There have been a few great questions asked that I wanted to answer for everyone:
1.) What exactly constitutes a quotation?
A
quotation can be narration OR dialogue. You are NOT limited just to what the
characters say.
2.) What kinds of quotations should I choose and what should I write
about?
Find
passages that you think help us better understand the author’s subject matter,
characterizations, attitude, and especially THEMES (messages/”big ideas”). If
you find yourself simply repeating what the quotation says, you might want to
select a different quotation or reevaluate how you are approaching the
response. NO SUMMARIES!
3.) How long should my responses be?
While I
am more concerned with the depth of your thought, you need to stretch yourself
and write a few sentences about each (at least three and possibly more).
__________________________________________________________________________
Example: To Kill
a Mockingbird, Chapter 1
Quotations
|
Responses
|
“When
he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow
. . . (3).
(My
Note: I have not included the entire
quotation
to which I am referring. Instead, I use
an ellipsis [ . . . ] to quote only the part that
is most important to what I want to talk about.)
|
I
remember breaking my foot before a choir
concert.
I was not feeling well and had to leave the risers before a concert. When I
was hopping down from the third riser, I landed on the side of my foot and
broke it. All I cared about when I was recovering was being able to walk
without crutches or a walking cast again. This seems to be how Jem kind of
feels.
(Making
a Connection)
|
Atticus,
the lawyer, “knew his people, they knew him, and because of Simon Finch’s
industry, Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in
the town” (5).
(My
Note: Instead of quoting the part about Atticus
and his job immediately before this, I put it as a side note at the front
before the quotation.)
|
Atticus
seems to be a well-respected person in
Maycomb,
and since he is a lawyer, he also must be fairly intelligent.
Maycomb must be a relatively small town where everyone knows everyone if
Atticus is indeed related to most of the people. I think Atticus most likely
will play an important role in this book because of his position.
(Interpeting/Making
a Prediction)
|
“There
was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go . . . nothing to see outside the
boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of
the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear
but fear itself” (7, 8).
(My
Note: Since my quotation wraps to the next
page, I made a note of it by putting both
pages numbers after the quotation. Notice
that there is ALWAYS a page number after each quotation.)
|
Apparently
Maycomb is also a very slow, sleepy town that is pretty isolated from
everything else. This seems to be especially true since they only have a
“vague” notion of FDR’s speech (an allusion to the Great Depression of the
1930s – must be the era in which the story takes place) and there is
“nothing”
outside of Maycomb County. I wonder why they see the world this way – maybe
people don’t travel because of the Depression or because that’s just not what
people did.
(Interpreting/Asking
a Question)
|
“The
Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to
themselves,
a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. . . .” (9).
(My
Note: In my response, I touched on one of
the themes of the novel—prejudice—which is
appearing in an atypical way.)
|
It
seems that the town is a little closed minded in viewing
the Radleys since they don’t go to church or
do other things common in Maycomb. This seems
to be a prejudice against their lifestyle since it
seems that the town might not really know them and
has become pretty superstitious about them. People
often get suspicious about what they don’t
understand
or what seems strange to them.
(Extending
the Meaning)
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