Today’s Plan - PowerPoint Presentation

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Today’s Plan

Class Work:

Collect any remaining outlines

NEW SEATS!Connotation, Denotation and ImageryPass out books and begin reading A House on Mango StreetDiscuss unit plan and reading homeworkHomework:Read through the chapter entitled “Those Who Don’t” Complete worksheet with summaries and analysisBe prepared for a reading quizSlide2

Quick Write

Defining ourselves:What is the thing that defines you the most? Your name? Your house? Your neighborhood? Your school? Other’s view of you? Your religious beliefs? Tell me what it is and WHY it is the thing that defines you most.Slide3

Denotation

Dictionary definition of a word – what it ACTUALLY MEANSI drank my coffee.Drank

: to take a liquid into the mouth and swallow it.Coffee

:Any of various tropical African shrubs or trees of the genus Coffea, especially C. arabica, widely cultivated in the tropics for their seeds that are dried, roasted, and ground to prepare a stimulating aromatic drink.Slide4

Connotation

Added cultural meaning of a word – the other stuff that makes it more or less intense than another wordOften the adjectives, adverbs, or verbs used in sentences have the STRONGEST CONNOTATIONShe

cried.She wept

.She sobbed.I drank my coffee.I quickly slurped at my lukewarm morning coffee, grimacing at the chalky flavor of the powdered creamer I added.Slide5

Let’s Practice

Using these sentences, tell me what words stand out as having STRONG ADDED meaning (CONNOTATION) and which ones really just stand for one simple concept (DENOTATION)“Chores – even the word registers a feeling for the task at hand: ‘I’ve gotta go home and do chores.’ Never singular, always plural, a job that interrupts some fun you’re having, then grows and grows like polyps in an intestine. One syllable quickly spat out or yelled up creaky stairs, the word

chores describes a job so unsavory that to spend the energy using two syllables means you’d probably never get around to doing it”Slide6

Imagery

Words with strong connotation frequently have greater imagery than those with less sophisticated language. IMAGERY is the use of sensory description (taste, touch, smell, sound, sight) to encourage the reader to feel the same way the author does.For instance, which sentences has stronger imagery?

I drank my coffee.I quickly slurped at my lukewarm morning coffee, grimacing at the chalky flavor of the powdered creamer I added.Slide7

Let’s Practice

Using these sentences, tell me what words stand out as having STRONG ADDED meaning (CONNOTATION).Now

, let’s add in IMAGES – what appeals to the senses stand out?“Wind rakes the branches of the trees that shelter the headstones spread across Crown Hill Cemetery. Tucked into a modest residential area on the edge of Ballard, the graveyard is one the few remaining family-owned cemeteries in Seattle. In the green-shingled cemetery office, caretaker Phillip Howell pulls a yellowing card from an old steel file cabinet. “Here she is,” he says. The card read: Doe, Jane, Grave No. 197-A.Slide8

Let’s Practice

Using the first chapter of the book (“The House on Mango Street”) and your worksheet, tell me what words stand out as having STRONG ADDED meaning (CONNOTATION) and what images stand outSlide9

I’m Excited

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I love this book for lots of reasons:

Sandra Cisneros (the author) is neither MALE nor DEAD nor WHITE. I love a different perspective.Cisneros is a poet in prose – she creates beautiful, haunting images as a young woman fights to determine her identityIt allows us to examine language and how LANGUAGE creates meaning (rather than how elements like setting and symbolism create meaning).There are many emotions, but all of them are very real to me. I feel as I understand Esperanza (our narrator)