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Grade 9 · unit review

Review: Conflict, Motivation and Narrative Time

Apply distinguish conflict dimensions, trace a motivation change, analyze presentation of time, interpret a literary comparison using supplied texts and original responses.

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Bring the unit skills together

Use these 4 new cases to check your reasoning. Choices are temporary and are not saved to an account, sent to staff or recorded as school grades. Download your current review choices before leaving or reloading.

Unit review questions
1. Original excerpt A: Jo and Lea both demand the only speaking turn and disagree about who should have it. Use excerpt A only. Which conflict is supported by the excerpt?
Need a hint?
  • Wanting two incompatible things creates internal conflict.
  • A storm and a policy are different obstacles.
2. Original excerpt B: Jo first refuses questions as unnecessary, then asks Lea how the hinge bends after it tears. Use excerpt B only. Which change in motivation is directly stated?
Need a hint?
  • A goal change differs from an action change.
  • Do not invent private motives absent from the text.
3. Original excerpt C: A present-day failure recalls last week’s confident promise; the narration shows that earlier promise. Use excerpt C only. Which temporal technique is supplied?
Need a hint?
  • Flashback revisits an earlier event.
  • Past tense alone is not a flashback.
4. Original excerpt D: Jo called the rule a cage: it constrained the ways the report could be presented. Use excerpt D only. Which interpretive effect is explicitly supported?
Need a hint?
  • A cage image with blocked exits supports confinement.
  • Do not assign a universal symbol meaning independent of context.

The download contains your current choices and any checked feedback. Keep the separate transfer-task work in your own document; downloading its instructions does not mark it complete.

Use the skills in a new task

Make a short complete response demonstrating the four skills in this unit. Draft an original short story about a student choosing between recognition and honest reporting. Include an internal conflict, a supported motivation shift and one flashback with a clear time cue. Analyze one contextual image and distinguish event chronology from presentation order. Longer writing targets in optional extensions can be completed in a later session.

Work on paper or in your own document. Explain the choices you made.

  • Identify what opposes the character’s goal in the stated event. Explain both sides rather than labeling every difficulty internal.
  • Compare the character’s stated earlier and later priorities. Explain what now drives the action.
  • Distinguish when events happened from when the text reveals them. Identify the actual technique.
  • Use the supplied image and its supporting detail. State the emphasized idea rather than treating the image as a literal description.
Compare with a model response

Jo wanted recognition and honest reporting. At the doorway, Jo remembered yesterday’s promise to disclose a torn hinge. Praise seemed like a bridge, but hiding the tear felt like closing a gate. Jo chose to show the flaw before presenting. The earlier promise appears as a flashback, while the actual event chronology remains promise, tear, disclosure. This action supports a motivation shift in the scene without proving a permanent personality change.

A different response can also meet the criteria. Compare the evidence and reasoning, rather than copying the wording.