Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird Read Online Free PDF Page A

each answer from a teacher) is read line by line in order to identify what are often called “incidents”; in this study, incidents may be seen as any number of notable key words, phrases, and small ideas. In even the shortest of the posted answers examined in this study, multiple incidents can often be identified. One short answer reads,
    Scout’s observations at the end of the novel about protecting Boo Radley from suffering shows how much she has grown up. Scout makes the connection between Boo and the mockingbirds Atticus had forbidden Jem to kill because she has come to understand the value of innocence and goodness and the evil of cruelty. This passage shows that Scout has adopted her father’s values. It also serves to emphasize the major themes of the novel.
    In the passage, multiple key words and phrases stand out, including “Scout’s observation,” “at the end of the novel,” “protecting,” “suffering,” “grown up,” “makes the connection,” “forbidden . . . to kill,” “come to understand,” “innocence,” “goodness,” “evil,” “cruelty,” “adopted . . . father’s values,” and “major themes.” From the incidents in this answer and in any number of the other answers in the working sample, more general and abstract terms—sometimes called concepts—can be identified; these concepts need to be specific yet broad enough to contain a grouping of incidents. Thus, the phrase “at the end of the novel” can be grouped, along with a set of related incidents appearing in other answers, under the concept story structure , and “protecting” can be grouped—again, along with a set of related incidents appearing in other answers—under the concept sense of duty . As in this case in this answer, multiple key words and phrases within one answer can sometimes be grouped under the same, single concept. Three of the incidents identified here—“grown up,” “makes the connection,” and “come to understand”—can be grouped under the concept education or development or life lessons , for example, and four of the incidents in this same answer—“innocence,” “goodness,” “evil,” and “cruelty”—can be grouped under the concept morality or values . Of course, coding is not limited to the words actually used. A second short answer reads,
    Like the intellectual southern gentleman that he is, Atticus treats the ladies of his neighborhood with a degree of kindness and respect that is typical of this era: Men and boys were expected to treat all women and girls with near-reverence, standing when women entered a room, offering seats to them when none were available, opening and holding doors as they entered buildings, addressing them with the formal title “ma’am,” and basically showing courtesy and politeness that was above and beyond today’s standards. Atticus exemplifies the expected male treatment of women in the south of the 1930s.
    This answer contains a string of incidents—from the concrete word “kindness” to the unnamed notion of chivalry—that can be grouped under the previously established concept morality or values . Even a negative or implied incident can be noted. For example, the slip in terminology from “gentleman” and “ladies” in the opening sentence to “male” and “women” in the final sentence suggests that the idea of social class is operating in the answer, even if it remains unstated. Alongside the unstated idea of social class are incidents of a particular place (“southern” and “south”) and a particular time (“this era,” “today,” and “the 1930s”); these three incidents can all be grouped meaningfully under the concept of setting or context