L7.1 Reading Quiz: 3-Sentence Quotation on Literary Devices
Literary Core Skill:
Logic Level 7: Consider the use of literary devices in various titles.
Visit L7 Page —>
Elements of Fiction:
Assignment Type:
Description:
In this worksheet, students explain the use of a particular literary device in the daily reading assignment with a “3-sentence quotation” featuring an interpretive statement in the follow-up sentence and correct citation format. Explanations should link the device and its usage to some idea of the author’s purpose or theme of the work. This is designed as an in-class, open-book exercise.
Additional lists of common literary devices in fiction, along with their definitions, are provided at www.centerforlitschools.com/glossary-of-literary-devices. These include voice and tone as well as rhetorical devices such as amplification, contradiction, refutation, pathos, and others.
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:
