To begin to think about why events are important to character development and theme, we are going to use some new "lenses" for analysis:

Contrasts and Contradictions: When the events in the story differ from what we would expect in real life, or when a character is acting/speaking differently from how they were earlier in the story.
- When you notice a detail/part that fits this description, mark it "CC" and ask yourself, "Why is it important that the character is acting this way?" and write your thoughts in margin/comment bubble ("Maybe it is important because...").
Again and again: Words, images, or anyTHING that comes up more than once.
- When you notice a detail/part that fits this description, mark it "AA" and ask yourself, "What is it important that this is coming up repeatedly?" and write your thoughts in margin/comment bubble ("Maybe it is important because...").
Words of the Wiser: When someone (usually, but not always, older) offers advice or wisdom related to their problem/conflict.
- When you notice a detail/part that fits this description, mark it "WW" and ask yourself, "What is the lesson and how might it affect the character?" and write your thoughts in margin/comment bubble ("This advice might be important because...").
Memory Moment: When a character flashes back to a memory from an earlier time. That memory most likely has something to do with the conflict in the story.
- When you notice a detail/part that fits this description, mark it "MM" and ask yourself, "Why might this memory be important?" and write your thoughts in the margin/comment bubble ("This memory might be important because...").

As we do this, we will annotate the text. Annotate is just a fancy word for capturing your thoughts on the text, right next to the parts that you are thinking about.

You can print the text and annotate by hand
You can use the "comment" tool in Word to annotate the text.
Here is an example of using the "comment" tool to annotate the text
This is an important skill for critical thinking, and one you will use regularly in college and professional work.

If you are having trouble making comments on the Word doc, here is the story as a google doc!

"Thank You, M'am" as GoogleDoc

Be sure to save a copy in your folder before you make comments!