10th Grade Study Guide

Your test will cover Good Morning, Miss Dove, The Garden Party, The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver, and The Highwayman.

You must be able to define, identify, or give an example of these literary terms:

Genre
Short Story
Ballad
Irony- verbal and situational
Point of view— 1st and 3rd persion limited, omniscient, and objective
Conflict— man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature/supernatural
Character
Static character
dynamic character
Mood/tone
Direct exposition
Indirect revelation
Alliteration- an approximate rhyme in which the initial consonants of words are the same: i.e. ghostly galleon, peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Stanza
Theme

Your test will have three sections:

1. A literary terms section-- this will be a matching section that will either contain the definitions or examples of each literary term. I am doing this so that you have plenty of time to write for section three of the exam and because I don't want you to feel like I'm killing you. :)
2. A comprehension question section-- this will cover the comprehension questions that are in the textbook and in your notes.
3. A short essay section that identifies and analyzes a passage taken from one of the stories we have read.

For section three, you must know how to correctly spell the title of each work as well as the author's name.

Then, in your short essay, you must be able to answer these three questions about the passage:

1. How does this passage relate to the rest of the story or poem’s plot?

This part should provide a brief summary of the story or poem and talk about where the passage occurs within that story-- is it in the beginning of the story? The end of the story? Is this passage a very significant part in the plot of the story? Why is it significant?

2. Does it contain any dominant literary or poetic terms that you learned about? Define at least 3 elements and then explain what they are in the passage. Choose elements that are important or dominant in the passage (i.e. If you have The Highwayman or The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, then you must include ballad as one of the literary elements, since it is the most dominant literary term for those works)

3. What is the purpose of this passage? What does it teach you? What effect does it have?

This is usually the section where you discuss the tone, mood, and theme--

If the passage is from a poem, it is more likely that you will be talking about what feelings that passage creates within you (i.e. The Ballad of the Harp Weaver has a very depressing effect because the story is so tragic and it is moving to see the way that the mother and son suffer as well as the way that the mother dies in order to save her son)

If the passage is from a story, then it is more likely that you will be talking about what it is teaching you-- if you focus on the THEMES of each story, then you will know how to write about what it's teaching you, since the theme of a story is the main point that the author wants to teach the reader.

In the comments section of this post, I have put an example of a passage identification question and answer.