Wild Animals 6RL5

RL6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Connecting With Prior Knowledge

We have already learned to identify the theme, setting, and important events in the plot of a story. Now we are going to work on analyzing how an author develops these story elements.

Analyze – to study the details of a text in order to identify its essential features and meaning.

A good reader understands how small parts of the story fit together to create the big ideas.

The time and place of the story.

Look for specific sentences, paragraphs, or sections that help you understand the time and place of the story. The writer uses specific sensory details to help develop the setting includingtime of daytime of the yeartime period weather relocation environmental surroundings.
Ask yourself: How does this part of the story help me visualize the time and/or place of the story?Why did the writer intentionally describe the setting this way?

Setting

The central message provided by the author.
Look for specific sentences, paragraphs, or sections that help you understand the story’s lesson. Choose evidence from the beginning, middle and end to show how the theme is developed. Ask yourself: How does this part of the story help me understand the lesson the author had in mind?How would the story be different if this part of the story was removed or changed?

Theme

What should I keep in mind?

Plot – The events in a story. Think of the plot diagram.

Look for specific sentences, paragraphs, or sections that clearly establish the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution of the story. Ask yourself: Why is this event important?How would the story be different if this event was removed or changed?

Open Ended

Read the excerpt Are Wild Animals Pets, " In many states, anyone with a few hundred dollars and a yen1 for the unusual can own a python, a black bear or a big cat as a “pet.” For $8,000 a baby white tiger can be yours. Sometimes, wild animals are even offered free: “Siberian tigers looking for a good home,” read an ad in the Animal Finder’s Guide. Until recently, though, few people knew how easy it is to own a wild animal as a pet. Or how potentially tragic. But just as a 2007 raid on property owned by football star Michael Vick laid bare the little known and cruel world of dogfighting, a story that unfolded in a small Ohio city recently opened the public’s eyes to the little known, distressing world of “exotic” pets. We’re not suggesting that people who own these animals are cruel. Many surely love them. But public safety, common sense and compassion for animals all dictate the same conclusion: Wild animals are not pets. If that weren’t already obvious, it became more so when collector Terry Thompson opened the cages on his Zanesville." How does the author use the phrase "little known, distressing world of 'exotic' pets" to convey a message about the dangers of keeping wild animals as pets?

Open Ended

Read another excerpt from Are Wild Animals Pets, " Until recently, though, few people knew how easy it is to own a wild animal as a pet. Or how potentially tragic. But just as a 2007 raid on property owned by football star Michael Vick laid bare the little-known and cruel world of dog fighting, a story that unfolded in a small Ohio city recently opened the public’s eyes to the little-known, distressing world of “exotic” pets. We’re not suggesting that people who own these animals are cruel. Many surely love them. But public safety, common sense, and compassion for animals all dictate the same conclusion: Wild animals are not pets." How does the author's use of the phrase "laid bare the little known and cruel world" contribute to the overall message of the passage?