Prairie River Academy

English Language Arts

Grade 12Unit 1Lesson 5

Reading literary history

Build a Literary-Historical Thesis

Today: Develop a thesis connecting a text's form, language, and historical conversation.

A

Begin

Warm-up

  1. 1.What form is named?

  2. 2.What expected subject is displaced?

B

Learn

Build a Literary-Historical Thesis

A literary-historical thesis makes an interpretive claim. It does not merely date a work or list period traits.

Identify the textual tension, select a relevant convention, show how the text uses or revises it, and state the interpretive consequence.

Study the model

By revising convention X through feature Y, the passage questions idea Z.

C

Read

Original PRA passage

The elegy names no fallen king. Instead, it mourns the worn tools left in an empty workshop and the hands that will not lift them again.
ELA-12-01-05-01Original Prairie River Academy curriculumELA-12-01-05-01

Prairie River Academy

Build a Literary-Historical Thesis

Grade 12Practice and apply
D

Practice

Read, think, and respond

  1. 1.What does the elegy mourn? ELA-12-01-05-Q1

  2. 2.How does the choice revise convention? ELA-12-01-05-Q2

  3. 3.What objects carry the loss? ELA-12-01-05-Q3

  4. 4.Draft a literary-historical thesis. ELA-12-01-05-Q4

E

Apply

Use the lesson

Write a thesis and evidence outline connecting form, language, and historical significance.

ELA-12-01-05-02Original Prairie River Academy curriculumELA-12-01-05-02