In discussing the bellwrite, we practiced providing evidence from the novel in support of different interpretations of Reuven's motivations. We saw that effective interpretation requires sufficient and relevant evidence from the novel. This is the process students will use in writing their essays on The Chosen.
I shared a pattern for students to use in presenting evidence in support of their interpretations. This pattern is called the 4-part evidence analysis. Each body paragraph in an essay includes these four parts:
1. Claim [1 sentence]
2. Background on the Evidence (Who said/thought it? To whom? At what point in the story? About what was he/she talking?) [1 sentence]
3. Evidence (Use a dialogue tag and include an in-text citation with the author’s last name and the page number. For example, He said, “Yadda, yadda…” (Potok 103). [Give only as much of the quotation as is needed to support the claim.]
4. Explanation of the evidence (Highlight important words or phrases and explain why they are important. Discuss connections between the words in the quotation and other parts of the novel. Explain things that a casual reader might not understand or notice. Connect the evidence to the claim.) [4-6 sentences]
Sample paragraph using the four part evidence analysis:
For Reuven, the baseball game
initiated a change in his outlook on life which also changed his identity. After
returning home from his stay in the hospital, Reuven reflected on the
significance of the baseball game. He thought, “Was it only last Sunday that it
happened, only five days ago? I felt I had crossed into another world, that
little pieces of my old self had been left behind on the black asphalt floor of
the school yard alongside the shattered lens of my glasses” (Potok 102-103). Reuven
has a sense that a long time has passed since the accident, indicating that
much has changed since then. Usually we only gain perspective on our
experiences long after they have occurred and we have changed enough to see
those events objectively; however, Reuven has acquired this kind of perspective
in only five days, indicating something fundamental has changed inside him.
Just what has changed? The answer lies in the shattered lens of the glasses on
the playground blacktop. Reuven equates himself with that lens, as if his old
identity has been shattered. The glasses represent the way he sees the world,
his perspective, which has been completely changed by the baseball game, his
eye injury, and his interactions with Danny. He can no longer see the world as
he used to. It is significant that his glasses, and old self, lie shattered on
the playground, a location closely connected with childhood. It is as if Reuven
has crossed a threshold from the world of childhood into the world of self-awareness,
of questioning assumptions, of seeing with new eyes. Because his perception
will never be the same again, neither will he.
Next in class, a couple of select students took time to explicate chapters 13 and 14 from The Chosen. This activity will help students appreciate the approach to Talmud study employed in Reuven's university class. It will also help students develop their understanding of themes from the novel in preparation for their final essays.
Homework: Finish reading The Chosen.
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