Read, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson once on your own without writing ANYTHING down (remember that we want our first read to b
e reading and thinking only. No ANALYZING/DOING anything yet). Then, on your second read, begin to complete the following annotations for your document (you may complete these on the story document itself, or you can type them on a separate Word document by annotation number):
Vocabulary: AS YOU READ, make a vocabulary list (or put the comments to the side of the word document of the story) for the following difficult/unfamiliar words in the story: boisterous, reprimands, surveying, reluctantly, jovial, paraphernalia, shabbier, perfunctory, interminably, disengaged, petulantly, stoutly, daintily, and defiantly. Make sure that you have the correct definitions for how the word is being used in the sentence you found it, and highlight those words in the story YELLOW!
Inquiry: AS YOU READ, mark questions along the way to show your thinking as you are processing the story. These can be predictions, things you don't understand, or questions you have about certain characters and their actions. Questions can be typed in PURPLE, or can be posted as comments on the side of your document.
Symbolism: Using the black box as your main symbol, make a guess as to what it might symbolize; for this community, and through its color. Then, make guesses on at least one other thing you notice in the story that could be seen as a symbol, and what you think it might symbolize. Symbols can be highlighted GREEN.
Characterization: AFTER YOU READ, using the characters: Tessie Hutchinson, Old Man Warner, Mr. Summers, Bill, Hutchinson, and Mr. Harry Graves, highlight in PINK, or list things, that show DIRECT parts of their character (things the author ACTUALLY stated about their character), and INDIRECT (things you have to infer or guess at and not directly stated by the author) about the character highlight in BLUE.
Theme: At the end, state what you think the universal theme of "The Lottery" is overall. Meaning, what is the author trying to say about their world, or what is a message that the audience as a whole can get from the story. Remember that this should be written in the form of a statement" "The author believes that"... and that a UNIVERSAL theme should be something that ANYONE who reads the story could get out of it. You can list any other smaller themes as well (things that an author highlights often in the story, or messages that shine through by the end).
I want you to take note that this point of view is a new one for some of you, called "Third person Objective". We can't quite say it's omniscient, because although the narrator seems to be able to see everyone's actions, they don't tell us much about what each character is thinking throughout the story. Remember during informational text when we talked about being objective in our opinions when we are stating the factual truth? This is what the narrator is trying to do; be on the point of view of an outsider looking in and observing what they see.
Then, submit your document HERE. Be sure to check back for any comments that might help you for any other assignments in this folder. This serves as your EXAMPLE for how good readers analyze a text. Our goal for the future is for this to be innate (something you do automatically without thinking about it) for any text you read; including larger ones like novels :).
