Chapter 4

A Good Book
satisfies the need of the reader

Maslow's needs hierarchy

• need to feel competent
• play and belong
• feel emotionally and physically secure

Understanding what makes a book work, its literary elements, helps the reader uncover more than the story

With understanding and meaning: 1.Cognitive processes such as attention, memory, problem solving, and creativity steadily improve.
2. Responses to literature become more focused.
3. Emotional reactions are more intimately linked to what they are reading.

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Setting :

• Must be convincing
• Establishes time, place, and mood
• Often plays a leading role in the story.

Characters

• bring story to life
• Protagonist: main character
• Antagonist: opposing force
• Supporting characters
• All contribute to the plot

Point of View

Plot

• The action of the book
• Narrative of events with the emphasis placed on the causes of the events
• Plots can be episodic or progressive

Progressive Plot

• the ending should grow naturally from the events in a story
• Beginning, middle, and end

Episodic Plot

• Apparent in books with young readers
• Each chapter is a story by itself

Conflict

• Without conflict there is no plot
• Person vs. Person
• Person vs. Self
• Person vs. Nature
• Person vs. Society

Style

• Author's unique way of creating a story by using words, images, and figures speech; it is how the writer says things.

Theme

• the lesson the story tells
• the central idea of the story

Think about common elements in novels...

Take a break

Reading a graphic novel

• Engages reluctant readers & ESL students. Increases reading comprehension and vocabulary. Can serve as a bridge between low and high levels of reading. Provides an approach to reading that embraces the multimedia nature of today's culture, as 2/3 of a story is conveyed visually. Provides scaffolding for struggling readers. Can serve as an intermediary step to more difficult disciplines and concepts. Presents complex material in readable text. Helps students understand global affairs. Helps to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Offers another avenue through which students can experience art
• Engages reluctant readers & ESL students. Increases reading comprehension and vocabulary. Can serve as a bridge between low and high levels of reading. Provides an approach to reading that embraces the multimedia nature of today's culture, as 2/3 of a story is conveyed visually. Provides scaffolding for struggling readers. Can serve as an intermediary step to more difficult disciplines and concepts. Presents complex material in readable text. Helps students understand global affairs. Helps to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Offers another avenue through which students can experience art