Plot 29 - Reading Quiz: 3-Sentence Quotation Categorizing Plot
Literary Core Skill:
Relate the plots of various titles to their main themes.
Resources: Socratic List questions 9d, 10e – 10f; Story Chart; TC Syllabus section 5.
Elements of Fiction:
Assignment Type:
Description:
This worksheet asks students to explain the plot stage of a daily reading assignment (exposition, rising action, climax, dénouement, or conclusion), with an interpretive statement in follow-up sentence and correct citation format. It is designed as an in-class, open-book exercise.
Each 3-sentence quotation includes:
1) A “setup sentence,” which describes the situation in which the quotation occurs and makes brief reference to the prompt or assignment,
2) A direct quotation from the story, enclosed in quotation marks and followed by a author/page-style citation at the end of the sentence but before final punctuation, and
3) A “follow-up” sentence, in which the student explains how the quotation answers the prompt or assignment.
The advantages of this formula are numerous: it requires close and thoughtful reading; it anticipates the proper procedure for handling textual evidence in essay writing; it produces relatively short assignments which nevertheless efficiently demonstrate the student’s mastery of the assignment; and it is extremely easy to grade.
Grading Rubric:
Equal parts credit for a) clean grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling; b) conformity to the “3-sentence quotation” formula; and c) plausibility of interpretation.
Completed Example Assignments:
