A Lesson Before Dying
Learning Objective: SWBAT
– practice a close reading
while draw inferences from
the text and support them
with textual evidence
DO NOW
• Journal Response - What
does it mean to be human?
As a class, we will compile a list of
answers based off this question.
Think-Pair-Share:
• THINK - Write the answer to the
following question: What separates
humans from animals? (2 minutes)
• PAIR - Meet with a partner and write
a combined definition. (3 minutes)
What is Close Reading?
Close reading is the most important skill you
need for any form of literary studies. It means
paying especially close attention to what is
printed on the page. It is a much more subtle
and complex process than the term might
suggest. How might an author’s choice of
words contribute to theme and conflict?
Play Detective
Close reading involves playing detective
looking at the work's particular vocabulary,
sentence construction, patterns, and imagery,
to the themes that are being dealt with, the
way in which the story is being told, and the
view of the world that it offers. It involves
almost everything from the smallest linguistic
items (semantics) to the largest issues of
literary understandings.
Making Yourself Sensitive
Close reading means not only reading and
understanding the meanings of the individual
printed words, it also involves making yourself
sensitive to all the nuances and connotations
of language as it is used by skilled writers. This
skill requires you to make inferences while
reading.
Making Inferences
Figuring out what the author is implying will require you
to make inferences.
• To infer requires that you guess the probable
meaning.
• As you read a selection and attempt to draw a
conclusion or make inferences about the meaning, it is
important to examine the work to determine how all of
the information, supporting details, events, and
characters connect to one another.
• A conclusion will be based on the sum of all of the
elements working together in the story.
Making Inferences from a Cartoon
_______ 1.
_______ 2.
_______ 3.
_______ 4.
_______ 5.
The boy doesn’t like monkeys.
The boy has probably never seen animals in a zoo.
The father is angry with the boy.
The boy thinks the monkey is being punished.
The boy and his father go to the zoo often.
Making Inferences from a Book Cover
_______ 1.
_______ 2.
_______ 3.
_______ 4.
_______ 5.
The “three true stories” are about the three women shown.
The women are good friends with one another.
The women’s lives have changed in positive ways.
All the women had parents who were non-readers.
All the women dropped out of school because of reading problems.
_______ 1.
_______ 2.
_______ 3.
_______ 4.
_______ 5.
Gulliver’s Travels is a true story.
The man on the ground recently ate lunch and is taking a nap.
The book has something to do with a journey.
The illustrated large man is likely an important character.
The story in the book takes place in modern times.
Making Inferences from an Advertisement
_______ 1.
_______ 2.
_______ 3.
_______ 4.
_______ 5.
The boy did not choose to be at the orphanage.
The boy is happy to be at the orphanage.
The people at the orphanage are cruel to the boy.
Not carrying life insurance can harm one’s family.
The insurance company helps support the orphanage.
Mastery Test: Making Inferences from a Cartoon
_______ 1.
_______ 2.
_______ 3.
_______ 4.
_______ 5.
_______ 6.
_______ 7.
_______ 8.
The figure on the left does not work out at all.
The figure on the left probably spends lots of time working out.
The two figures do very different things when they work out.
The two figures do not like each other.
Spending time at the library has had no effect on the figure on the right.
Spending time at the library has made the figure on the right mentally strong.
Working out at the library has the same effect as working out at the gym.
Working out at the library involves mental – not physical – effort.
While doing a close read, you’ll need to
consider…
1. What can you infer from the text?
2. What is the first thing you notice?
3. Do you notice any patterns in the text—
repetitions, contradictions, similarities…?
4. Which words do you notice first? Do they seem
oddly used? Why?
5. What is the mood?
6. How does the text make you react or think about
any characters or events.
7. Are there alliterations, similes, metaphors, and
other literary devices?
Scaffolding a Close Read – page 3
Analysis: Gaines suggests Grant’s duplicity – condition of
being double – in the opening lines: “I was not there, yet
I was there…I was there as much as anyone else was
there”. Nevertheless, he obviously was not in the
courthouse. These contradictions suggest that he might
be deceiving. In addition, Gaines hints that Grant might
be insincere, since he separates himself from Jefferson’s
trial. Grant also stays away because he deliberately puts
distance between himself, his family, and community.
Grant says he could have sat with his aunt and Jefferson’s
godmother, but he chose to separate himself from them.
All in all, the mood is resistant.
Shared Close Reading
• In groups of three or four, we will read the
first (very short) chapter of A Lesson
Before Dying, and look for evidence
suggesting how Jefferson is
dehumanized/emasculated. Cite specific
examples.
EXIT SLIP
• For homework, you answered why Gaines might
open the novel with Grant’s confusion “I was not
there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial,
I did not hear the verdict, because I know all the
time what it would be.”
• Now on an EXIT SLIP you will consider that
response and what you learned today from your
close read. Based on your work so far - your
definition of what it means to be human and how
Jefferson is dehumanized – Respond to the
following prompt: How does an author’s choice of
words contribute to theme and conflict?
How does an author’s choice of words
contribute to theme and conflict?
• Extension Activity with a partner:
What is the author trying to say?
– Create a theme statement and theme
poster
– Illustrate this theme, either with
Jefferson or a scene from the book
– At the top of your poster, you will have
to write two examples from the novel
that prove your theme