"The Wife's Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin Close Reading Worksheet

"The Wife's Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin Bundle for High School

With this bundle of high school resources for teaching "The Wife's Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin, educators may conveniently measure general reading comprehension with a quiz on character and plot. Additionally, teachers will be able to support their students through the process of analyzing the author's craft, helping readers identify textual details that evoke the reader's sympathy and examples of literary devices that contribute to a tense mood and surprising outcome. Lastly, teachers will be able to support high-order thinking with analysis questions. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. This resource may facilitate small-group discussions. Through these discussions, students decode language and pose/respond to questions relating to plot, broad topics, and character development, demonstrating an ability to analyze how complex characters transform and advance the plot and themes by applying logic and citing compelling, meaningful textual evidence. They will also evaluate their peers' reasoning and use of rhetoric to advance claims, clarifying or challenging unclear ideas. Using this resource for structured guidance, students, ultimately, will present information, conclusions, and supporting textual evidence clearly, concisely, and appropriately, thereby helping their peers comprehend their thinking. By engaging with these materials, students will perform the following tasks: * Identify what the text states explicitly as well as implicitly * Apply knowledge of anaphora to the text * Articulate how anaphora contributes to the narrator's characterization * Analyze the narrator's statements to infer details about her husband * Discern meaning in less familiar words and phrases, taking into consideration the context of the passage * Analyze an excerpt to discern tone in context * Analyze an excerpt to discern and articulate the narrator's internal conflict * Apply knowledge of simile to the text * Articulate the significance of the narrator's "grief howl" * Analyze character statements and actions to discern and articulate character motivations * Analyze the term "blessed dark" to discern and articulate what it conveys about the narrator's mindset * Cite and explain textual details that evoke a sense of sympathy within readers * Revisit the text to identify details that foreshadow the major revelation near the story's conclusion * Analyze the author's craft to explain how language contributes to the major revelation near the story's conclusion * Write with clarity and precision