Objective: Introduce biographical information about the author and evaluate "unreliable" narration
Materials: Map of Florin and Guilder (Large)
Biographical information on William Goldman
1. Write "unreliable" on the board. Brainstorm meanings and associations.
2. To demonstrate, ask one student to step outside the room with an index card containing biographical information about William Goldman. The student should memorize as many details as they can while the rest of the class arrange themselves in a circle on the floor. Without the card, ask the first student to share as many details as they can remember with the person sitting next to them, like a game of telephone.
3. Once seated in desks again, read the index card aloud and decide whether the "telephone" version was accurate or not. What are some of the ways the narrator of a story can be an unreliable source of information? Ask for examples from students (i.e. "The Tell-Tale Heart", Donnie Darko, "How I Met Your Mother")
4. Compare landscape of Florin and Guilder to a world map--is it a real place? Why would Goldman create a fictional world and an author (S. Morgenstern) so closely tied to the real world? What clues are there in the text that these things are made up?
5. Response Journal: Does the "true" authorship of the story affect your reading experience? Must a story be real to be effective?
