grass is actually the essence of a terrible rash on humanity, racism, and discrimination and often hatred between races.

(Connects physical traits to figurative meaning using ANALYSIS)

This is because racism may seem unassuming to the ignorant masses at the beginning, but can become infectious, and destroy the humanity in a whole population in a firghteningly swift advance fueled by lies and lust for Social Darwinism. The nut grass is not just a weed in this novel, it is a destructive, hateful force in society.”

(Presents a THEME using ANALYSIS)

PERSPECTIVE

Notes To show PERSPECTIVE you MUST use textual

evidence to demonstrate how the author USES point of view as a tool.

Like Light Imagery, Perspective is a TOOL that the author uses to affect the way the text is read or convey a theme.

Perspective as a THEME (Walking in another’s shoes) is not the same as Perspective as a TOOL (point of view). Although they CAN be used together.

What you did there… I see it.

THEMESNotes

Work on using PARALLEL STRUCTURE to present your themes in your Topic Sentence (outline supports)

Try to avoid “you” in your themes

Make sure your supports actually back up or define your themes. Otherwise they’re off-topic

QUOTES Of the 5 things we mentioned needed to be

done, most of you did 4. (IMPROVEMENT)

1. Introduce the quote with SPEAKER and CONTEXT

2. Provide the quote.3. Properly CITE the quote.4. Summarize the quote5. Explain how the quote proves your point.

This time only 5 was missing most of the time

DON’T QUOTE AND

RUN!!!!!!!!!!!

EXCELLENT QUOTE EXAMPLE

The mixed children fathered by Mr. Dophus Raymond and mothered by a black woman are both beautiful and innocent. They represent the blending of races in an uncultured and pure way. Sadly, these children are neither accepted with the white children because they have black blood, nor accepted with the black children because they have white blood. This is shown when Jem is telling Scout about them and tells her “They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ‘em beause they’re half white, white folks won’t have ‘em because they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere” (Lee 215). These mixed children cannot please anyone because of their mixed races. Although it is a beautiful and innocent thing, their mixed race is frowned upon and rejected, not pleasing anyone. Red = Argument

Green=Speaker+ContextBlack=Quote

Purple=SummaryBlue=Analysis

SPECIFIC VS. NONSPECIFICThe best examples are SPECIFIC examples, meaning that use the text’s plot to prove points by SHOWING rather than TELLING.

“Dolphus Raymond goes through so much trouble to make people believe he is crazy”  

“Alexandra purposefully pretends to be a lady, a refined woman to impress her surrounding judges”

TELLING VS. SHOWING Indirect example (weak): “[Aunt Alexandra] believes that some

people, including her, are even better than all of society because they are artificial, or have been on their land for a long time.” (TELLING)

Direct Example (stronger): When Aunt Alexandra has Atticus explain to the children that they are better than everyone else due to their breeding, this shows how she holds a flawed view of what makes a person decent. (SHOWING)

Direct Quote (best): Aunt Alexandra proves how flawed her method of evaluating innate worth by birth when she tells Scout that she cannot play with Walter because “He--is--trash” (Lee xx).  Aunt Alexandra reveals how petty her beliefs are since she very obviously judges Walter’s character based off of things that are outside his control: his poverty, upbringing, and familial ties.  This is clearly unfair, and a reason that Lee gives for why Society should be changed. (SHOWING)

PASSIVE VOICEPassive Voice weakens arguments

“It is explained that the reason for this is that the mockingbird, unlike other birds, does not cause problems...” Note how this entire phrase can be simplified just by

replacing that phrase with: “Atticus explains that”

“One of the symbols representing the temperament of some people is the corset.” Again, note how the subject is somewhat ambiguous (could

be the people or the corset) and the verb (is=state of existence) is weak

“Lee uses the corset to reveal how people try to be something they are not.”

Okay, that’s enough “to be” verbs. Time to write Active!

PASSIVE VOICETo fix Passive Voice, avoid these sentence starters and replace with ACTIVE VERBS

Replace these sentence starters

With…

One way that X is used isOne way that symbols are used is through inanimate objects

TKAM uses X by portrayingTKAM uses symbols by portraying inanimate objects.

One thing that Lee uses isOne thing that Lee uses is the snowman which represents mixing black and white

Lee uses X to convey YLee uses the symbol of the snowman to convey how blacks and whites can mix.

The first way that… is…The first way that Lee shows racism is by using the Mad Dog.

For starters, Lee demonstrates…For starters, Lee demonstrates how racism harms innocents through the symbol of the Mad Dog

COMMON EDITING ERRORS Capitalization

jem, scout, maycomb Book Titles

To Kill a Mockingbird (Capitalized and Italicized) Spelling

Mocking bird (Mockingbird), Euwell (Ewell), and my favorite: “mooching bird”

Contractions it’s, aren’t, they’re

First and Second Person I, you, we PLEASE

PROOF

READPLEASE

PROOF

READ

PHRASES TO DELETE

Replace these Words With…Talks about Argues thatBrings up Explain howDiscusses Points outUses Uses X to show YMentions CriticizesMakes fun of Derides, Satirizes,

RidiculesAddresses Demonstrates that,

reveals that, Is a topic Highlights X to reveal YThe first… is, The second… is,The third… is,

Uses X to point out…

AND… THAT’S A WRAP Congrats on finishing your final take-

home essay of this year! Here are some happy cats.