Having READ and ANNOTATED the story Charles, you will now DETERMINE IMPORTANCE by selecting specific QUOTATIONS from the story that support why you self-selected the most important parts of the text for each page.

Charles: A Focus on Literacy Skills

Charles is a short story written by Shirley Jackson in 1948.  A full copy of the text can be READ HERE.  This SERIES will focus on all TEN KEY LITERACY SKILLS.  The lessons are arranged in SEQUENTIAL ORDER which builds a strong foundation before moving on to the next skill.

This series is an excellent way to BEGIN your class’s semester, ensuring everyone has a strong understanding of BASIC LITERACY SKILLS before you gradually release responsibility, asking them to put those skills into practice.

Explore other SHORT STORY LITERACY SKILLS ASSIGNMENTS for more ways to instruct your students.

 

 

 

Determining Importance

When we determine importance, we are identifying both the MAIN DETAILS as well as specific SUPPORTING DETAILS.  The Main Detail is the focus of the text.  It is the strong idea that presents itself throughout the entire piece.  It is strengthened by Supporting Details that answer “how”, “what”, “when”, or “where”.  The Main Idea early on in your text, and reinforced throughout.  The more specific details that follow are the Supporting Details.

Using Point Evidence Explanation to Support Your Opinion

P.E.E. PARAGRAPHS allow you to fully support your opinion by ensuring you support yourself.

What are the Three Parts of a PEE Paragraph?

The POINT is what you believe. The EVIDENCE is a specific detail or quotation from the text. The EXPLANATION connects your evidence to the point, showing the reader a clear connection between the two.

The most important sentence in the story Charles is “We don’t have any Charles in kindergarten.” (92) This line is the most importance because throughout the whole story Louis and his parents are talking about how “Charles was bad” (16). Because the entire story revolves around Charles and his actions, hearing the kindergarten teacher explain that there is no student named Charles forces the reader to reconsider everything they thought was true throughout the story.

 

Use P.E.E. Paragraph to Explain Your Most Important Sentence

Use the following PARAGRAPH TEMPLATE to explain your most important sentence.  Just like in the EXAMPLE ABOVE be sure to add the LINE NUMBER in the (parenthesis) after your quotations.

The most important sentence in the story Charles is “_____________________________________________________________________________________” (      ).  This line is the most importance because ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ which is demonstrated by the quotation “__________________________________________________________________________________________________________” (      ).  This proves my point because ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

 

 

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What’s Next

Having written a P.E.E. PARAGRAPH that explains their most important sentence, students will next look towards using their prior ANNOTATIONS to SUMMARIZE the short story.

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RESOURCES

Charles – WhatBinderDotCom – Literacy Skills – Determining Importance.PDF

 

 

 

 

 

Charles: Literacy Skills Series

CHARLES: ANNOTATING

CHARLES: DETERMINING IMPORTANCE

CHARLES: SUMMARIZING

CHARLES: VISUALIZING

CHARLES: INFERRING

CHARLES: QUESTIONING

CHARLES: CONNECTING

CHARLES: COMPARING

CHARLES: PREDICTING

CHARLES: SYNTHESIZING