Skip to Main Content

Lesson 2

We will continue to examine Hampton Sides’s narrative about survivors of the 9/11 terror attacks, comparing the evidence-based claims we have developed about the story’s three characters. We will then discuss the ways in which Sides has used the elements of narration to craft his moving nonfiction account.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I note key details and analyze relationships in Sides’s narrative about 9/11 survivors?

  • Can I identify, exemplify, and explain one or more elements of narrative fiction used by Sides to tell his true story?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “Points of Impact,” excerpt from Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier, Hampton Sides, Anchor Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2004

Optional

  • Digital Access
    • “History with a Novelist’s Touch: Writing Narrative Nonfiction,” Hampton Sides and others, C-SPAN, 2015

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will compare our analyses of different characters in Sides’s story.

In groups of three (one for each of the characters), compare the following from “Points of Impact”:

  • what you understand about your characters based on your responses to the text-specific questions

  • the details you have noted and analyzed in your Character Note-Taking Tools

  • the claims you have developed about them

Activity 2: View

We will watch a panel presentation by Hampton Sides called “History With A Novelist’s Touch: Writing Narrative Nonfiction.”

Watch Hampton Sides’s presentation, "History with a Novelist’s Touch: Writing Narrative Nonfiction" during a panel discussion among writers of narrative nonfiction. As a class, discuss what you learn about Sides as a writer, and how he thinks about the writing of historical narratives.

Activity 3: Discuss

We will analyze and discuss the ways in which Sides has utilized elements and techniques of fictional narration to enliven a nonfiction narrative.

As a class, discuss Sides's utilization of the elements of fictional narration, particularly narrative structure,description, and characterization in "Points of Impact." Consider the following questions:

  1. How do the stories of the three survivors compare? What evidence from the text supports this comparison?

  2. What do they add up to in terms of helping us understand the impact of 9/11 on survivors' lives?

  3. What do you think Sides is trying to communicate with his nonfiction narrative?

  4. What do you think is the story’s meaning or theme?

Activity 4: Read – Write – Discuss

We will review and annotate the task description for the Section Diagnostic. We will brainstorm possible events to dramatize in a historical narrative or documentary.

As a class, review and annotate the Section 4 Diagnostic Checklist:

Discuss the general expectations of the task and what you will need to do to prepare for it.

Brainstorm a list of possible current or historical events that might be interesting source material for a historical narrative or documentary.

Activity 5: Read

We will research a contemporary or historical event that we can use as the basis for writing a nonfiction narrative for the Section Diagnostic.

Identify an event or person from the news or history that you find interesting and that might make a good subject for a historical narrative or documentary film. Conduct an Internet or periodical search to find a good, short source article about the event or person, from which you can draw material for your narrative. Identify one or more images you can use to illustrate your narrative. Be prepared to share your research and images.