Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales - Close Reading Bundle

Promote high school reading comprehension and textual analysis in classroom and distance learning contexts with close readings of “The Little Mermaid,” “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Red Shoes,” “The Old Tombstone,” “The Buckwheat,” “The Butterfly,” and “The Leaping Match,” all written by Hans Christian Andersen. A variety of question types are included to help prepare for standardized testing scenarios: vocabulary-in-context questions, main idea questions, detail questions, author’s craft questions, and more. Copies of all short stories are included since they are in the public domain. Word Document and PDF versions of these resources will be delivered.

By completing these exercises, students will:

• Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
• Identify textual evidence in support of claims
• Write with clarity and precision
• Identify examples of various literary devices including onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, foreshadowing, simile, metaphor, inversion, personification, situational irony, dramatic irony, symbolism, and more
• Discern author’s intent
• Discern tone in context
• Isolate factual statements about plot from falsehoods
• Cite textual evidence in support of claims
• Analyze character interactions and motivations
• Verify interpretations of language using reference materials such as a dictionary or thesaurus
• Articulate the significance of a given detail or details
• Use the Internet to conduct brief research on the life of Hans Christian Andersen
• Articulate autobiographical parallels between the author and a specific story
• Discern the primary function of a given passage