Fiction/Non-Fiction Lesson

ON THE BOARD:

Fiction – Writing based on the imagination of the author. “Truth” is intended to be emotional/psychological/spiritual. BASIC Examples: Novels STRUCTURAL Short Stories ELEMENT: Plays All of these have Poems – metaphors; similes (like, as) a Beginning, Middle, Non-Fiction – Writing based on provable facts. “Truth” is and End measurable and objective. Non-fiction may also be “moving,” but its primary function is to relate true facts.

Examples: Biography Autobiography Textbooks How-To-Books Newspaper articles Journal articles

Biography – the story of a person’s life written by another person Autobiography – the story of a person’s life written by himself/herself

Autobiographical – adjective meaning that an author’s writing is based on or suggestive of his/her life.

“The Chute” is an autobiographical poem.

"The Chute"

When I was a kid my father built a hole down through the center of the house. It started in the upstairs closet, a black, square mouth like a well with a lid on it, it plummeted down behind the kitchen wall, and the raw pine cloaca tip of it was down in the basement where the twisted wicker basket lay on the cement floor, so when someone dropped in laundry on top of it, it would drop with the speed of sheer falling—in the kitchen you'd hear that whisk of pure descent behind the wall. And halfway down there was an electric fixture for the doorbell—that bell my father would ring and 1 ring years later when he stood at the door with that blood on him, like a newborn's caul, ringing ringing to enter. But back then he was only halfway down, a wad of sheets stuck in the chute, he could still fix the doorbell when it busted. He'd stand his kids in front of him, three skinny scared braggart kids, and run his gaze over them, a surgeon running his eyes over the tray, and he'd select a kid, and take that kid by the ankles and slowly feed that kid down the chute. First you'd do a handstand on the lip of it and then he’d lower you in, the smell of pine and dirty laundry, his grip on your ankles like the steel he sold, he'd lower you until your whole body was in it and you'd find the little wires, red and blue, like a vein and a nerve, and you'd tape them together. We thought it was such an honor to be chosen, and like all honors it was mostly terror, not only the blood in your head like a sac of worms in wet soil, but how could you believe he would not let go? He would joke about it, standing there, holding his kid like a bottle brush inside a bottle, or the way they drown people, he'd lower us down as if dipping us into the darkness before birth and he'd pretend to let go—he loved to hear passionate screaming in the narrow space— how could you trust him? And then if you were his, half him, your left hand maybe and your left foot dipped in the gleaming murky liquor of his nature, how could you trust yourself? What would it feel like to be on the side of life? How did the good know they were good, could they look at their hand and see, under the skin, the greenish light? We hung there in the dark and yet, you know, he never dropped us or meant to, he only liked to say he would, so although it's a story with some cruelty in it, finally it's a story of love and release, the way the father pulls you out of nothing and stands there foolishly grinning.

—Sharon Olds

2 EXPLAIN: We can assume that this house existed, and the chute existed, and that her father really held them upside down inside the chute, and that he threatened to drop them headfirst into it, BUT, she is not writing this poem to tell you THAT. She is using this incident to convey a message about childhood fears (a scary parent, a home with scary places, etc. TRUST is big issue here)

Identify: 1. Unknown words 2. Basic structure of Beg, Mid, End 3. Elements that constitute the “story” part of the poem. 4. The words or phrases that seem to be the author telling us something about this event. Something we might share with her or learn from her. 5. HOMEWORK: Identify in “Summer Solstice” the same elements. Write them down on a separate sheet of paper. a) Where is the Beg, Mid and End (draw lines on the poem to mark the divisions)? b) What is the “story” part of the poem? c) What is the author’s message to us about this event or experience?

Fiction (continued)

Vocabulary Lesson ON BOARD: Vocabulary (leave room under this word to put the rules)

How do we deal with unknown vocabulary words?

Maria is morose.

Although we sprayed the lawn with 1, 2, 4, - triclorohexane, the weeds still grew.

EXPLAIN: What is it you were always told to do when you did not know a word? (Look it up in the dictionary)

From now on, you GUESS using the context in which the word is used to figure its meaning. This turns on your brain. Guessing the meaning forces you to think about the word, to consider the possibilities, which will increase your ability to remember the word in the future. When you get good at it you will guess more accurately, but right or wrong, guessing is good.

ADD TO BOARD: Bill is always cheerful, but Maria is morose

Because we sprayed the lawn with 1, 2, 4, - triclorohexane, the weeds still grew.

(under “Vocabulary”) 1. Guess what the word means based on the context in which the word is used. 2. Reread the sentence with your “guess.” 3. Keep reading 4. When finished reading, check guesses in the dictionary. 3

Fiction ON BOARD: “Summer Solstice, New York City”

Summer Solstice, New York City

By the end of the longest day of the year he could not stand it, he went up the iron stairs through the roof of the building and over the soft, tarry surface to the edge, put one leg over the complex green tin cornice and said if they came a step closer that was it. Then the huge machinery of the earth began to work for his life, the cops came in their suits blue-grey as the sky on a cloudy evening, and one put on a bullet-proof vest, a black shell around his own life, life of his children's father, in case the man was armed, and one, slung with a rope like the sign of his bounden duty, came up out of a hole in the top of the neighboring building like the gold hole they say is in the top of the head, and began to lurk toward the man who wanted to die. The tallest cop approached him directly, softly, slowly, talking to him, talking, talking, while the man's leg hung over the lip of the next world and the crowd gathered in the street, silent, and the hairy net with its implacable grid was unfolded near the curb and spread out and stretched as the sheet is prepared to receive a birth. Then they all came a little closer where he squatted next to his death, his shirt glowing its milky glow like something growing in a dish at night in the dark in a lab and then everything stopped as his body jerked and he stepped down from the parapet and went toward them and they closed on him, I thought they were going to beat him up, as a mother whose child has been lost will scream at the child when its found, they took him by the arms and held him up and leaned him against the wall of the chimney and the tall cop lit a cigarette in his own mouth, and gave it to him, and then they all lit cigarettes, and the red, glowing ends burned like the tiny campfires we lit at night back at the beginning of the world.

Sharon Olds, Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980-2002, Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Is this poem autobiographical?

Looking for: a) Beginning, Middle, End b) Story Elements OR Given Circumstances OR What Happened Here c) Author’s point of View – What’s the message in the bottle

What does “Summer Solstice” mean? Why use this for the title? What could it mean in relation to the poem?

Review for Quiz # 1 1. All Vocab Words 2. Define Fiction and non-Fiction Give Examples 3. What are the Basic Structural elements for all fiction and non-fiction 4. Tellbacks – Why do we do them – to increase comprehension and memory How do we do them – by saying OUTLOUD all the DETAIL remembered in any ORDER remembered.

VOCABULARY LIST

Cumulative TBA Rebuke Dupe Caul ASAP Plummet Murky