ELaurie Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Ds 11 is in 5th grade this year. He's been doing narrations since first grade, but last week he did his first literary analysis. I followed the guidelines in TWTM for the assignment. He read Persues by Geraldine McCaughrean. He had a very difficult time eliminating extraneous details in his narration. This is his fourth draft :tongue_smilie: - the previous versions were much longer, but I said to include only information that was essential to the storyline, omitting details that did not move the story forward, as SWB suggests in TWTM. Because the assignment was so difficult for him, I did the writing / typing for this draft, so that he could concentrate on organizing his thoughts. I also helped him eliminate some of the longer, run on sentences, although you will see that this is an area that needs further work. One day, King Acrisius of Argos went to an oracle and found out that his grandson was going to kill him. He locked his daughter in a tower to keep her from having a son, but Zeus fell in love with her and they had a son named Perseus. King Acrisius put his daughter, Danae, and Perseus into a chest, and put them in the sea, hoping they would die, but Zeus sent them to a fisherman. After awhile, Danae and the fisherman fell in love. King Polydectes wanted to marry Danae, but he knew Perseus would protect her so he sent Perseus to kill Medusa. He had many adventures finding Medusa, but when he got there, he looked in a mirror shield given to him by Athena so he wouldn't have to look at her face. He killed Medusa and her son Pegasus came out of her neck. Perseus met princess Andromeda, who was chained to a rock because Poseidon was mad at her mother for insulting the Nymphs of the Sea, so they had to sacrifice their daughter to a sea monster. When the sea monster came to eat her, Perseus killed the sea monster and afterward they fell in love and got married. After awhile, Perseus went back and turned Polydectes to stone. One day, Perseus was throwing a discus at the Olympics on the way to find his grandfather when he threw the discus into the crowd, and killed his grandfather and the oracle's prophecy came true. I liked this book because Perseus had so many exciting adventures, like when he chopped off Medusa's head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 The story of Perseus is very challenging to narrate because of all of the details. The amount of detail needed for a skeleton of the story that makes sense is large. I think your son did an excellent job choosing enough to tell a tale that makes sense, without making it excessively long. I haven't looked at TWTM's guidelines for literary analysis in this age group, but how is it different from a straightforward narration? Your son's summary seems more like a narration to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELaurie Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 (edited) I haven't looked at TWTM's guidelines for literary analysis in this age group, but how is it different from a straightforward narration? Your son's summary seems more like a narration to me. Thanks for your feedback. Catherine. If I understand the guidelines correctly, the analysis for 5th grade can simply be a narration with one or two sentences at the end that include specific reasons why the child liked (or didn't like) the book. However, SWB suggests a variety of discussion questions that one can use before the child begins to write his narration. The questions begin to lay the groundwork for writing more typical literary analyses in 6th grade. Edited February 25, 2011 by ELaurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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