Willa Cather - The Burglar's Christmas

Yesterday in class we read our final Willa Cather story: "The Burglar's Christmas"

Out discussion focused on the setting and characterization.

We will read one additional text - the parable of the Prodigal Son - and have a brief discussion of the ways in which it is related to the Cather story.

Then you will write an outline for an essay analyzing "The Burglar's Christmas"

You will include these elements.  Fell free to cut / paste these into a Google Document and add in the required sections.

*Be sure to share your work with me!

• Position / thesis - what are you asserting about the text? How do the setting and characterization work together to create the meaning / message in the story?  What is the meaning of the story overall? (1-2 sentences)

• Point 1: How does the setting contribute to the meaning? (one sentence)

• Evidence 1: (quotation / comment)

• Point 2: How does the characterization contribute to the meaning? (one sentence)

• Evidence 2 (quotation / comment)

• Point 3: What does a particular character do / learn?

• Evidence 3 (quotation / comment)

Willa Cather Short Stories - Day 2

Yesterday you worked with a small group to read and analyze a story by Willa Cather.

For today, your group will present your findings and teach the rest of us about your story.  This will be a little tricky, since we are not all reading the other stories.  So, to help make that happen, please follow these steps (post your work in the document you started yesterday):

1. Provide a summary of the story. This should include naming central characters / relationships, the setting, the key events, and the issues raised by the the story. This should be 6-8 sentences long
2. Read us an excerpt. This needs to be a good-sized paragraph (8+ lines) or two of about half that length. Make sure you are selecting key moments that will help us to understand the story.
3. Read the work you did yesterday, about the setting and the main characters.

Willa Cather short stories

Greetings!
I am at a conference in Chicago today. I'll miss you but look forward to hearing from you tomorrow about the stories you'll read today.

Here are the groups you will be working with - they are the same ones you used to explore "Paul's Case: A Study in Temperament" last week.  Next to each group is the name of the short story you'll read for today.  Below the group lists is a link to a website containing the texts of all of the stories, in addition to yours.

• Jacob, Ryan, Jackie, Zach - "The Sculptor's Funeral"
• Matt, Zoe, Theodora, Izzy, Brenden - "The Enchanted Bluff"
• Stella, Caroline, Maggie, Nikki - "The Profile"
• Lucas, Eve, Jordan, Josh - "The Namesake"

Willa Cather short stories

Here are your instructions for the day:

1. Read your assigned story. You can choose to read it on the screen or print it out.  If you want to print it, I recommend highlighting the text of the story and then pasting it into a Word or Google document first.  Printing that will give you something easier to read.
2. Create a new Google Doc for your work with this story. Be sure to share it with the members of your group and with me.
3. Spend time naming and discussing the setting of the story. This does not meant to simply name the location of the events. Instead, closely examine the details of the story and consider their potential meanings. How are they described? Are there multiple settings? What are the details Cather uses and what do they convey?
4. List some of the language Cather uses to describe the main character(s) of the story. What does the narrator say about this person? What do other characters say?  What is this language telling us about this person?

Please make sure all of your work is saved in the Google Doc. We'll continue with it tomorrow!