Close Reading & General
Feedback on Student Analyses
of “The Interlopers” by Saki
Mrs. Kiasi-Barnes
September 2-3, 2014
Cohort D
Directions
 Be sure that you are wearing your ID!
 Complete the PSAT warm-up activity before 9:30
a.m.
 Syllabus quiz will immediately follow discussion of
the warm-up activity.
Objective
 Students will demonstrate close reading strategies
and will explain how authors structure text to
achieve the effect of suspense and surprise. CCSS
RL5
Agenda
 Syllabus Quiz!
 General Review Diagnostic Essays
 Transfer close reading skills from visual stimuli to text
 Reread passages from “The Interlopers” in order to
analyze text structure and pacing.
 Begin close reading of “The Wife’s Story.”
 Discuss homework questions for A Separate Peace (if there
is time).
 Closure & Homework
Academic Terms, Set 1
Week of September 2-5
 Suspense—”A state of uncertainty, anticipation, and
curiosity as to the outcome of a story or play, or any
kind of narrative in verse or prose.”
 Foreshadowing—”Suggesting, hinting, indicating,
or showing what will occur later in a narrative.”
 Plot—”The structure and relationship of actions and
events in a work of fiction.”
Academic Terms, Set 1
Week of September 2-5
 Suspense—”A state of uncertainty, anticipation, and
curiosity as to the outcome of a story or play, or any
kind of narrative in verse or prose.”
 Foreshadowing—”Suggesting, hinting, indicating,
or showing what will occur later in a narrative.”
 Plot—”The structure and relationship of actions and
events in a work of fiction.”
What You Did Right on
The Pre-Test/Diagnostic
 Demonstrated that you comprehended the
literature.
 Recognized that the author purposefully
manipulated the events in the story to create
suspense.
 Accurately identified some of the author’s
techniques used to create suspense and surprise in
the story.
 Provided some evidence from the text to support
conclusions.
Celebrating Nice Moments
from Student Essays
Nice Moments from Students’ Papers
 “The pacing in the story is rather slow because the
author describes every moment with intense detail.
For example, when the author described the
lightening striking the tree and the tree falling on top
of them, he used lots of descriptive words such as
‘fierce,’ ‘splitting,’ ‘thundered,’ ‘helplessly,’ ‘numb,’
and many more.
 “The author makes it seem as if the man is simply
hunting for an animal, but in reality the man is “...in
quest of a human enemy. This...creates a very
surprising effect and changes the viewpoint of the
story.”
Nice Moments in Students’ Papers
 “Throughout the story, as the two reconcile and put
the past behind them, there are constant events that
catch a reader unaware.”
 “They were expecting to see their men but instead
something far more dangerous that definitely hasn’t
come for their aid arrives.”
Room for Improvement...
 Responding specifically to the prompt.
 Using more precise terms and descriptive words.
 Providing compelling textual evidence.
 Effective organization and progression of ideas.
 Developing ideas (i.e. starting with a thesis,
addressing each point shared in the thesis,
providing evidence and an effective conclusion.
The Next Step...
 Let’s look at the writing prompt again.
 Turn to your seat partner and share the key words
from the prompt that you focused on before writing
your paper.
 Talk about how you began your essay. Did you
organize your ideas first (i.e. pre-writing) or did you
plunge right into writing?
 Let’s look at the prompt together.
Taking a Closer Look
 Definition of Close Reading: “Close, analytic reading
entails the careful gathering of observations about a
text and careful consideration about what those
observations, taken together, add up to....” (PARCC
Online).
Mood
The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the
intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the
reader. Mood can be created by a combination of such
elements of setting, voice, and tone.
Let’s Analyze the Mood
“The Interlopers”
 Turn to “The Interlopers” in your textbook (page 8).
 Turn to the “Notes” section of your binder.
 Reread the first paragraph of “The Interlopers” by Saki.
 What words in the paragraph help to set a particular
mood? List the words on the paper in your notes section
(be sure to head your paper).
 Share your list with your partner the turn and share your
list with partners in your vicinity.
 Be prepared to share out with the whole class.
Mood in “The Interlopers”
 In “The Interlopers” by Saki, the author uses words
such as _____________________________________ to
create a mood of ______________.
 The mood shifts when __________________ and
becomes a ________________ mood.
 Share your sentence with your seat partner and be
prepared for a brief whole-class share out.
Understanding Effect in
Literature
 Literary Effect: A reader’s mental or emotional
impression of an author’s work. The author
encourages these impressions through purposeful
word choices, sentence structure, characterization,
etc.
 Next, look at the next two video clips and pay
attention to 1) what’s going on in the video 2)
identify the effect of the pacing in the video 3)
determine how the videographer achieved the
effects that you see.
Understanding Effect in
Literature
 Slow Motion: First, watch the man on the bicycle at
normal speed. Then, watch the same scene in slow
motion with music. What are the differences
between the two scenes? What effect on the viewers
does the videographer achieve?
 Fast-Motion, Time-lapse: Next, watch the time-lapse
video scenes of the city of Chicago. What effect on
the viewers does the videographer achieve in this
scene? What does the scene say about the city of
Chicago?
Analyze How the Author
Manipulates Pacing
 Reread the first and last scenes of “The Interlopers.”
 What do you notice about the sentence lengths at
the beginning and end of the story?
 What’s the effect of reading the sentences at the
beginning of the story versus the effect of reading
the sentences at the end of the story?
 Why does Saki manipulate the sentences this way in
“The Interlopers”? What’s his purpose?
Pacing in “The Interlopers”
 Saki manipulates the pacing of the action in “The
Interlopers” by _____________________________.
These sentences have the effect of
_____________________. For example,
___________________________________________.
Classwork
Week of September 2-5
 “The Wife’s Story,” by Ursula...
 Collecting textual evidence and incorporating it into
written responses about the text.
 Modeling, Guided Practice, Independent Work
Closure and Homework
 What have you learned today about how Saki
achieves the effect of suspense in “The Interlopers?”
Write the answer to this question in your
Warmup/Closures section. Label your response
“Closure.”
 HOMEWORK-Complete your reading of “A Wife’s
Story,” and continue following the directions to
underline and highlight text. Respond to the
questions marked “A” on the left. Save responses to
your notebook.