A Quilt of a Countryby Anna Quinlen

A Close Reading

General Understandings

• Overall view • Sequence of

information• Story arc• Main claim and

evidence• Gist of passage

General Understandings in 9th Grade

What is the main idea of the essay? What is her major

idea?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

Key Details

• Search for nuances in meaning

• Determine importance of ideas

• Find supporting details that support main ideas

• Answers who, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many.

Key Details in 9th Grade

Where are there examples of freedom and oppression?

What other juxtapositions does our author use?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

Vocabulary and Text Structure• Bridges literal and

inferential meanings• Denotation• Connotation• Shades of meaning• Figurative language• How organization

contributes to meaning

Vocabulary and Text Structure in 9th Grade

What role does the word conundrum play in this essay?

What is the structure of the essay? How does she build

her argument?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

• Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform? Persuade?

• Point of view: First-person, third-person limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator

• Critical Literacy: Whose story is not represented?

Author’s Purpose

Author’s Purpose in 9th Grade

Look at the date of this essay, and then let’s talk about why

she might have written it.

Whose side of the story is not being told?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

Inferences

Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text,

each key detail in literary text, and

observe how these build to a whole.

Inferences in 9th Grade

What does the author believe about the benefits and

limitations of tolerance?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections

• Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5)• Claims• Evidence• Counterclaims• Ethos, Pathos, Logos• Rhetoric

Links to other texts throughout the grades

Arguments in 9th Grade

To quote, she says, “These are the representatives of a

mongrel nation that somehow, at times like this, has one spirit.” What does

that mean and what evidence does she provide for this

statement?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)

Intertextual Connections in 9th Grade

In what ways does this essay differ from “The Melting Pot,” written by the same author 10

years earlier?

Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country” (2001)