You may notice that the study guide itself is blank. This is because students will be composing their own questions regarding their reading and answering them using the text. In order to do this, we need to identify what TYPES of questions students will be composing.
We went over the handout below in class.
As you can see, there are three levels of questions: recall, analysis, and synthesis.
Level I: Recall questions are questions that can be answered directly from the text. They are questions the author explicitly or directly gives us the answer to. These questions do not take much thought to answer and usually only have one right answer. We do not have to draw conclusions or make inferences, because the text will say straight out what the answer is.
For example,
What is the name of the character with glasses in Lord of the Flies?
Answer: Piggy.
The author tells us that Piggy wears glasses directly in the text.
Level II: Analysis questions are questions the author doesn't directly answer for us, but instead leaves clues that we put together to come up with an answer. These questions may take more thought because we have to prove our answer with text evidence and our interpretation of that evidence. Because we are interpreting the text to come up with an answer, there are a few possible correct answers to a Level II question depending on the reader's perspective.
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| A somewhat nonsensical level II question :) |
For example,
What was Haemon's reason for killing himself in Antigone?
Answer: Haemon killed himself because he did not want to live without his love, Antigone. The messenger observes that when Creon found Haemon crying over Antigone's body, he was "lamenting her, his love lost underground, crying out that his father had stolen her away from him." (Exo.61-63)
OR
Answer: Haemon killed himself as punishment for his father's terrible behavior. Haemon even threatens his father with this directly when Creon declares Antigone will be executed: "Then she must die. But her death will cause another." (3. 119)
The ultimate reason for Haemon's death is not communicated to us directly, so we must infer based on the observations and actions of the characters.
Level III: Synthesis questions are questions that go BEYOND the text. These are questions that involve the thematic subjects and thematic statements of the text, but are questions that could also be answered by someone who has never read the text before. Answers to Level III questions can be used to further your understanding of the text as a whole, the value in reading it, or its application to the real world. Level III questions take the most thought to answer and there are many possible "correct" answers because they rely primarily on the reader's understanding of the thematic subjects rather than just the plot. Students should still use text evidence to connect to their answers for Level III questions.
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| A wonderful example of a level III question! |
For example,
What does it truly mean to be loyal to your family?
Answer: Being loyal to your family doesn't always mean doing everything your family wants. It can sometimes mean honoring the wishes of some family members, while ignoring the selfish desires of other family members. For example, Antigone showed loyalty to her family by ensuring that her brother, Polyneices, received a proper burial even though her sister, Ismene, told her it was a bad idea. Antigone knew Ismene's desires were more selfish and so she had to ignore them in order to remain truly loyal to the wishes of her family as a whole.
You may also use personal experiences to answer Level III questions, but you must still find some way to connect it back to the events, characters, symbols, or references within the text.
Below is the story we read aloud in class today. Below that are the example questions we came up with in each class. Make sure to review them and bring any questions you may have to class with you tomorrow when we will begin reading chapter 1 and writing questions together for that chapter.
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