A Quilt of a Country by Anna Quinlen

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 9 th Grade What is the main idea of the essay? What is the author’s 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 9 th 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 9 th Grade What role does the word conundrum play in this essay? What is the structure of the essay? How does the author 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 9 th Grade Look at the date of this essay, and then let’s talk about why she might have written it. Whose side of the argument 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 9 th 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 • • • Author’s opinion and reasoning Claims Evidence Counterclaims Ethos, Pathos, Logos Rhetoric Links to other texts throughout the grades

Arguments in 9 th Grade To quote, Quindlen 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 9 th 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)