Point of View Day...

Let's get to it! I thought we'd kick things off a bit early for our short story read-a-thon week with our first focus lesson. 

If you've ever watched Iron Chef (if you haven't, drop everything you're doing and go watch!), you know the chefs must, in only 60 minutes, create a five course meal featuring a secret ingredient. Every dish is carefully thought out and tailored to showcase squid or snails or spiny lobster or whatever other secret (scary sounding) ingredient that is revealed. These chefs focus on the deep structure of the dish. How will flavors be conjured and contrasted? What might be novel and surprising? How is the secret ingredient part of the whole?

I'm only about half way there with the analogy right now (because it's 5:35 AM, and the clock is ticking for school!), but take this idea and apply it to literature. 

Today's secret ingredient: point of view! We will read, study, and analyze for this and only this. We will decide how point of view can create meaning, reveal character, and offer an interpretation of the work. 

More later. 
Allez Cuisine!