In this video, students will learn about Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five and how the text closely resembles the author’s own life. Students will also get a chance to examine the impact of how the author chose to structure specific parts of the text (the flashbacks) and its overall impact on the meaning and larger textual structure.  Students will also take a deeper look at what is directly stated in the text and what it really means and how that relates to point of view.   For a list of Common Core State Standards addressed, see below. 

Common Core State Standards Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5

• Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.6

• Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).