Thursday, August 12, 2010
Group C Golden Lines
Golden Lines "Golden lines" are powerful quotes that automatically provide interesting discussion material. Many students find it much easier to select something the author said than to come up with their own reactions. Therefore, Golden Lines are an easy and effective strategy for gathering information to discuss.Post your Golden Lines for for the Cryptid Files to invite discussion.Please respond to each others' golden lines entry.
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Hey girls-
ReplyDeleteI received an e-mail from Marie today and she is having trouble posting on the blog, so she e-mailed me her response and I am posting it for her. Here is her comment on Golden Lines:
The Crytpid Files: Loch Ness is a book filled with powerful lines. I believe the book provides a myriad of opportunities to explore author’s craft within the context of discussing meaningful passages. While reading this book, I found that my role as the “Golden Lines” person was very much related to the other roles in this discussion group. For example, when a reader comes across a powerful passage in a story, they often become the “Connector” as well because the passage allows them to relate its meaning to their own life. Listed below are some of the “Golden Lines” that I discovered while reading this book. I provided a context for some of the passages along with a few thoughts I had for possible discussion in a classroom setting. I placed the “Golden Lines” from the story in quotes and bolded them.
Context- When Vanessa is looking for information; she discovers that all her mother’s belongings are packed away into storage bins. The author describes the labeling of the bins: Page 3- “The words were like punches to her stomach. One, two and a left hook.” I thought this was an excellent simile that really illustrated Vanessa’s pain over her mother’s death and the discomfort she felt that her father had just boxed up all of her mother’s belongings and labeled them. .
Page 8 “Life without adventure is no life at all.”
Pg. 11 “In 1934, a local by-law was introduced to protect the Loch Ness Monster. If the monster is just a myth, why does it need real laws to protect it?”
Context of the “Golden Line”- This is when Vanessa is driving in the car with her family and she gets her first glimpse of Loch Ness. Page 32 “Backed by huge pine-covered mountains and lined at the water’s edge by ancient silver birches, everything glistened in the sunlight.” I thought this would be a great way to use a mentor text to illustrate to students how authors provide details and visual images when describing the setting of a story.
Context- This describes how Vanessa feels when she first sees the house the family will be staying in. Page 37 “She knew exactly how Hansel and Gretel had felt stumbling upon the gingerbread house.”
Page 50 “Before she could take another step, the sound of scraping on the floor under the kitchen table was followed by a blur of red hair which flew through the air and landed hard against her chest.’”
Page 74 “She was looking for Nessie-her mother’s dream had come true.”
Context-Vanessa is contemplating her feelings about her mother’s death and why her experience is so different than that of her brothers’. Page 83 “She knew suddenly that she was not only angry with them, but envious of them too.”
Context- Vanessa is out in the row boat alone on the Loch. These are the author’s last words at the end of the chapter. Page 95 “There was no splash, and no shout as Vanessa went under.”
Page 95 “There are many strange things about Loch Ness. Locals say that it never gives up its dead.”
Page 150 “All I know is that is has something to do with the magic of the loch.”
There is more...
ReplyDeletePage 170 “The famous author G.K. Chesterton said that ‘many a man has been hanged on less evidence than there is for the Loch Ness Monster.” This line really stuck out to me.
I could not put this book down! The heading in Chapter 2 states, “What Is a Good Book?” The Cryptid Files: Loch Ness is essentially a fiction story but the author infuses non-fiction elements and research vignettes at the onset of each chapter. This is a type of book I had not encountered before. This non-fiction element allows the reader to build background information on the subject and made the fiction elements of the story more believable. In my district, our curriculum incorporates distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction and identifying a book’s genre. I think this book is an excellent and rare example where we pose questions to students such as” Could a book be fiction and non-fiction? How can we tell? How do we know?” In reference to our textbook readings, the heading in Chapter 2 states, “What Is a Good Book?”. I classify The Cryptid Files: Loch Ness as quality literature because of the style in which the author writes. The text states, “How a story is told is as important as the story itself.” (Jacobs and Tunnell, page 11). The author’s style in telling the story not only intrigued me, but it made me want to go to Loch Ness and see the lake for myself!
Marie
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting this for me! I owe you big time and you'll have a coffee on me! My friend Jenn is helping me figure this all out!.
I think Marie did a great job representing some of the great "golden lines" found in this story. The author does an excellent job of providing details to describe characters' feelings, setting and the plot. I agree with Marie that it would be a great mentor text for writing lessons, especially about details.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite quotes that describes a character is on p. 9- "there's nothing like an imagination to get you through life". This quote, along with the one on p. 8(posted by Marie) really help the reader understand the mother's personality. The reader can also see why Vanessa misses her mother so much-they had mirroring personalities.
This book would be an excellent resource to instruct students about finding "golden lines". Like Marie, I found that while completing my role in the discussion, many of the other roles were involved. And as she stated, this book also makes me want to go to Loch Ness and see it for myself!
I totally agree. I thought this book was great. I was into it the whole time. The author's style of writing made the book even better to read. The descriptions and sililies used in the story really made you create images in your head or really connect to specific feelings/emotions that were being desribed. Before this book, I would have to say I was never really interested in the Loch Ness monster, and really didn't know much about it. The fiction and nonfiction writing of this book has got me really wishing I could get a glimps of the Loch Ness myself. I love how I was about to learn facts about the Loch Ness and the lake, as well as get a really good fiction story behind it as well. The characters seemed so real, that I think many people would enjoy reading this book and learning more about the Loch Ness.
ReplyDeleteI also thought this was an interesting story that made me want to keep reading. I felt in tune with the characters, while I considered their emotions as they encountered the world they were in. As I was reading the beginning of the tale, I was very curious to see how the story was going to relate to the Loch Ness monster. I thought the author was creative in the introduction of Nessie, and it was not too sudden or overbearing, it was gradual. She introduced hte character through discussion, then incorporated her into the time of the book. Through that, she provided an opportunity for the reader to become connected to Nessie. Personally, I don't believe in Nessie; however, the author did a nice job of tainting that. I felt sympathy for Nessie and almost thought of her not as a monster, but as a pet/friend.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great book!
I agree Jen. When I received the book, I almost thought it was someone's way of trying to get a bunch of people believing in the Loch NEss monster. But it really was a great story- one of my fourth graders is reading it now, I can't wait to see what he thinks!
ReplyDelete