A Quilt of a Country
by Anna Quinlen
A Close Reading
General Understandings
• Overall view
• Sequence of
information
• Story arc
• Main claim and
evidence
• Gist of passage
General Understandings in 9th Grade
What is the main idea of the
essay? What is her major
idea?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Key Details
• Search for nuances in
meaning
• Determine importance of
ideas
• Find supporting details that
support main ideas
• Answers who, what, when,
where, why, how much, or
how many.
Key Details in 9th Grade
Where are there examples of
freedom and oppression?
What other juxtapositions
does our author use?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Vocabulary and Text Structure
• Bridges literal and
inferential meanings
• Denotation
• Connotation
• Shades of meaning
• Figurative language
• How organization
contributes to meaning
Vocabulary and Text Structure in 9th Grade
What role does the word
conundrum play in this essay?
What is the structure of the
essay? How does she build
her argument?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Author’s Purpose
• Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform?
Persuade?
• Point of view: First-person, third-person
limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator
• Critical Literacy: Whose story is not
represented?
Author’s Purpose in 9th Grade
Look at the date of this essay,
and then let’s talk about why
she might have written it.
Whose side of the story is not
being told?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Inferences
Probe each argument in persuasive
text, each idea in informational text,
each key detail in literary text, and
observe how these build to a whole.
Inferences in 9th Grade
What does the author believe
about the benefits and
limitations of tolerance?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Opinions, Arguments, and
Intertextual Connections
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Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5)
Claims
Evidence
Counterclaims
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Rhetoric
Links to other texts throughout the grades
Arguments in 9th Grade
To quote, she says, “These are
the representatives of a
mongrel nation that
somehow, at times like this,
has one spirit.” What does
that mean and what evidence
does she provide for this
statement?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)
Intertextual Connections in 9th Grade
In what ways does this essay
differ from “The Melting Pot,”
written by the same author 10
years earlier?
Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)