english t unit 4: perspectives the unreliable narrator
TRANSCRIPT
“The Unreliable Narrator” Unit Developed by Lisa Hammond and Rachael Radvanyi Canberra College
Short Stories:Charles - Shirley JacksonThe Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins GilmanThe Tell Tale Heart - Edgar Allen PoeThe Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allen Poe
Novel(s): The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger The LIfe of Pi - Yann Martel
Film: Shutter Island
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PLC focus: Coaxing students to thinkIntellectual Rigour
Treating knowledge as problematic
Looking at texts as deliberately constructed,
Emphasis on interpretation and identifying multiple perspectives.
Getting students to construct knowledge, theories and ideas.
Making the shift to make reading and viewing a text an interactive process.
Who would you believe?There has been a serious case of vandalism
in a school car park.
Police turn up to investigate.
Rank the witnesses in order of most to least
reliable
● 5 year old child
● His mother, a lawyer on maternity leave
● 15 year old boy with spray paint all over
his hands
● 14 year old girl who was with the boy
● The teacher whose car was damaged by
the vandalism
● The school principal
● A homeless man with mental illness,
who camps out near the school grounds4
What makes a reliable witness?
Make a list of 5 points you would recommend investigators use to determine witness reliability.
Narrator
PACING
the speed a story is told in - how fast or slow events unfold and how much time elapses in a story
LANGUAGE
Words used and their impact that on readers
MORAL COMPASS
Guides and shows readers how to feel about events and characters
Think back to our crime scene witnesses...
What qualities made them reliable/unreliable?
What questions did you make up to ascertain their reliability?
What questions could you make up to ascertain reliability of a narrator?
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Questions to ask about a narrator
1. Is the narrator too self-interested to be reliable?
2. Is the narrator experienced enough to be reliable?
3. Is the narrator knowledgeable enough to be reliable?
4. Is the narrator moral enough to be reliable?
5. Is the narrator too emotional to be reliable?
6. Are the narrator's actions consistent with their words ?
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Smith, M. (1991). Understanding unreliable narrators. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English.
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Summarise What is the text about?
Connecting What connections can you make between the text and your own life?
Visualising Visualising - what do you see, feel or hear whilst you read the text?
Questioning Questioning - what are some of the questions that you have before, during and after reading the text
Inferring What are the things that the author makes you believe but does not explicitly state in the text?
Transforming What can the reader learn from this story? What message is the author trying to convey through the text?
Explicit Teaching of Reading strategies
Read the story twice
Identify the narrator(s)
Think about their role in the story by using our narrator questions.
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Self-interest inexperience
Ignorance Immorality
Emotion Inconsistency
What does the narrator say in the story?How does this compare to your understanding what was happening?
Find examples from the text to support your ideas
Learning Intention: To identify how literary techniques are used to establish an unreliable narrator.
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Discuss how effectively literary
techniques are used to establish an
unreliable narrator and challenge
the reader’s perspective.
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What influences the perspective of the narrator in The Catcher in the Rye? Develop a thesis statement in response to the prompt and to guide your inquiry.
Consider the social, cultural, historical and psychological
aspects of the text and how they influence the narrator.
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Creative Response
Reality and Appearance IdentityEffects of Trauma and WarGuild, Denial and RedemptionMorality and Blame
Stylistic Choices SymbolsMotifs
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Your task is to produce a
Creative Response that
represents your understanding
of the unreliable narrator. You
should explore one particular
theme or issue associated with
the film Shutter Island.